[Paleopsych] extremes

[Geraldine Reinhardt]

I have a twofold doubt.  Firstly that computers will be 
forsaken for a paper ballot and secondly that the best 
security system can thwart a would-be hacker.  The only 
solution I see at present is to merge both parties, 
democrats and republicans, for the more sensitive 
political spots such as president and vice president. 
This would eliminate the huge costs associated with 
national campaigning and would allow those in office 
the time to concentrate on their jobs rather than their 
re-elections.

Gerry Reinhart-Waller
Independent Scholar
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~waluk
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Hovland" <shovland at mindspring.com>
To: "'The new improved paleopsych list'" 
<paleopsych at paleopsych.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2004 8:48 AM
Subject: RE: [Paleopsych] extremes


> My solution to the PR issue is to use
> the same techniques to attack the
> well-crafted appeals of the right.
>
> Unfortunately, I think the systemic
> failure is that the voting computers
> have been hacked.
>
> Elections won't mean anything until those
> systems have much better security
> at all levels.
>
> I don't have any confidence that the Democrats
> are technical enough to figure it out.
>
> Steve Hovland
> www.stevehovland.net
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Christopher 
> [SMTP:anonymous_animus at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 11:29 AM
> To: paleopsych at paleopsych.org
> Subject: [Paleopsych] extremes
>
>
>>>Is there a middle ground, where you can be
> soft-hearted and hard-headed, a ground where new
> conservatives and new liberals can meet?<<
>
> --There is, when people get tired of demonizing and
> stereotyping each other. Right now, the goodness and
> rightness of one side is defined in opposition to the
> badness and wrongness of the other, such that neither
> side has to actually produce results in order to be
> seen as right in the eyes of its proponents. It is
> assumed by many that since "liberal policies have
> failed miserably" that the policies of conservatives
> will succeed. Rhetoric and ideology replace
> observation and testing as the standard for what 
> works
> and what doesn't. If it gets applause, it is assumed
> to be right. It will take another round of systemic
> failure to produce a swing toward the middle and a
> synthesis of the better ideas of both sides.
> Ultimately, the system is the problem, not the
> personalities in it. We need at least one new party 
> to
> offset the two-party oscillation, and we need a 
> better
> public understanding of how PR psychology influences
> crowds. The standard contrast method, by which one
> politician seems to have integrity in contrast to
> another's perceived lack of integrity (replace
> integrity with morals, common sense, backbone, etc),
> still works very well, and it shouldn't. People 
> should
> be able to be critical of both sides, without playing
> the "liberals are amoral and discredited" or
> "conservatives are scheming and manipulative" cards.
> It's like falling for the same used car salesman
> pitch, over and over, knowing all the cars are 
> lemons.
>
> Added to that problem is that the news media loves
> polemics, and has no attention span for deep
> discussion. Shows like Crossfire are more popular 
> than
> in-depth reporting. Filtering out complexity produces
> a system which can only oscillate from one extreme to
> the other, with very little in the way of pragmatic
> compromise.
>
> Michael
>
>
>
>
>
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