This blog is my effort to puzzle out the world. I'll write whatever comes into my head, but probably return frequently to my obsessions. I seem to be interested in the workings of democracy, economics, the functioning of social groups, the future of humanity, scientific concepts, statistical concepts, logical thinking, nuclear power, evolution, space, the environment and most everything else. I'll try to post only when I think I have my own angle on something.
After getting a question that made me think a little, I have added three comments to the post on Binary Decomposition of Political Distance.
posted by jj mollo @ 6/10/2005 11:59:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
the great contradiction of trust? Those worthy of trust never put themselves in a position of requiring it. As such, they seldom seek public office, or want it. The rest are rapscallions of varying degrees
Oh no, I don't agree at all. Lots of people are honest and also want to be helpful. Public Service! It's just that their frequency declines as they move up the ladder of influence. It's a natural selection thing. If breaking trust at a critical juncture allows you to move up the ladder one step, then we can assume that each layer will have a higher proportion of rapscallions than the previous. With enough layers you can assume that the population beyound a certain layer is completely represented by various degrees of rapscallion.
We can call this the "rapscallion filter".
Being a maven is different than having influence. I was just suggesting a mechanism whereby you could give people access to the appropriate maven. A true maven is, by nature, dedicated to a narrow field of inquiry, and usually incorruptible.
I use the term as Malcolm Gladwell defines it in his book "Tipping Point".
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