Monday, October 13, 2014

just another arrogant American?

Oh, so you think that the Housing Authority of the University of Pardubice is not especially democratic?  Who are you to say that?  What makes you an expert about democracy?
Aren't you just being an ugly and noisy American?  Arrogantly assuming you know?

I can imagine someone saying that after reading my recent posts.
I do have views about the nature of democracy, but not because I am an American,
or not because America is especially a good example of democracy.

On the contrary, America (the United States) suffers from a serious democracy deficit.
(And here I don't have much to say that hasn't been said elsewhere by Noam Chomsky
or Robert Paul Wolff.)

But, to review a few basic facts:  most Americans don't like the constant war-making,
and the government spends a lot of money scaring them, and trying to convince them
that yet another war is needed.  Most Americans would prefer more spending on roads, schools, and hospitals.  Most would prefer to have universal health care.  And so on.  But the government of the USA, in its actions, ignores what most people want.  That's not democracy.

I'm not going to document these claims.  They can be easily documented.

So, no, I do not think I have some special expertise as an American.  Nor does anyone else.

And I do think it is very un-democratic when a nameless individual makes decisions which
directly impact upon my life, and when I am also not allowed to discuss or criticize their decision with them--and, especially when I was not allowed input into the original decision-making process, but was presented the decision as a fait accomplis.    And that is exactly what recently happened to me at the University of Pardubice in the Czech Republic.

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