WHAT LINKS terrorists, thugs and paedophiles? No it’s not a joke, it’s politics – ID cards, ASBOs and CRB (Criminal Record and Background) checks. The three issues provoke, deep controversy, yet the government has been determined to muscle them through. How could the government misread public sentiment so spectacularly? Before we take the easy, conspiratorial option and claim it’s the government trying to gain more control over our everyday lives, we must look closer at how this type of legislation comes about.
This is where focus groups come in. Focus groups were first used in marketing to discover what people wanted or what made them want certain things over others. Now focus groups are used extensively in the political sphere, particularly in America and Britain where politicians use them to gauge public opinion on everything: checking people’s election decisions, popularity ratings, quality of speeches, policies, legislation and so on. Governments can test the water for legislation and also tap into the deeper irrational desires and fears that motivate people’s decisions.
For example, there is an irrational fear of paedophiles – we think they are lurking around every playground, on every chat site, in every teachers lounge. A focus group leader would have picked up on this irrational fear and government cogs would begin to turn. In a later focus group the participants would be asked: Are you worried about paedophiles? Would you support government legislation to restrict the access of criminals and sex offenders to children? Doubtless the answers to both would be yes. The not-so-logical result is the imposition of CRB sheets for anyone in a vaguely formal setting with children (- now we’ll just assume everyone abuses children).
The problem is that governments seek to allay these fears and pander to these desires with political doggy-biscuits rather than solve the problems that generate them. So the worry over anti-social behaviour generates a short-term initiative targeting the symptoms, not the cause of, anti-social behaviour – ASBOs (now we can jail you even if you haven’t broken the law!). Fears over terrorism and illegal immigration produces the micro-chipped ID cards and their controversial database. The reason focus group politics can go so wrong is that it bypasses rational debate – the subjects are to say what they really think, say how they really feel without justification or reference to reality. At these murky depths we encounter contradiction: “Do you want our soldiers to be better equipped?” Yes. “Are you willing to pay more tax for an increased military budget?” My goodness, no. The two almost seem unconnected and the rational debate that would connect the two is missing from focus group politics.
Yet politicians have absolute faith in them. To them, focus groups are the will of the people – they are usually right about elections so they must be accurate gauges of everything else. This is why the government is so baffled by the admirably strong opposition to such legislation.
Focus group politics does not see people as rational, politically aware human beings. It sees them as automatons guided by their sub-rational desires and fears and that the satisfaction of these desires and the allaying of these fears is paramount to politics, irrespective of the truth. I hope that you, like me, think that politics should be a little more than that.
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