I hope you're not too starry-eyed, either. Personally, of course, I tend to dismiss everything out of hand. It always, at least lately in perhaps my most cynical mindframetime, comes down to my distrust of the general populace. I can't get around it -- who ARE these people that make up the majority? Why do THEY get all the good parking spaces? What twisted morality allows them to pass me on the shoulder during rush hour? Why can't they be stopped from causing accidents by riding their motorcycles on the dotted lines between the cars on the freeway at 120mph?

Why does everyone suck, or, perhaps more betterly asked, why do I have the perception that everyone sucks? Why do I think I'm better than everyone else when all the evidence really doesn't point that way at all?

I read that article and then I read the comments and my biggest nod of agreement came when seeing the college professor's comment: we're all preaching to the choir. It feels so palpable how this works. I don't go spew this gibberish on the pages of the people who fundamentally disagree with my views; or if I DO do that I know it's going to raise arguments that don't resolve.

I can't ever find the angle to convince the other thinkers that their views are wrong and mine are right. The ones who aren't what I'm calling "thinkers," that thronging mass that I look down upon from the vast heights of my milk crate, they get swayed back and forth not based on logic, but based on emotion and illogic. Just as I do when I don't have the time to follow the ins and outs and who thinks whats. Which is most of the time, except about certain, tiny issues that mean nothing in the scope. As great as it would be if we could all be INFORMED voters, if we all took the time to be informed then none of us would have time for anything else. And what does that leave? Very few informed voters in touch mostly with other informed voters and not with what's going on outside the realm, a few half-informed voters, a few half-informed non-voters too convinced of the righteousness of their one-vote-doesn't-count stance to let anything convince them otherwise (hi), and a whole stack of uninformed voters who think Ahnold could probably kick some ass.