One of the most enduring political problems is finding a “legitimate” reason to do something convenient. When a crisis happens along that provides an excuse to gratify ambition, it is seized as an opportunity. If nothing turns up, then a justification can always be manufactured. The desire to make facts conform to desires is as old as antiquity. Green mythology tells the story of Procrustes. A blacksmith by day and a bandit when otherwise not employed, Procrustes “had an iron bed in which he invited every passer-by to spend the night, and where he set to work on them with his smith’s hammer, to stretch them to fit. In later tellings, if the guest proved too tall, Procrustes would amputate the excess length; nobody ever fit the bed exactly because secretly Procrustes had two beds. Procrustes continued his reign of terror until he was captured by Theseus, travelling to Athens along the sacred way, who ‘fitted’ Procrustes to his own bed.”
The modern version of the Procrustean bed is the rigged consultative group and the stacked Town Hall meeting. In these settings the facts can always be adjusted to fit the policy. At these gatherings, politicians hear what they want to hear. They have claques ready to egg them on a course they’ve charted for themselves. Even in foreign policy. The Jerusalem Post describes how the Obama administration is selecting a larger number of Jewish groups to advise it so that it hears what it wants to hear.
The organized Jewish community’s first official meeting with US President Barack Obama late Monday was set to include more liberal organizations than in years past, which groups on both sides saw as indicative of the White House’s interest in magnifying their voices. … “They’re looking to legitimize the more progressive parts of the pro-Israel community that seem to be more in line with where they seem to be going,” said one Jewish leader involved with the planning of the meeting, set to take place after press time and last about 45 minutes. …
… he continued. “He and his administration want to build up the relevance and the power of Peace Now and J Street, to help them spread their message louder and more credibly with the news media and the American Jewish community, because their vantage point is arguably more in line with the Obama administration’s vantage point.”
Rigging the popular voice is a tactic the administration has used in the discussion on health care. LA Times blogger Andrew Malcolm wrote that the administration’s attempts to “pack” the Town Hall meetings had grown so blatant that even Democrat stalwart Helen Thomas was scandalized.
As the Ticket reported yesterday, Obama answered questions at a town hall at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., about protecting the uninsured, giving consumers a public option and converting medical records from paper to digital files. The White House portrayed the town-hall meeting as one in a series of public outreach events, a way for the president to keep his finger on the pulse of public opinion, and in turn to sway Americans on the complex and contentious issue.
This morning, the Washington Post is reporting that “of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for ‘tweets.’ ” And the three audience members he called on randomly? The Post says “all turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee.”
But perverting feedback mechanism always carries the risk of creating an echo chamber, which can undermine the management processes of the administration itself. Inside a media echo chamber people can come to believe their own lies. “The term media echo chamber can refer to any situation in which information, ideas or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission inside an ‘enclosed’ space. One purveyor of information will make a claim, which many like-minded people then repeat, overhear, and repeat again (often in an exaggerated or otherwise distorted form) until most people assume that some extreme variation of the story is true.”
This can be dangerous in foreign affairs. The Obama administration can as much afford to navigate the treacherous and possibly cataclysmic shoals of the Middle East as a submarine can thread its way through a mine field with its sonar rigged to register dangers only in convenient places. What the Jewish groups the administration chooses is one thing; what Israel may be forced to do is another. Procrustes kept trimming reality to his expectations until he ran up hard against something he couldn’t handle; and then it cut him down to size.
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51 Comments
1. aaron:imposing our expectations on reality can be difficult, and painful in the end
Jul 14, 2009 - 12:19 am 2. 49erDweet:And the pathetic fools – not knowing or caring they and theirs likely will be among the first to suffer when all is in place – go blithely ahead parroting the narrative, like the walking dead. The term “hit and left standing” comes to mind.
Jul 14, 2009 - 1:20 am 3. reg:Not to worry, the free and independent press in the US which has prevented catastrophe in the past by pointing out that the emperor has no clothes will keep the administration from driving the US off a cliff in the manner of some totalitarian regimes.After all they aren’t state run.Not officially, they’re more of a volunteer organization.It’ll be interesting (not in a good way)when 2+2=4.
