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Sounds like another case of geeks versus wonks. In Tucker’s “A Political Theory of Geeks and Wonks,” he delineates the latter with Political wonks are fascinat
by gbacon 9y ago
Sounds like another case of geeks versus wonks. In Tucker’s “A Political Theory of Geeks and Wonks,” he delineates the latter with
Political wonks are fascinated by process. They love the game. They get as much satisfaction from observing as changing. They want to be players above all else. Ideals bore them. History is mere data. Intellectuals seem irrelevant. What matters to the wonk are the hard realities of the ongoing political struggle. They defer to title and rank. They thrive on meetings, small victories, administrative details, and gossip about these matters. Knowing who is who and what is what is the very pith of life.
Geeks, on the other hand:
They are no less fascinated by detail but are drawn to ideals. Observation alone bores them. They are drawn to the prospect of change. They don't want to be players as such; they question the very rules of the game and want to change them. They are happy to make a difference in the ideological infrastructure, whether big or small. They tend to work alone and totally disregard caste distinctions.
As to your frustration with Wikipedia’s political elite
The wonks are the ones who consolidate, stabilize, and entrench the status quo; the geeks are the ones who prepare revolutionary change. The wonks freeze it into place and make it work more efficiently; the geeks imagine and work toward a future that no one thought was possible. The wonks rule out drastic and extreme measures as imprudent and reckless; they geeks think these paths are the only ones worth pursing, and have confidence that the unknown future will somehow work itself out. The wonks try to bring the king around to their point of view; the geeks kill the king.
Tucker describes the conflict between the two camps.
The geeks and wonks can work together but there will always be a natural tensions between the two. The wonks think the geeks are hopeless, powerless, reckless outsiders whose heads are full of useless and unrealistic fantasies. The geeks think that the wonks are part of the system and, therefore, more than likely corrupted by it, and increasingly so.
Broadening the view, the struggle to control history is a battle between the wonks and the geeks …
According to his view, Julius Caesar represented the wonks and Brutus the geeks in Ancient Rome. In the America’s revolutionary generation, they were Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson.
- dragonwriter 9y agoIt's a nice story, but it's got a few problems: (1) the terminology adopted is hostile to the pre-established usage—in politics, the term “wonk” is almost exactly equivalent to the general use term “geek” and occurs most frequently in the phrase “policy wonk”, which it is taken to refer to when used alone. It almost means the opposite of a person obsessed with process but unconcerned with ideals and output. (“Almost” because policy wonks often extend their concern with policy to the mechanisms by which policy proposals are implemented, so they aren't necessarily unconcerned with process.) It's publicly visible uses have been about politicians who are perceived get into the tiny details of policy rather than confining themselves to the process lane the way people expect politicians to (Bill Clinton was a notable example.) And while “geeks” is rarely used about any obsession with a political subject matter, where I have seen it used, it's been consistently about people who are obsessed with polling and process dynamics, very commonly media analysts or hired-gun political consultants, whose only concern with policy is can it pass and what votes will it win or cost for the people visibly supporting or opposing it. (2) The specific examples are not so good; most notably, the idea that Hamilton was concerned only with process and not ideals (or that Jefferson was focussed on ideals and not process) is ludicrous. The battle to control history isn't between people focussed on process and those focussed on ideals, its between different ideals. The people focussed only on process are observers or mercenaries, not a side of the battle of their own.
- BeenAround 9y ago^- e.g. what a wonk says
- Indolat 9y ago> The wonks freeze it into place And make it dysfunctional, because it's too busy serving itself.