Carving up the electorate

The big news coming out in the aftermath of the 2012 election is the use by both national campaigns of data mining, using ways to slice and dice the voters into ever smaller, more digestible bites, separating us into smaller and smaller parts.  While the Obama campaign certainly won the battle, both camps (and now many others) are using the technology. 

If success is defined by winning the election, we know the outcome.  But I wonder if we are losing something here.  While I understand the suspicion of "grand narratives" by current post-modern thinkers, I still wonder if we are missing a broader story of what it means to be American.  By breaking us into smaller pieces, by structuring a campaign's message around smaller groups of people and promising them "stuff" (just like retailers), are we not just fracturing into separate interest groups?  While I understand that some may say these groups already exist and all the campaigns were doing is recognizing the fact, by hard coding the separateness into a campaign we are legitimizing and encouraing the separation and losing what it means to be an American.

I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Going Down in Flames

My son Noah sent me this link to a very funny Broadway song about one part of the recent financial meltdown. I'm so conflicted - and pretty ignorant - about the collapse. One part of me is pretty disgusted with the greed and avarice that is behind the drive to amass ever larger sums of money. I put this emotion in the same box as the one that looks at Las Vegas, crazy expensive cars and houses, and those silly catalogs that sell stuff that only the uber rich can afford.

Another part of me is amazed at the ingenuity of people to figure out ways to manipulate very complex systems in order to create wealth. It really is a distorted reflection of the Creator. We all have a desire to create, from sand castles and block towers when we are kids to houses, gardens, paintings, and so many other things as we grow up. These "financial instruments" were no different. It shows humankind's desire to create.

Where it separates out for me is that the interconnectedness of the financial system has made these creations a bit Frankenstein-like. They've taken on a life of their own. They also seem to be like giant magnets, they become attached to so many critical parts of the economy so that when they collapsed, other unrelated institutions went down with them. Again, I'm no expert, but that's what it looks like to me.

My worry about the rush to regulate and blame is our tendency to over react. There are still good, honest people involved in the financial services industry. Most of them probably saw this coming. Our challenge is to locate these reasonable voices and listen to them. I'm more willing to put in place their suggestions for reform and change than those of Congress who is only looking to make sure they get re-elected.