"I was selling ... the concept of democracy" (#93; Topic I)

Washington Post has a 3-part coverage of blogging in China. Today's 2nd installment features a journalist-cum-blogger Mr. Z's posts; a quote from him is: "I thought of myself as a salesman, and what I was selling was the concept of democracy." Judging from the writeup about him, Z had never been abroad. To me, it is always suspect when a salesman has no first-hand knowledge of what he is selling. Sometimes, as in this case, ignorance might be an advantage. What Z was selling was a concept -- a concept is always romantic, one can always be enthused by a concept. But reality is another matter -- and there is a big difference between concept and reality. In USA, according to President George W Bush, democracy = voting and voting = democracy; no more, no less. In USA, one may vote, so USA is a democracy. And one votes once every four years, no more, no less. When one's vote is needed, one is courted, with promises, etc. After that, one waits another four years to be courted -- by that time, promises made four years ago were long forgotten. (A few days ago, by surprise, Cuban-Americans in Florida remembered; they actually complained, out loud, of unfulfilled promises made in 2000 and 2004, whose votes delivered Florida, as well as the presidency, to Bush.) Once in office, the ideal is to avoid voting -- "recess appointment," under which the current ambassador to UN was appointed, fits the bill perfectly. When democracy is applied to foreign countries, there is an unwritten addendum: the voting result must be consistent with US's calculations. If not, that democracy would be ridiculed (as in Iraq, whose voting results were labeled "census"), ignored (as in Bolivia, #45), or warned (as in Palestine, #92). Were Z to visit USA (which is, undoubtedly, one of his wishes), would he be enthused to sell the reality of democracy?
Posted at 9:45 pm, Tuesday, February 21, 2006