Comments on: Lashings of Insight: Tid-bits from the Brain Food Buffet (I) http://www.guerrilladiplomacy.com/2009/03/lashings-of-insight-tid-bits-from-the-brain-food-buffet-i/ Rethinking International Relations Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:41:20 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Ed Nixon http://www.guerrilladiplomacy.com/2009/03/lashings-of-insight-tid-bits-from-the-brain-food-buffet-i/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Ed Nixon Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:28:08 +0000 http://www.guerrilladiplomacy.com/?p=268#comment-5 It's hard to imagine, given the tone of rhetoric in Congress this past week surrounding the AIG bonus flap, that implementing the "change & hope" agenda and the size of any gaps won't be regulated (as usual) by the intra-beltway perception of cycles, levels and vocabulary of public sentiment. It may be more the case now than in previous eras because the the extent to which the Obama administration is "reaching out" via the media, attempting in a campaign continuity mode to shape or even monopolize the frame. Among some commentators, there is already performance anxiety about the domestic agenda given that next year is already mid-term campaign time with enormous pressure to maintain if not expand the number of majority seats. "Heteropolarity" means higher complexity and increased nuance. These features are weak points of broad public discourse in the U.S. Educating people appropriately in these subtleties seems like the major challenge if the real substructure of a hope and change agenda is to be sustained, i.e., the conditions for informed decision making and choice. It’s hard to imagine, given the tone of rhetoric in Congress this past week surrounding the AIG bonus flap, that implementing the “change & hope” agenda and the size of any gaps won’t be regulated (as usual) by the intra-beltway perception of cycles, levels and vocabulary of public sentiment. It may be more the case now than in previous eras because the the extent to which the Obama administration is “reaching out” via the media, attempting in a campaign continuity mode to shape or even monopolize the frame. Among some commentators, there is already performance anxiety about the domestic agenda given that next year is already mid-term campaign time with enormous pressure to maintain if not expand the number of majority seats.

“Heteropolarity” means higher complexity and increased nuance. These features are weak points of broad public discourse in the U.S. Educating people appropriately in these subtleties seems like the major challenge if the real substructure of a hope and change agenda is to be sustained, i.e., the conditions for informed decision making and choice.

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