Friday, January 04, 2008

Politics!

Normally, I would be whining about politics by now. No choice, that's what Seattle forces you to do.

But, you know, I can't find anyone I do want as president. 95% of the candidates are people I would refuse to shake hands with, and the other 5% I wouldn't give authority over a candy bar.

Fortunately, not being in Seattle this year, I can safely keep my gob shut on the matter.

5 comments:

Patrick said...

I think I know who you wouldn't give authority over a candy bar to (but the combined field would have to be sixty people large in order for that to constitute %5, get your illustrative statistical metaphors precise man!)

I'm still not sure how corrupt the system is. I know there are endemic biases that keep anti-corporatist opinions out of play, or try to, but if enough people voted accordingly, would they outright scam the elections? We shall see, or rather, we won't. My bags are packed in either case.

Craig Perko said...

Calling the system corrupt is misleading, because the word "corrupt" has been corrupted.

But I haven't seen anywhere that does any better.

Patrick said...

Could you be more specific regarding the corruption of the word "corrupt"?

Craig Perko said...

These days, when you say "corrupt" it carries a feeling of agency. If something is corrupt, then someone has perverted it to their will.

Unfortunately, we don't live in a world of super-villains. The system may not work as it is intended, but it works as it is assembled to work. Blaming corporations is just about as short-sighted as it is possible to be, one step from blaming aliens.

The idea is that the system could be "uncorrupted" by slapping a few laws over whatever holes we can see. The problem isn't the flaws: it's the underlying assembly. Trying to fix it with laws is like trying to fix a Model T for use today by oiling it up real good and swapping out the piston heads.

Patrick said...

Yeah, I agree. I'm writing a design doc for a game called "F'ed By The Fed" that is based on the premise you describe.

Funny enough, there are quite a few people who do blame aliens.

"Unfortunately, we don't live in a world of super-villains" - only you would preface that statement with the qualifier "unfortunately". :P