Trust In Government: Trusting The Friendly Stranger

[Kurt Cockrum]

ObDisclaimer: *no* disrepect to Andrew, the poster, intended!!

>Technotrust:  Trusting Government Information in an Electronic Age
>		Thursday, February 19, 1998
>			7:30 p.m.
>		The Forum (309 Parrington Hall, UW)
>[...]
>"This is a wonderful opportunity to begin to explore the ways the Internet
>is changing communication between the government and citizens with such a
>distinguished panel of federal and local people who have such a strong
>base of knowledge on the topic" states event organizer, Andy Gordon.  

...and such vested interests in positive public regard of the government...

haw!  I can't imagine that any of the 4 talking heads, Bruce McConnell,
Francis D. Fisher,  Tina Podlodowski, or Andrew Gordon ever had a
skeptical thought about government in their lives.  Indeed, it is easy
to see from their credentials that they are not about to bite the hands
that feed them.  Every damned one of them is allied to or beholden
to regional or national concentrations of power, or is one of their
clients.  Not one grassroots activist among them.

>The Trust in Government Project project at the Graduate School of Public
>Affairs focuses on the growing public attitude of cynicism and widespread
>distrust for government in the United States.

Yeah, but the focussing viewpoint is that of the government itself, and
the focus is on regaining public trust by hook-or-by-crook, not fixing
any of the things that led to the loss of trust itself.  Now if they
owned up to that in public, and said they were going to make an effort
to change their ways, that would be a step in the right direction.

There's not one skeptical voice among the 4 talking heads.  Questions on
the Drug War or strong cryptography or the NSA or the policy of "lock `em
up and throw away the key" or the nasty FBI digital telephony monitoring
law will be poo-poo'ed or glossed over as the moderator says "we're out
of time...moving right along...next question...".  The whole thing is an
exercise in public relations, not a serious attempt to honestly restore
trust in government.   For example, Podlodowsky will have some slick
rationalization about why we have a "no-postering" law, and she won't
have to squirm more than 2 seconds before the moderator bails her out...

I only wonder why Slade Gorton isn't there, or Patty Murray.  It's right
up their alleys.

>                                               In 1985, GSPA embarked on a
>three-year project aimed at exploring the issues leading to, and revolving
>around, public trust in government.  The project intends to reach beyond
>the boundaries of campus by involving the public, local and state
>governments, non-profit organizations, the news media and businesses in
>exploration of this critical issue.

1985 + 3 = 1988.  It's 1998 now.  Looks like the project "reached beyond
the boundary" of its time-line, by 10 years...and they wonder why people
are cynical.  Of course, the need to repair the image of government
is an on-going one.

I'd go except I'd feel so out-of-place among the faithful that I might
not even be safe.  I don't know if that's an example of the cynicism
they are going to talk about.  But the solution to that is simple, right
out of the Hill & Knowlton Handbook:  Just slap the label "paranoid
schizophrenic" on the nay-sayers and cynics, and the job is half-way done!
And each time that's done, there's only half of the remainder left; just
iterate as necessary...

Too bad they aren't going out of their way to invite some known cynics
(or social change activists; the two aren't necessarily disjoint) to
speak.  They could've invited Geov Parrish or John Fox, or somebody from
Mothers Against Police Harassment, for example.  They could've invited
Joycelyn Elder to discuss how speaking the truth about masturbation gets
you fired.  They could discuss why the DOE, with a legal mandate to clean
up Hanford, instead fires their whistleblowers and wants to make it worse
by re-activating tritium production, under the Trojan horse of a "cure
for cancer".  They could discuss the Nordstrom deal.  They could invite
the DEA administrative law judge who ruled that marijuana is harmless.
They could invite somebody who had their property civilly confiscated
by the police when a crime-rap couldn't be made to stick.  They could've
invited an mid-`80's CISPES activist, or a COINTELPRO victim to speak.

But they will choose not to, because these are *legitimate* reasons why
people don't Trust in Government, and *that* would've made people in
high places uncomfortable, and this exercise is all about regaining and
keeping that comfort.  This event is going to be as bogus as "Crossfire".

It looks like one technique for "regaining the trust of people in
government", namely by staging a foreign extravaganza, with lots of
hoopla to distract people from real or imagined domestic problems,
is about to happen, in the tradition of the Argentine Generals, namely
going to war with Iraq.  Will they discuss that as a technique that has
worked in the past, and speculate as to whether it will work this time
around, I wonder?

It's vital, IMO, that people recognize that the concept of repair of
public image is totally disjoint from mending one's ways.
If it's learned at this event, it will almost certainly be regarded
as an error to be prevented in the future.

>For more information, contact Janet Salm at (206) 616-7316 or at
><jsalm at u.washington.edu>.
But perhaps after reading this posting, you already know all you need
to know about this event :) :)

Cynically yours, from a 93-pound weakling who Trusts the Government
as far as he can throw a piano...a real one, not an inflatable...
--kurt
	"I'm one of the few senators who actually understands the Internet...
	Everybody wants to use the Internet, but first they need to know their
	kids are not going to learn how to make bombs or how to perform some
	ritual from devil worship."
	-- Sen. Patty Murray, Seattle Times, July 15, 1997
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