\u2018Tis the season for pollsters.<\/p>\n
As pollsters ad nauseum<\/em> bombard us between now and November with a dizzying array of ever-fluctuating numbers, voters would be well-served to bear in mind that for all of their idealistic Democracy talk of \u201cthe will of the voter,\u201d they know that the latter exists only as an object to be manipulated.<\/p>\n The 20th<\/sup> century English conservative philosopher Michael Oakeshott put the epistemological point well when he noted that what<\/em> we see depends upon how<\/em> we look. You can take it to the bank that those in the media treat this proposition just as axiomatically as did Oakeshott.<\/p>\n And polling \u201cdata\u201d is one especially effective device by which they seek to shape<\/em>\u2014not inform<\/em>\u2014their audiences\u2019 perspective.<\/p>\n The pollster has occupied in politics a place equivalent in importance to that which the priest has traditionally occupied in the Catholic Church: Just as the priest has been regarded as speaking infallibly when speaking about certain matters pertaining to the faith, so too has the pollster been regarded similarly when he speaks to political matters. The pollster can also exploit the contemporary mystique revolving around \u201cscience\u201d through his numbers-crunching\u2014even if it is only \u201csocial<\/em> science.\u201d<\/p>\n Joseph A. Schumpeter was an early 20th<\/sup> century political theorist who exposed long ago the metaphysical fiction of the rational voter<\/em> presupposed by \u201cthe classical doctrine of democracy.\u201d This fiction remains very much in play today\u2014as evidenced by the use of polling data and the like.<\/p>\n To put the point another way, Schumpeter argued convincingly that media partisans manipulate voters.<\/p>\n The ideal of democracy ascribes to \u201cthe will of the individual an independence and a rational quality that are altogether unrealistic.\u201d The reality is that the voter\u2019s will is \u201can indeterminate bundle of vague impulses loosely playing about given slogans and mistaken impressions.\u201d Such an entity cannot \u201cobserve and interpret correctly the facts that are directly accessible to everyone and\u2026sift critically the information about the facts that are not.\u201d<\/p>\n This being so, it follows that, standard clich\u00e9s aside, \u201cthe will of the citizen per se<\/em>\u201d is not <\/em>\u201centitled to respect,\u201d for only if \u201ceveryone would\u2026know definitely what he wants to stand for\u201d would such respect be warranted.<\/p>\n Yet this is most certainly not the case.<\/p>\n If the voter\u2019s will was something determinate, then its assessment of facts, \u201caccording to the rules of logical inference,\u201d should permit each person to render \u201ca clear and prompt conclusion as to particular issues,\u201d a conclusion of such \u201ca high degree of general efficiency\u201d that \u201cone man\u2019s opinion could be held\u2026to be roughly as good as every other man\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n Moreover, this reasoning would have to transpire \u201cindependently of pressure groups and propaganda, for volitions and inferences that are imposed upon the electorate obviously do not qualify for ultimate data of the democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n Schumpeter observes that \u201cthe popular will\u201d is \u201cmanufactured\u201d in \u201cexactly\u201d the same ways in which the consumer\u2019s will is manufactured via \u201ccommercial advertising.\u201d He notes that we \u201cfind the same attempts to contact the subconscious,\u201d \u201cthe same technique of creating favorable and unfavorable associations which are more effective the less rational they are.\u201d The popular will is manufactured by way of \u201cthe same evasions and reticences and the same trick of producing opinion by reiterated assertion that is successful precisely to the extent to which it avoids rational argument and the danger of awakening the critical faculties of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n To repeat: The voter\u2019s will \u201cis largely not a genuine but a manufactured will.\u201d<\/p>\n Schumpeter\u2019s point is not that the voter is irrational in all areas of his life. Quite the contrary, for regarding those decisions in everyday life whose effects on him are immediately felt, he can usually be counted on to act rationally. But \u201cwhen we move\u2026farther away from the private concerns of the family and the business office\u201d and toward, say, the domain of a presidential election, \u201cindividual volition, command of facts and method of inference\u201d subside.<\/p>\n To put it more brusquely, \u201cthe typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental performance as soon as he enters the political field.\u201d That is, he \u201cargues and analyzes in a way which he would readily recognize as infantile within the sphere of his real interests. He becomes a primitive again. His thinking becomes associative and affective.\u201d<\/p>\n Along with ads, commentary, and, yes, \u201cjournalism,\u201d polls are designed to \u201cmanufacture,\u201d not reflect, the will of the voter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018Tis the season for pollsters. As pollsters ad nauseum bombard us between now and November with a dizzying array of ever-fluctuating numbers, voters would be well-served to bear in mind that for all of their idealistic Democracy talk of \u201cthe will of the voter,\u201d they know that the latter exists only as an object to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n