RE: The Fuzzy Criteria Problem

[Steven Johnson <stevenhjohnson@juno.com>]

Jay Oliver's comments seem to reflect a deep mistrust of government, no matter who makes/influences decisions - politicians, lobbyists, even we the people.  

If the process is to be mistrusted no matter what, it's valid to argue that any regulation, no matter how well-intentioned, will simply drag us deeper into the mire. 

And also valid to argue that the only way to get out of the mire is to shrink government's responsibilities down so far that it no longer attracts the interests of lobbyists, or of self-interested citizens.  Shrink and simplify the tax code.  Shrink its regulatory activity.  etc.

There are no tactical responses that can be made to a worldview of thorough distrust.  Such a worldview raises a different issue.  Are human beings really inherently corrupt, and is that the essence of who we are?  Is that really the animating spirit of the Declaration of Independence, or of the Constitution?  

A better worldview recognizes the reservoir of virtue that people bring to the civic process, but also recognizes that we have different personality types (introvert-extrovert, thinking-feeling, judgmental-not judgmental, abstract-concrete) and will inherently perceive situations in many different ways.

The real challenge, then, is to find ways of working together effectively given the differences we have, not only in our interests, but in our ways of perceiving the world.  

I also believe that worldviews become self-fulfilling prophecies.  If we assume vice, we'll get lots of it.  If we assume there's virtue to be tapped, and find ways to tap it, we'll get more virtue than we expected.