Jul 14, 2009 - 2:04 am 4. blogstrop:The media echo chamber is alive and well in Australia. “Experts” are chosen carefully so they give the answers the program’s guiding lights want you to hear. This will, no doubt, be evident in who CNN uses versus who Fox use in their programs. The difference is that Australia doesn’t have an equivalent to Fox News. We get the same slant from all of them. It becomes so repetitive here that it qualifies as brainwashing. My concern is that it is not just the players in the media who become convinced that their certainties are gospel, but that the voters who take, in probably the majority of cases, only a passing interest in the details of current affairs, absorb these litanies and vote accordingly. After all, is someone with a passing interest or little at all in current affairs and politics going to take the trouble to research the veracity of the daily tripe?
Jul 14, 2009 - 2:59 am 5. Bob Murphy:4. blogstrop
True enough about Australian radio but The Australian is a reasonable broadsheet and is distributed nationally.
And even the Melbounre Herald-Sun gets it right sometimes and has people like iconoclastic columnist Andrew Bolt who is like a breath of fresh air.
It’s embarrassing to mention two Murdoch papers in a favourable light but when the competition is the Spencer Street Soviet in Melbourne (aka The Age) perhaps it’s easy for Murdoch’s minions to look good.
Jul 14, 2009 - 3:48 am 6. Bob Murphy:And I guess I should mention that I have been listening to the Australian Broadcasting Corpoation’s ABC Classical (105.5FM)for the last six splendid hours. Breathtakingly great stuff and no ads. All you have to do is tune out for 5 minutes each hour when they do their version of the news.
Jul 14, 2009 - 3:51 am 7. Lifeofthemind:So there are compensations for the lack of vibrant talk radio.
Vulgar misreading of scientific progress results in the presumption that because something can be improved it will be. This removes the all important function of negative feedback and correction.
In Biology this leads to the “Hopeful Monster” hypothesis. That is what happens when the student speculates how neat it would be if a horse grew wings or baboons were pink and the instructor dashes their hopes by pointing out that such a creature would be quickly eliminated from the gene pool.
In social situations this leads to wild enthusiasms such as financial or political bubbles. Ten years after the bubble pops it is viewed with distaste and anyone still protesting nostalgia for it is viewed with derision. There are people who’s intellectual closets are filled with Nehru shirts. They supported Hitler in ‘36 and ‘02 (Buchanan) or Castro in ‘58 and ‘08 (NYT). Instead of being tested and discarded quack nostrums merely retreat until their consequences fade from memory. If the lessons of experience are not transmitted by an effective educational system then we get a cycle of concepts that should have been discredited and keep coming back. The frequency with which this happens, that is how rapidly a discredited idea returns, can be a measure of the health of the system.
The relentless destruction of our education system has resulted in a situation where truly bad ideas are no longer cleansed from the public body by the disinfecting light of experience. They fester and return to attack again. The Obama administration is the return of the second tier players from the Carter administration. We can only hope that after the disaster is over the opportunity will arise to thoroughly reform the educational and foundation systems to prevent a repetition of this condition. Right now the frequency of quack nostrums returning is very high. This indicates that the body politic is suffering from a feverish condition. If is survives and the fever breaks then reality may be rediscovered. Or we may all grow wings.
Human societies can endure for a long time while trapped by disabling fantasies but at a terrible cost. That is what happened in places where Islam dominates.
Jul 14, 2009 - 3:54 am 8. blogstrop:Thanks Bob. Not good enough to have a few token conservatives in the newspapers (even the SMH has some) when 90% of the media is batting for the other team, in a manner of speaking … some perhaps in more than one manner. I forgot to ask: is Al Gore, and the AGW industry generally, by definition Procrustean?
Jul 14, 2009 - 4:38 am 9. buddy larsen:“the important thing is….”
(the current procrustean incantation; tune it in & you will hear it vamped, allegro con brio, every time one of the current admin (or one of its attachments) is asked the WTF? question.)
