Thoughts about the future I just finished reading a post on the homepower discussion list about lobbying. The person said we need lobbyists to represent economic interests, the average voter isn't a good decision maker, and politicians get carried away exploiting worries about pesticides and other things. This viewpoint is easy for me to understand, i spent my youth surrounded by people who believed it. Finding evidence supporting these beliefs is also easy. Popular beliefs and politicians often create problems. So, do we need lobbyists for all the causes and special interests in this world? A world full of lobbyists would tell me that government isn't functioning very well. It would say that the voters can't be trusted and the politicians are ignorant. Our only option is to instruct and pressure government towards the "right" path. Another possibility is that the world has become complex and we don't have good ways to deal with all the data. A few clever lobbyists can manipulate this environment to the advantage of one viewpoint. This forces other interests to fund lobbyists to protect their interests. Soon we have a shadow government of lobbyists going around the world. How does our individual "visions of the future" fit into all this? Do we want a world of lobbyists? jeff (sneaking up on the philosophy of an ecopath)
