Monday, October 27, 2008

Why Intellectuals Like Obama

Intellectuals think they are experts, and politicians should defer to them as senior advisers (listen to New Republic writer Noam Scheiber gush about Obama's trust in experts below). Thus, to the extent a politician looks like someone who appreciates policy wonks, they will get better press. A good strategy for any politician above the city level is to make the intellectuals you speak with feel like they are the smartest guy in the whole wide world, because that is the expert's ultimate fantasy.

It's a naive fantasy, that politicians are 'technocrats' who take the best ideas from objective, leading experts in formulating policy (to think these people usually condescend to those who believe in organized religion). Experts have diametrically opposed views in terms of policy implications all the time, so it is a trivial exercise to 'listen' to them--you choose the right ones. Further, a politician's inability to implement a plan just like a certain intellectual would have wanted, merely says that this particular intellectual was not as persuasive and correct as I am, think most intellectuals, so inconsistency is brushed off w/o much concern.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, numbers and analysis are hard and complicated ... and no way to make decisions. Let's reject the analysis of policy wonks and go on principles. After all, the unprincipled but wonkish Clinton adminsitration did much worse on the economy than the principled Bush adminsitration. Low taxes and deregulation have really seemed to pay off. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Anonymous said...

too much analysis. this is all you need to know. we're f***ed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/27/acdc-music-recession

Anonymous said...

...yeah Bush did great on the economic front LOL!! His plan was basically "in the absence of a real economy (manufacturing, which was all exported since his admin. is owned by corporations) let's just inflate one asset bubble after another in order to attract the investment required to finance the massive deficits caused by our own policies". Idiots all of them, and the price to be paid is at hand. In essence they sacrificed long term stability for corporate profits now. The hell with the voters LOL

Anonymous said...

Intellectuals like Obama simply because McCain knows NOTHING about the economy nor does he understand it. The masses love "Sarah's purty red shoos and her purty suits, go Amurca!" LOL