2 ms·
I think that the first part of socceroos's comment is more or less the answer to why people stand by silently.
by LunaSea 12y ago
I think that the first part of socceroos's comment is more or less the answer to why people stand by silently.
- ctchocula 12y agoThis sounds like a coordination problem [1]. If only one person writes a letter to their representative, it doesn't do anything and that person is the only one who comes out at a loss of x hours of their time. No policies are changed and everyone is stuck in a bad situation. If a significant portion of the representative's constituency sends letters and the net political effect overcomes the amount of donations the representative gets from intelligence companies, maybe they will actually begin an initiative for policy change. Everyone is better off, but it's hard to convince a critical mass of people that think it will succeed. [1] http://raikoth.net/libertarian.html#coordination_problems http://raikoth.net/libertarian.html#coordination_problems
- bmelton 12y agoOr possibly it's the bystander effect at play? This strikes me as somewhat less nefarious, and slightly more likely, given how unmotivated our nation tends to be to act on things more important than voting for American Idol winners. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect