Group Think Stinks (Tuesday, Part 3)

One more example of language gone awry, you say? Something more insidious to end the day?

Barack is coming to NYC. No, no. Again. Three days after Broadway.

Here's an email from Barack that supposedly went out to supporters in the region. It didn't arrive in my inbox, but my mother upstate received two. So I guess we're even?

It's not actually the form letter that concerns me. It's a little flat, but that's fine. Scroll down a bit on the page and you'll find a very interesting comment. Let me save you the trouble:

By J. Lowe 55 minutes ago
Dear W -

You are thread jumping, so I am posting here in case you do not see over there.

The campaign staff does not monitor the blogs for advice, concerns, or ideas. Please submit your concerns directly to the campaign. You can do this by clicking on the Issues button and then using the MyPolicy system. Discussion of the issues, especially where we disagree, is set up through this system.

I have seen HQ and know how integrated and important this system is in setting out the course of the country.

Most importantly, we are volunteers. We are not highly paid policy and economic advisers to the campaign. We are not equipped to debate the issues in detail, nor should we be asked to.

Right now, the purpose of this blog is fellowship, welcoming, and training. This is what we are qualified to do. Not debate.

SO, if you disagree, write the campaign and tell them what you want to see.

The bold emphasis is from the original post, but the color is mine. Does anyone else find this disturbing?

I'm a little unclear on the context of the original thread, but I know that it involves people exchanging ideas. That's all I need to know.

Volunteers are not equipped to debate issues in detail? Citizens, by implication, aren't qualified to raise questions about issues of policy in a public forum?

There's a contained little pen called "MyPolicy" where form submissions can be sent for evaluation by the "highly paid [really? that would be some news to report] policy and economic advisers to the campaign." Everyone should keep quiet and fly right.

The exclusive purpose of the Obama blog is "fellowship, welcoming, and training" according to this commenter. Barack is a charismatic leader, but this is the rhetoric of a full-fledged personality cult. No one on the page bats an eye. Instead, the hosannas keep coming.

To emphasize what's going wrong here, let's turn back to the content of Barack's letter:

[...] these crowds tell me something else. They tell me that when it comes to what's wrong with this country, the American people are not the problem. The American people are the answer.

[...] In the face of a politics that's shut us out, that's told us to settle, that's divided us for too long, we believe we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building a more perfect union.

What is the origin of the disconnect between the candidate's message and the behavior of his supporters? What do these words mean to other people?

We could all benefit from some experiential training in creative-thinking an problem-solving. Why would that not be one of many possible purposes of the site?

The ethos of a campaign that's about the American people solving problems themselves and becoming involved in a revitalized civic culture should be one of open discussion, questioning and inclusiveness. I appreciate the fervor and understand the emotional connection, but these are meaningless without reason.

Stifling debate and dissent is a great way to kill nascent innovation. It's also a sure method for missing the contribution of extraordinary thinkers who are leading lives outside of the political establishment. People with good ideas do many, many kinds of jobs. That's the whole point of Barack's campaign!

Promise and praxis! I say it again. If someone interested in the candidate can't go to his site, ask questions, raise problems and expect to hear what supporters have to say, then why pretend to give people a voice? I doubt that the question that preceded that reply came from a policy expert.

It's time to trust ourselves again. A right unexercised is likely to atrophy. Speak freely while you can.