Jul 14, 2009 - 4:45 am 10. anton:7. Lifeofthemind:
“Human societies can endure for a long time while trapped by disabling fantasies but at a terrible cost. That is what happened in places where Islam dominates.”
And Communism, I have been ruminating on the similarities of the two systems but have not been able to pull the thoughts together into a coherent whole.
Both require the “ideal” citizen to obey rules that are clearly against their own interest, both are essentially a justification for stealing what others have produced, both stifle the mind by constantly demanding conformity to the official doctrine, both are bloody in their dealing with any deviancy from that doctrine.
And to bring things back on topic; how much better example of an echo-chamber is there than a “top-brass” meeting in North Korea or an Al Quaeda cave?
Jul 14, 2009 - 5:24 am 11. MarkIX:10. Anton:
“Both require the “ideal” citizen to obey rules that are clearly against their own interest, both are essentially a justification for stealing what others have produced, both stifle the mind by constantly demanding conformity to the official doctrine, both are bloody in their dealing with any deviancy from that doctrine.”
Your description of communism and Islam has much in common with the PC world we face in academy, and increasingly in society in general. Echos of the AGW movement…
Jul 14, 2009 - 6:15 am 12. buddy larsen:Negation of the individual makes irrelevant the golden rule.
Jul 14, 2009 - 6:59 am 13. Joshua:No golden rule to trinitize fear and greed leaves a society with only fear and greed.
Fear & greed can only create a small rich group and a large poor group.
Greed breaks down as cruelty and paranoia; fear breaks down as anger and apathy.
There ought to be a fifth sentence but whatever it is ain’t coming into clarity.
Lifeofthemind, #7: There are people who’s intellectual closets are filled with Nehru shirts. They supported Hitler in ‘36 and ‘02 (Buchanan) or Castro in ‘58 and ‘08 (NYT). Instead of being tested and discarded quack nostrums merely retreat until their consequences fade from memory. If the lessons of experience are not transmitted by an effective educational system then we get a cycle of concepts that should have been discredited and keep coming back. The frequency with which this happens, that is how rapidly a discredited idea returns, can be a measure of the health of the system.
Just because we might know intellectually that the supply of X doesn’t exist in the real world, doesn’t make the demand for X go away. This is especially true where X is something with a strong, deep-seated visceral appeal to a large segment of the population, an appeal that is more or less impervious to reason. Something like, say, immortality with perpetual youth. Or a cure for the common cold. Or a blueprint for everlasting equality, tolerance and peace on Earth under the gentle tutelage of Gaia.
This is why snake-oil peddlers (figurative and literal) not only haven’t disappeared from the human experience long ago, but now we have one residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. So, it’s probably not enough for an educational system to transmit the lessons of experience – it will also have to find some way to defeat the visceral desires that lead so many people to fall for the snake-oil peddlers again and again, in spite of all those lessons.
Jul 14, 2009 - 6:59 am 14. Jamie Irons:Wretchard,
You wrote:
Green mythology tells the story…
I think you intended Greek mythology.
Not that there isn’t a Green mythology, as demonstrated most clearly, of course, by so-called “anthropogenic global warming” (or “climate change,” or whatever).
In that OT connection I cannot recommend too highly, by the way, Ian Plimer’s Heaven and Earth.
Jamie Irons
Jul 14, 2009 - 7:07 am 15. Dave the Kapampangan:Nanny Obananarama says: “NO, I DON’T run the risk of creating an echo chamber, because I already am my own chamber. I already know how to run this country! I just need to stage a legitimization of my chamber, so that the philosophy of HOPE AND CHANGE can properly be fed to the masses.”
Jul 14, 2009 - 7:23 am 16. steeple:Actions speak louder than words. Here’s an interesting story from the Austin American-Statesman describing how “Green Energy” isn’t selling too well in the Green capitol of Texas. If you believed everything you heard in Austin’s media, you would think that no one consumes any fossil fuels there. The reality is a bit different. And now everyone gets to the opportunity to pay for the mistakes of the Greenies.
