* <<GBE.1328>> Some post-election thoughts.
There is a major disconnect between rural and urban America.
How do we bring them together? Could we *physically* bring them
together? A comprehensive, super-fast national rail network, getting
people in and out of the cities/towns, expanding by 50 or 100 miles
the range of reasonable commute times? The Internet has shown us that
facilitating the exchange of ideas isn't enough, because the lived
reality of urban and rural populations is simply different, and so
much of our thinking manifests itself as a response to our
environment.
Social Media.
People post when they are emotionally engaged.
They post things that they would never say in the physical presence
of other people.
Because there is no phyisical component, there is no danger, no real
consequence to moral transgression.
To some extent, this is good -- it's good for working-out your ideas
with others in a "safe" thought-space. But if there's no development
of the mind, no real contemplation and intellectual engagement, this
ends-up being socially and intellectually counterproductive. This
gives us the "echo chamber" effect that people write so much about.
If we want people to behave online more like they do in real-life, we
need to engage them physically. Call them. Video-chat with them. Put
a face and a voice to your objections, make it *real*.
Polls.
If the current trend continues, if people become increasingly less
likely to provide honest data to polls, then it will become
impossible for politicians to campaign for strategic victory. They
must, instead, campaign for total victory, landslide victory. And
this means courting *all* voters, not just partisans and "base"
demographics. Maybe that's one good outcome that will motivate some
new strategy in 2018 and beyond.
--
Excerpted from:
PUBLIC NOTES (G)
http://alph.laemeur.com/txt/PUBNOTES-G
©2016 Adam C. Moore (LÆMEUR) <
[email protected]>
