[Campaigns-l] Needs a narrow focus on the Political Climate/NewPolitics

[Stephen Abbott]

Well, you're actually onto something here about democracy, though it wansn't
meant as a blanket indictment. I see the role of politics, in part, as
harnessing that collective (but chaotic) energy and channeling it into a
positive direction. That's also, in fact, the role of a society - otherwise,
we just are an assemblage of angry strangers living near one another and
interacting violently when our wants aren't addressed in a way we prefer.

Typically, that happens online as well. A lot.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <neoclassical at mail.com>
To: <campaigns-l at wikia.com>
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Campaigns-l] Needs a narrow focus on the Political
Climate/NewPolitics



> > I fear the ideal of allowing the maximum amount of freedom here (i.e.
> > the least possible amount of guidance and direction) regarding format,
> > mission and policy is creating some rather divergent views about what
> > the Campaign Wikia is all about.

This is a persuasive argument against Democracy, as well. Most people will
launch off into "unique" directions that create noise as a whole.

I would be equally concerned about the quality of submissions. As we've seen
from WikiPedia, many people generate garbage data or biased opinions in
their articles, and often quality lags far behind Encyclopedia Britannica
not in weight of fact but in grace of interpretation.

How is that to be addressed?