For the past decade, Austin’s ambition to become the world’s clean-energy capital has been best exemplified by one effort: GreenChoice, a program that sells electricity generated entirely from renewable sources such as wind.
Now the nationally renowned program is struggling to find buyers — the latest allotment is 99 percent unsold after seven months on the market…
Austin Energy officials say that times have changed and that the nation’s most successful (by volume of sales) green-energy program, which offers the renewable energy only to those who select it, might no longer be the best way to carry out the city’s goals. It now costs almost three times more than the standard electricity rate.
…Duncan said part of the solution might just be adding new wind, solar and other renewable-energy projects into the bills of all Austin Energy customers, which could increase rates for everyone.
While previous offerings took about half a year to sell out, the current one has attracted only 104 homes and five businesses — leaving about 99 percent of its power unpurchased, according to Austin Energy.
Jul 14, 2009 - 7:41 am 17. Gordon:Jamie/14–I most strongly second this comment re Heaven and Earth; I just finished it. In most cases it only confirmed what I knew already but there were still many things I didn’t. Caution: take it in small doses and be prepared to skim in spots. The book is exhaustively, even tediously, detailed and footnoted. In many places the footnotes take up almost half the page. I presume the author did this to remove any doubt about him massaging the data.
The final chapter is an acrid attack on Gore, et al and the ‘atheistic religion’ that has captured so many minds and governments. Thank heavens for this man, who is clearly afraid about how things are going (as am I) but ultimately confident that truth will win out–only when?
Steeple/16–you and I must be fellow citizens of the People’s Republic Of Austin, reading the Austin Daily Worker. That story about the Green program has gotten a lot of attention, no?
Jul 14, 2009 - 7:42 am 18. anton:11. MarkIX:
“..the PC world we face in academy, and increasingly in society in general. Echos of the AGW movement…”
I have always veiwed PC and AGW as part and parcel with Communism. They seem to me as extensions of, or stealth arms of, the anti-capitalist agenda.
I just wish I had Richard’s perceptivity and command of the language to develop the idea further. All I ever manage seems to be veiwed “through a glass darkly”, like figures in a fog.
Jul 14, 2009 - 7:45 am 19. Dave the Kapampangan:Nanny Obananarama says: “One of the main concepts of my national unification philosophy is the idea of submission: submission in exchange for someone else’s share of the pie, submission in exchange for someone else to be targeted. It’s the overriding concept in Academia, Islam, Socialism, and on the playground. Getting with the program is the fast ticket to becoming one of the COOL people. And you know, it’s a great facet of human nature– the perfect antidote to the unequal results of American individualism and exceptionalism!”
Jul 14, 2009 - 7:49 am 20. Brock:I think the purpose of the “stacked” town hall is to make the viewer who disagrees with the positions stated there feel alone and marginalized – and maybe they’ll just stay home and not organize an opposition.
And it could work too, if “they” controlled all of the information channels. Thank God that’s not the case.
Jul 14, 2009 - 8:02 am 21. anton:20. Brock:
So true, one of the favorite tactics of the Left is to shout down and belittle the opposition. All but the most confident person feels uncomfortable when they are alone in their opinions.
By stacking the crowd the “perceived middle” is shifted Leftward allowing the “featured speaker” to appear to be a reasonable middle of the road person, fully reflecting the norm.
Jul 14, 2009 - 8:12 am 22. feeblemind:I think Brock nails it.
Jul 14, 2009 - 8:14 am 23. steeple:Gordon, I’m a neighbor down the road in Houston. Feeble, I concur.
Jul 14, 2009 - 8:24 am 24. hdgreene:I think the Left’s message on the environment is simple: to save Civilization they most first destroy Civilization. They now have the power to put the theory into practice. I would not expect them to publicize any “second thoughts” among the less committed (a category that includes few journalists).
Their approach to Israel and Health Care is the same. Destroy it first and then, you know, you can like replace it, you know, with something more, you know, responsive to, you know, people and such.
