Mark V Anderson's brilliant comment: "Instead we get this elitist prattle dressed up in populist language."
Vicky adds: You, Mark, are in very good company. And that includes departing listmember N.I. Krasnov. Here are a few excerpts on the "New Elite" from David Lebedoff's new book "The Red and The Blue": "Writing in The New Yorker (July 22, 2002), Malcolm Gladwell, in an article correctly titled 'The Talent Myth: Are Smart People Overrated?' notes that 'of all [McKinsey's] clients, one firm took the talent mind-set closest to heart. It was a company where McKinsey conducted twenty separate projects, where McKinsey's billings topped $10 million a year, where a McKinsey director regularly attended board meetings, and where the CEO himself was a former McKinsey partner. The company, of course, was Enron." "......Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Columbia University, ......discovered something remarkable: 40 percent of those students who were praised for their intelligence lied about how they had scored on the test, adjusting their grade upward." "With very few exceptions, brilliant people, particularly the consultants and watchdogs, failed to do their jobs. They failed not because they lacked the technical skills for supervision. Their failure was moral. The problem was not lack of regulation but rather the moral vacuity of the regulators." "Put as simply as possible, they cared only about what technically was legal or illegal, and never thought about what was right or wrong. Because unless they were lucky in their parentage, no one had ever taught them right from wrong. After all, it isn't something you can quantify. It isn't something you can memorize." "Moral relativism permitted very smart people to overlook very bad things." Vicky again: Lebedoff's comments describe what's wrong with Minneapolis government. And why the poor remain trapped in poverty while the "in crowd" happily trots off to the Guthrie. Moral bankruptcy eventually becomes financial bankruptcy, as in Enron's case, and Minneapolis is well along its way down that path. Enough said, enough written. Vicky Heller, North Oaks TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
