In a talk by Dan Dannett at TED, I came across this statement:
Democracy depends on an informed citizenship. Informed consent is the very bedrock of our understanding of democracy. Misinformed consent is not worth it. It's like a coin flip, it's just not - it doesn't count really. Democracy depends on informed consent.
The context of the above talk was not about democracy. But I thought the above statement would shed some insight on us about democracy, which we take for granted.
But let me ask you this - Do you prefer to be informed or be blissfully ignorant?
Let me explain my point with an example:
Recently, the Central Environmental Authority implemented a clean air initiative in the western province. The CEA and its governing ministry are run by members of the JHU. While I disagree with most of the extremist views of the JHU, I welcome the clean air initiative.
Because western province has a high population density and public health risks associated with polluted air would rise in years to come, even though they are dormant now. If we were ignorant or misinformed, we would only see the extra fees paid and the hassle of getting another document signed to use our vehicles. We will not see the future benefits of this protocol. Perhaps another politician might say that he/she would stop all this non-sense of vehicle emission testing if elected.