Steve (quoting T.A. Frail) wrote:
TAF> Within the next 40 years, most Americans believe, the United
TAF> States will get the bulk of its energy from sources other than
TAF> oil. Computers will converse like people. Cancer will be cured,
TAF> and artificial limbs will outperform natural ones. Astronauts
TAF> will land on Mars, and ordinary people will travel in space.
Where's my atom-powered flying car, is what I want to know!
And Keith replied:
KH> I just wonder what the point of these sorts of polls are. Most
KH> people have little idea of the scale of things, or the complexity
KH> of things, nor the cost of them.
Um, well, if you're "manufacturing consent", every once in a while,
you have to ask, "How're we doing? Are the suckers taking the hook?
Should we use a fly or a worm for bait?"
The methodologies of a police state are becoming increasingly common
[1] and are meeting with increasing public acceptance [2] but, at least
for the moment, it's useful to know what the mass of the public
believes or expects, however ill-informed or even delusional, if you
mean to engineer those beliefs and expectations.
TAF> ...the poll found a ten-point drop in the percentage of
TAF> respondents who say the earth will get warmer: from 76 percent in
TAF> 1999 to 66 percent in 2010.
TAF>
TAF> That trend "is very consistent with data we've gathered on the
TAF> issue of global warming more generally," Keeter said. "There are
TAF> many possible explanations, but one thing is quite clear: there
TAF> is a strong partisan and ideological pattern to the decline in
TAF> belief in global warming." The vast majority of the change since
TAF> 1999, he said, has occurred among Republicans and independents
TAF> who lean Republican.
A good example. People doing climate research have not (AFAICT)
reached a consensus on the causes and future trends of global warming,
however strong the (conflicting) convictions among knowledgeable
individuals. But to those who mean to introduce (and compel) major --
even draconian -- changes in how we do things, it matters quite a lot
what people *believe* because that will determine how well changes
will be accepted and what resistance must be overcome or subverted to
implement them. It's more efficient to manipulate beliefs, however
spurious, than to compel a conformity that violently overrides
contrary beliefs.
- Mike
[1] Very recent example:
http://stretchphotography.com/blog/2010.07.01/banned-from-metro/
[2] Even greater acceptance among those who control the flow of
funding is evinced by the remarkable growth and success of
private, corporate business entities that supply guards,
pseudo-cops, heavily armed "response teams", mercenaries,
surveillance tech and prisons.
--
Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
/V\
[email protected] /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^
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