[WS:] I would not go that far. Humans are social creatures, and it is type of social interaction that determines their consciousness and behavior. The same people can act and think very stupid or vile in one situation and to something extraordinary in another. The Stanford Prison Study demonstrates that quite well.
The problem is with the competitive nature of elections - it triggers the worst instincts in people. It is so, because the stakes and outcomes of the electoral process are so poorly defined that most people do not ordinarily see any incentive to participate in the process (the so-called free rider problem in the game theory). They must be incentivized to take this election business seriously.
This incentivization almost never involves real rewards at least for ordinary people (businessmen are different, they get actual patronage support that makes them money.) It almost always involves symbolic rewards or rather illusions or rewards. Such illsuions are created by demagogues by erecting bogey men that scare people shitless and then offering "protection" from thosoe bogey men if elected. That evokes a lot of negative emotions in people and keep the whole business of electioneering going, even though people who vote get nothing out of it except the vile satisfaction of getting the ass of some imaginary evil kicked.
In sum, it is the competition and symbolic incentivization to participate in elections that evokes the worst emotions in people, not their supposed meanness or stupidity. I am pretty sure that most Americans would not espouse such mean attitudes if they were somewhow shielded from the electioneering hype.
wojtek
On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 5:45 PM, Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com>wrote:
> [WS:] I agree with Doug. The root of the problem is the fiscal crisis,
> which itself is rooted in the idiotic ballot system that California has.
> In
> other words, the problem is democracy i.e. mob rule which makes any
> progressive policy impossible. Blaming the usual bogey men (racism,
> capitalism etc.) obscures the basic fact that it is the way political
> decisions are made - by pandering to the lowest common denominator - that
> is the root cause of most what is wrong with this country.
>
> [Somebody:] I think this is right. Take a look at what Derek Thompson from
> The Atlantic had to say about a recent poll:
>
> "Sometimes, the Majority of Americans Are Really Stupid
>
>
> I cannot believe this Rasmussen poll:
>
> 51 percent believe canceling the rest of the stimulus money would create
> more jobs.
> That is insane.
>
> ...
>
>
>
> The idea that canceling the stimulus would create more jobs implies
> that passing the stimulus has actually killed more jobs than it's
> created, which is bonkers... If nothing else,
> the tens of billions we've sent to state budgets have, without
> question, saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, like teachers, that are
> supported by state taxes. It's just a very basic fact."
>
> In
> fact this has now become the prevailing opinion out there in the
> manicured suburbs and prairie hinterlands of America: that it was TARP and
> the stimulus (which of
> course, are conflated) that somehow caused the recession, instigated
> double-digit unemployment, and ballooned the federal deficit. It's a
> point of view so unhinged, so patently unfair, and unreasonable, it
> would be like blaming welfare programs and a bloated federal government for
> the disastrous FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina. Which, of course, is
> precisely what conservatives argue.
>
> Marxists
> can make a stink for their rest of their lives about how the
> bourgeoisie controls the state apparatus and the ruling ideology... but
> the fact of the matter is, the leading representatives in at least two
> of the main branches of government in Washington are in many ways more
> progressive, more
> rational, and more *humane* than the bulk of the American people.
>
>
>
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