John Preston wrote > I fail to see how anyone can say anything with certainty, nobody seems > to quote any models or statistics (that's not a dig about the discussion > on this thread, it's a general vent about the nature of all discussion > around Brexit).
It is not only that no one knows anything with certainty, no one (with regard to Brexit ) knows anything at all. Presenting more stats and facts will change nothing and shift no ones opinion. People have given up quoting evidence and statistics because the role of evidence in public life is no longer clear and so has little or no traction. Once in government politicians no longer feel they need to submit themselves to questioning or scrutiny. The mantra of every news transmission has become “we asked the ministry for somone to answer these questions but no one is available". Private Yotube channels have taken the place of serious discussion and the probing interview. The Brexit Party has even refused to put out a manifesto claiming that they were only ever packed with lies. At a stroke Farage dispensed with the principal instrument for evaluating claims and promises in search of contradictions and error as parties seek public support. In place of knowledge the new populists prefer instinct and the leader’s charisma to be the basis for public judgement. The secure position of authority once enjoyed by experts has fallen by the way-side. This expertocracy used to be the basis for manufacturing consent and we were rightly suspiscious of this regime and its role in marking the line between legitimate and illigitimate knowledge. The traditional role of evidence and expertise in public discourse has gone. It cannot be regained in its old form, normal service will not be resumed, the genie is out of the bottle, the horse has bolted the cat is out of the bag.. knowledge, evidence, facts, experts and expertise will have to find a new and less arrogant relationship to the publics that arise when problems cannot be solved by normal political means. More spread sheets, models and statistics or expert commentary will not help us. David Garcia # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
