1. Brad Hutchings on January 13, 2004 02:11 PM writes...

We (Collieforneeea) really must be the laughing stock of the country. Sigh. I don't think our Arnold is the second coming of Reagan, and I definitely agree that he ran and won a populist campaign, but it was a reaction against the worst kind of "mechanized elitism" I have ever seen. Here are two examples....

(1) Tripling of the car tax. Gov Low-beam (Davis, he was once chief of staff to Gov Moonbeam -- Jerry Borwn -- so the name works) did his impartial analysis of the budget situation and triggers in place and announced with little emotion that the car tax was going to be brought back to it's historical level, costing the average car owner hundreds of dollars per year. It was cold and clinical -- mechanized elitism. Helped the whole public image a lot that the guy hadn't driven a car in 20 years. This is California (pronounced right)!! Do not mess with our cars!!

(2) A little known law presented (coincidentally) by the Assemblywoman sister of a friend of mine (they're Democrats, I apologize in advance) makes employers liable for sexual harassment of their employees BY THEIR CUSTOMERS. This was in response to court case where a bus driver was repeatedly harasssed then attacked by a customer who wasn't all there. Mechanized elitism again... we couldn't just deal with the problem, no, we had to make a grandiose rule that is leaving every labor lawyer in the state cautioning their employer clients and salivating over the stream of employee clients that will be lining up.

So the way I figure it, a little populism to shake this up isn't a bad thing. Our governor also seems to have a few good priniciples and vision of a state that doesn't punish business. Maybe in a couple years, we can elect people who aren't seen as screwballs and aren't elitists. But the climate wasn't right a couple months ago.

-Brad

2. Tilak Balu on January 14, 2004 01:39 AM writes...

Speaking of anti-elitism and anti-populism - how will this apply to the situation in Iraq?

Probably the worst thing we can do to Iraq is give the people a one-person one-vote type democracy, which a lot of people are calling for -as some major transformation in Iraq. If that happens or anything even resembling that, it won't be long before the country is run by a bunch of thugs again, because trust me - the ordinary Iraqi is no saint, this is a very tribal, violent and feudal culture (both men and women). If we want to convert it into a "democracy", we will have to be very careful. So I think some elitism in Iraq is not a bad thing, the country needs some "good rulers" who can bring back law and order, justice and a market economy. This is where I think things like value memes and developmental studies are very useful, things like Spiral Dynamics. Most leaders lack a developmental perspective, the idea that different people develop differently in their values, morals, beliefs etc. - but in today's post-modern, fake-egalatarian world of ours - that's taboo! (Even head-hunters are supposed to be worthy of one-person one-vote!)

3. Mohammed. M. on February 20, 2004 04:44 AM writes...

Could you help me with a straight forward definition of Mobocracy.