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Nigh-epiphany from a new term
Feb. 24th, 2010 04:40 pmI learned a new term today that has helped to encapsulate a number of things I had been thinking about modern governance. The term is, "rational ignorance".
People (worldwide, not just in the USA) generally don't know a whole lot about the issues of their day. Honestly, the scope and depth of their understanding is small. The simple reason for this is the fact that gaining full understanding of even one issue is a huge amount of work. A rational person looks at the amount of work it takes to gain understanding, and the amount of good they can gain or do with that understanding. If the good they can do is worth less than the work required - it is entirely rational to remain ignorant!
However, it is still rational to vote, as the effort required there is small, the payoff can be tiny but still worth the effort.
Thus - as a broad generalization, it is rational for people to vote in a state of ignorance of the issues!
What a revolting development that is...
People (worldwide, not just in the USA) generally don't know a whole lot about the issues of their day. Honestly, the scope and depth of their understanding is small. The simple reason for this is the fact that gaining full understanding of even one issue is a huge amount of work. A rational person looks at the amount of work it takes to gain understanding, and the amount of good they can gain or do with that understanding. If the good they can do is worth less than the work required - it is entirely rational to remain ignorant!
However, it is still rational to vote, as the effort required there is small, the payoff can be tiny but still worth the effort.
Thus - as a broad generalization, it is rational for people to vote in a state of ignorance of the issues!
What a revolting development that is...
