(Untitled)

[snyrt_file]

So, in looking over an interesting book at People's Academy Middle Level this afternoon, I discovered that there are apparently a number of respected political scientists who have argued that American citizens participating in large numbers is actually detrimental to the success of democracy. Apparently because they assume that real, people-based

Comments

[neblazni]

I think that, at least in the past 8 years, the political scientists who argued that -- which is one that I coincidentally oppose with an almost kneejerk reaction -- were less focused on the idea that people-based democracy is "not the real thing" or that it gets in the way of "government officials telling the populace what they can do" and more the fact that the officials elected to the highest echelons of US government in the past 8 years have been so generally awful. The best argument I have read to this effect is that, given the rise of the advertising industry and the somewhat recent rise in campaign advertising, it is unfair to expect people who are not "in the know" to be able to make a truthful choice based on the fact that they are routinely being deceived.

On the other hand, I have also never seen anyone making this particular argument give a viable solution, either.

I saw Once when it was in theaters. I was pleasantly surprised to find it had Czech in it.

[metalclarinet]

An interesting experiment is to fill a jar with jelly beans or a bucket with walnuts or whatever and ask 30 people to guess the number. Apparently it is fairly common for the average of all the guesses to be closer to the actual total than any individual guess. I always hope that democracy works the same way -- it doesn't depend on each individual being perfectly educated and making the right decision, but rather on our collective wisdom. (Um.... to bad about the last 8 years, although if Kerry had been elected in 2004, we might have seen a huge Republican sweep in the last election

[snyrt_file]

Old Post, But I'll Give It a Shot Anyway--

I have seen
Spartacus (which I always forget was his, and was pretty good)
Dr. Strangelove (which was written by Terry Southern and ad-libbed by Peter Sellers, so little of the credit goes to Kubrik)
2001 (suckage)
Lolita (a worthless adaptation)
and The Shining (which, from what I said before, is a good movie, but really lacking in evidence that Kubrik is much good)