Jul 14, 2009 - 9:03 am 25. buddy larsen:gordon & steeple, make that trips –i’m in hays county, just a liitle west of the People’s City of Austin –and found the story on google news this morn.
***
hdgreene, yep, exactly –the picture running in the head is so clear, and so right, that it MUST actually play out that way. If it doesn’t, well, like Senator Kerry said a couple years ago, “there weren’t really very many ‘boat people’ –just a few, maybe –(implied) the rest are just made up by anti antiwar troublemakers”.
Jul 14, 2009 - 9:20 am 26. peterike:As George Costanza said to Jerry Seinfeld: Jerry, just remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it.
While certainly not meant as such, that might be the most succinct description of the Leftist mind ever written.
Which reminds me, I haven’t posted this quote in a while. More relevant than ever.
The difference between a Liberal and a Communist is that the Communist knows what he’s doing. — James Burnham
Jul 14, 2009 - 9:48 am 27. Wadeusaf:The placement of an Urn filled partly with water as an echo chamber had the effect of spreading the sound throughout the amphitheater. Never was the water intended to drown out the audience.
So what could this current Echo chamber be filled with? Whine? Heck this is the height of transparency, Everyone knows the house is stacked. If only you wouldn’t bring the obvious to the attention of the press secretary in so public a forum, he wouldn’t have to acknowledge it and deny it in the same breath. As for the random live questioners, just look for the Union label. Not the Union of States, either.
Jul 14, 2009 - 11:21 am 28. blert:Well, at least the Communist is working to a plan.
Jul 14, 2009 - 11:35 am 29. Rurik:15. Dave the Kapampangan:
“Nanny Obananarama says: “NO, I DON’T run the risk of creating an echo chamber, because I already am my own chamber.”
Since functioning echo chambers are empty, is that not an inadvertent admission of his empty-headedness?
Jul 14, 2009 - 12:33 pm 30. Rurik:Brock, Anton and feeblemind:
I too concur. It is the operant principle of the old Communist meeting and self-criticism session. (Or US university student meeting). Not only does it pressure everyone to conform, but it easily fingers the heretic who is too naive or stubborn to submit.
Jul 14, 2009 - 12:45 pm 31. always right:However, the stubborn dissident, unafraid to be different can upset this applecart. As Ionesco’s Berenger says – I will not become a rhinoceros, even if I am the last man.
(P)art of the solution might just be adding new wind, solar and other renewable-energy projects into the bills of all Austin Energy customers, which could increase rates for everyone.
A good thing, it is not a real business plan then. With 99% of the previous product unsold, how can a ‘business owner’ justify expanding the whole set up, with other peoples’ money too?
Who would ever think about buying/investing into the crazy idea? Oh, never mind, nothing could beat the smug factor (”Greenest City in the World”).
Jul 14, 2009 - 2:00 pm 32. tom:The difference between a liberal and a communist is that a communist admits what he’s doing.
The “I have good intentions” excuse is but that : an excuse. Why don’t you slam a door in their face and tell them that your intentions are good : slamming a door is cheaper than face surgery … see how they respond.
Jul 14, 2009 - 2:53 pm 33. MarkJ:Obama’s “townhall meetings” are now showing all the lively, free-wheeling debate, rapier-like wit, and left-field questioning of the 1939 Reichstag or Supreme Soviet.
For your entertainment, here’s a clip from Obama’s latest townhall meeting (minus his TOTUS of course):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkUzfAfwP1A
Jul 14, 2009 - 2:57 pm 34. Tcobb:To me the most interesting thing about Austin’s “Green Energy” problems is that, in the “bluest” city in Texas, only 104 homes signed up for it. Consider the numbers. What happened to all the people who preach Green?
When it comes to putting other people’s money where THEIR mouths are at they come through loudly time after time, but when it comes to putting THEIR money where THEIR mouths are at they silently shrink off into the darkness.
Virtue from thee, but not from me–that’s asking too much. The mantra of the modern day liberal.
