

State of the World 2013: Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky - msh
http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/459/State-of-the-World-2013-Bruce-St-page01.html

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Symmetry
_"Why these canny subversives have let idiots like the Koch Brothers buy the
American government, I just dunno. The Stacks could buy the Republican Party,
lock stock and barrel, with their pocket change."_

I'm sort of flabbergasted that the person who wrote _Distraction_ could say
something so simplistic and naive about how money and political influence
work. I guess he just isn't thinking of "the Rebpulican Party" as being
composed of human beings?

Still, there were a lot of gems in there.

~~~
lmm
Like with a business, you could probably buy the party - the name, the
branding, and anyone happy with your new policies or too lazy to leave. But
the best and the brightest would probably go off and start a new one of their
own.

~~~
Symmetry
I expect that most of the people in charge of the Republican Party are
emotionally committed to the idea that they're the "good guys" in an important
fight. That doesn't mean that they don't _have_ a price, just that it would
tend to be very high. And since the Republicans is a voluntary association I'd
expect that any rapid shift in policy big enough to be worth the investment
would see the collapse and replacement of the Republican party.

Exerting the kind of influence that the Kochs do doesn't just require money,
it also requires decades of hard and patient work. You've got to create
institutions that attract people to work and publish on those issues where
they happen to agree with you rather than where they disagree with you. You've
got to make politicians feel that you're on their side and that listening to
your spiel is just a matter of friendship, and you have to have a mountain of
one sided evidence that lets them believe (and if you're their friend they'll
be wanting to believe) that your proposition is Best For America.

But just buying a political party? I honestly think that if you're trying to
accomplish a bunch of stuff quickly a coup would be cheaper and more
realistic.

~~~
pretoriusB
> _I expect that most of the people in charge of the Republican Party are
> emotionally committed to the idea that they're the "good guys" in an
> important fight. That doesn't mean that they don't have a price, just that
> it would tend to be very high_

Huh? I expect the very opposite. That the scum of the earth is what gets
involved into politics AND reaches the higher echelons of both parties.
Greedy, power-hungry, amoralistic people. If they had those kinds of "ideals"
they left them behind far before they progressed into the party ranks.

It's not like congressmen historically gave us any reason to think
otherwise...

~~~
sbmassey
The scum of the earth are often the same people as those who deeply
emotionally feel they are good guys, I suspect, hard enough as it is to
believe for people who try to avoid cognitive dissonance. Human behavior is
more complex than Hollywood would have you believe.

~~~
pretoriusB
> _The scum of the earth are often the same people as those who deeply
> emotionally feel they are good guys,_

Sure, but more often than not they are just scum. Thinking of most of Bush's
cabinet.

------
akkartik
I can never read the well because I can never tell where anything's beginning
or ending. Can someone explain the format? Are the two authors writing
asynchronously adding to the bottom over some period of time?

