well...i think the ten comments on 'who's stealing the pctf board' post below is the most i've ever gotten. it's so interesting to me that we (we swatties, that is) can all rouse ourselves to think about issues like that -- even in the midst of other issues that should by rights be more important. i guess this is one where we feel like there's actually something we can do...

anyway. just back from tom jones with laurel (great service!), and before that american political system seminar -- another week of knock-down, drag-out fights between numerically provable empiricists and intuitively real third-face-of-power people. at least this time around the third face kids gained some traction against the conservative powers that be. still, we didn't get into the ways that 'neutral' empiricism masks its own normativity while arguing against the normativity of others. we *did* manage to get into all of the following, though: water rights in the southwestern united states, socialized gender roles, capital punishment, and income inequality. all in all, a night of satisfying discussion. [also laurel made rick do the rick-laugh by needling him about his book's poor sales.]

i finally brought up a thought experiment that had been brewing in my head for a while, in a desperate attempt to save third face of power theory (which i think is very important) from the realm of the ungeneralizable. here it is, because i know you all want to know. thing one: i accept as "fact" the assertion that capital punishment does not decrease violent crime. i think there is a reasonable amount of consensus on this, as evidenced by the fact that politicians who campaign on a platform of reduced crime through more death inevitably punt to the "emotional redress for the families of the victims" excuse when pressed on the numbers. so there. ok, so we've got this fact, right. but we've also got a whole bunch of people, including conservative politicians and the fabled prison-industrial complex, who need, for various reasons, for the system to continue. so...guess what! they disinform! they talk about being "tough on crime." they...well, they lots-of-stuff, and the end result is that americans generally believe that the death penalty will actually help them be safer. when in reality it is bad for them: wasteful, ineffective, racist, just plain wrong, etc, etc.

so: yeah, sure, public opinion makes policy. to that extent, yay democracy. but who or what makes public opinion? sometimes, it's surely not "the public."