Jul 14, 2009 - 3:14 pm 35. buddy larsen:Tcobb/34; Austin’s not a big city, so the university and state capital bureaucracies, unified as those two ideologically usually are, do tend to vote in some municipal moonbeams.
Jul 14, 2009 - 3:42 pm 36. Tcobb:buddy larsen/35
Jul 14, 2009 - 4:05 pm 37. buddy larsen:I don’t know what your definition of “big city” is, but Austin, Texas has a population in excess of 750,000 people. It may not be big by your standards, but it isn’t small by any means. And only 104 homes have gone for the Green Option?
no dispute there, tcobb!
Jul 14, 2009 - 4:15 pm 38. Bob Murphy:7.Lifeofthemind
Neat bit of logic and perception LOTM. Lovely stuff.
I’ve lifted it and even some of my left friends, several of whom still call me “Comrade” (I’ve known them for a long time) think it’s neat and acknowledge it as explaining why some of their dysfunctional insanity has not been flushed down the dunny hole.
The real world response needs to be when you get a vampire down, put a wooden stake through its heart and be done with it so you can move on to better things.
Jul 14, 2009 - 4:28 pm 39. blert:Got to resolve issues decisively and forget the presumption of reason that rules most of our conservative democratic minds.
That includes cleaning out the universities.
There is something grotesque and suicidal about allowing public resources to be spent on America’s internal enemies, those who hate our founding principles and exceptionalism.
I thought Austin was a pit of Liberalism in a sea of sanity.
Jul 14, 2009 - 5:17 pm 40. Gordon:34-36,39–Austin is a micro-version of the Demos-Repubs. Can’t prove it but it’s my belief that most Austinites aren’t especially liberal, certainly not radical. But the ones who are are very active, go to the city council meetings, back certain candidates energetically, get them elected, then expect to see their projects enacted–and they are. This Green deal is a good example: it got enacted, now it’s failing for the obvious economic reasons.
Now think of the White House: very many Demos got out and worked; most Repubs show up and vote every four years and are content. OK, maybe not most, but nothing like the activism of the Left and you see what we’ve got.
My brother-in-law has gotten very energized and activated by the Tea Party movement in the Dallas-Ft Worth area. He’s always voted, never demonstrated about anything–considered it kind of silly. But not now, and everyone he talks to at the TPs says the same thing: first time ever at a gig like this. So maybe the slumbering Silent Majority is awakening. But as long as the Demolicans and the Republicrats are running the show, it’ll be business as usual.
Jul 14, 2009 - 5:31 pm 41. SpeakEasy:The most difficult distinction between Communism and Islam is our inherent aversion to attacking a religion, even one that threatens us -the non-Muslim US citizenry. It is so clearly a religious war to me I cannot believe so many others do not see it. I hope for a reformation of Islamic thought over complete annihilation but that is up to them.
Jul 14, 2009 - 5:40 pm 42. buddy larsen:the Demolishicrats and the Relaxingcans
Jul 14, 2009 - 5:42 pm 43. Doug:Guess who provided the inspiration for the
Jul 14, 2009 - 5:50 pm 44. Doug:Sleep Comfort Bed?
What’s your sleep number, btw?
Hopefully not 40 whacks.
Jul 14, 2009 - 5:50 pm 45. buddy larsen:i believe Revelations has begun, doug. In fact i just had one: “doug is a lunatic”
Jul 14, 2009 - 6:12 pm 46. Doug:Old News
Jul 14, 2009 - 6:49 pm 47. talking stick:#3 Reg
Maybe we should consider the MSM as just another NGO
Jul 14, 2009 - 7:11 pm 48. Lifeofthemind:Bob Murphy,
Jul 14, 2009 - 7:53 pm 49. Mad Fiddler:Thank you, I take cash, checks, Green Stamps™ and Job referrals.
Keep it up, guys. I may start a cartoon strip.
Jul 14, 2009 - 8:33 pm 50. buddy larsen:whatever, fiddler, but please quit when you get down to your skivvies
Jul 15, 2009 - 12:24 am 51. Wadeusaf:Light rail
Jul 15, 2009 - 6:10 amSorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.