Monday, April 4, 2005

Democracy Redefined


/ democracy / remembered /
Heaven forbid that the EU would actually fund any group critical of its policies! Note that ATTAC is not against the EU in general, but rather against the way that the EU is heading...
More by Steve McGiffen, on this rather curious conception of the meaning of democracy in the EU...:
One of the most disturbing political developments of the last two decades has been the way in which the meaning of the word 'democracy' has been redefined.

I am not simply talking about the extreme redefinition to which Michael Bywater refers when, in a passage from his book Lost Worlds*, he writes "Democracy is the ultimate unarguable good...Do you have that straight in your mind? Or would you rather be persuaded? repeatedly? By dogs? Through a hood?"

Just as sinister, in its way, is the manner in which so many people in public life seem to have no clue as to the word's meaning. Not surprisingly, this is most visible in those nearest to that wholly undemocratic institution, the European Union.

I was recently reminded of this when the deputy leader of the Liberals in the European Parliament, Silvana Koch-Mehrin, described the European Commission's allocation of 59,000 euro (about £40,000) to a group called Attac, as "scandalous"...

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