> You're right on the specific vs. general, up to a point, but I think
> this underestimates the deep conservative streak of much of the
> American population, and the degree to which it's very easy to
> appeal to that general instinct whenever a specific instance comes
> up. As I often say to James, you really have to spend some time here
> to appreciate how fucking crazy it is.
Crazier than France? England? Russia? You really think so?
Seems to me that people are quite right to distrust the Gummint, which surely we all agree is not run for their benefit. The idiom in which they express this distrust is given (in the polling case) by the terms of the pollsters' questions, and in more open conversation by the conventional categories and bromides that they've heard from their prosy old uncles.
People are pretty good at recognizing something that's good for *them* in a specific way when it comes along, though. The same people who drivel about Big Gummint will say in the next breath, "there oughta be a law."
--
Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com