By David L. Brown
There is a fascinating graphic in the issue of Science magazine that arrived in my mailbox today (subscription required). It is a computer generated chart presented as an example of a means of tracking the effects of collaboration between individuals in groups, in an article titled Science 2.0.
The article deals with the growing power of networking, explaining:
The growth of the World Wide Web and the spread of cell phones and WiFi continues to reorder whole disciplines and industries. Entrepreneurs, policy-makers, and researchers have recognized that increased collaboration through these socio-technical systems offers compelling opportunities for business, education, national security, and beyond. It is time for researchers in science to take network collaboration to the next phase and reap the potential intellectual and societal payoffs.
The subject of the sample graphic used to illustrate the point might have been a poor choice, since it is the United States Senate. I had to almost do a double-take when I saw it because it so starkly demonstrates the almost utter lack of cooperation and collaboration between the “blue” Senators (the Democrats) and the “red” Senators. (There are also two “magenta” Senators, both independents.) The graphic was computer generated based on voting patterns during the period of the analysis.
Here is the image, so you can grasp what I am talking about. The colored icons represent individual Senators, and the gray lines reveal connections and collaborations between individuals, and their placement to left or right indicate their respective positions on the political spectrum.
Now here are a few observations:
First, note how tightly the Democrat faction is appropriately clustered at the left side of the graphic. They are as tight as a hedgehog in defensive posture, and with the two independents safely embedded in the center-left. There are few signs of any willingness to collaborate, cooperate, or do anything else to create unanimity in the Senate body.
In contrast the Republican faction is at least somewhat looser, with several “red” Senators actually moving across toward the “blue” ball of the left, indicating at least attempted cross-aisle cooperation. The “red” group definitely holds the center ground with these outlying individuals.
Two major “red” Senators, McCain and Brownbeck, were excluded from the graphic because they were heavily engaged in campaigning for President at the time the study was made and did not participate in enough votes to provide meaningful data. Their icons are at the far upper and lower right and unconnected to the other Senators.
It is painful to note that there is one icon of the “blue” faction that is placed so far to the left that it actually stands outside of the Democrat “Death Star,” like the tail on a dog. Look closely and you can read the name “Obama” on that icon identifying the most liberal member of the Senate, the one with the least collaborative connections with any Senators other than those on the far left and who himself is even more liberal than any of his fellows.
Senator Clinton, located at about the two o’clock position in the “blue” orb, is placed well within the Democrat enclave, but leaning toward the center left. While remaining solidly in the “blue,” she does have some connections with center and left-leaning “red” Senators as well as center-leaning Democrats.
It seems to me that this graphic goes a long way toward illustrating what is wrong with our political system. It bears strong resemblance to a red giant star sucking matter from a companion, when what we should see is something more akin to a galaxy with complex interconnections and cooperative liaisons, all in the name of progress and the betterment of our nation.
Here is another analogy through which to view this graphic: as a diagram of some tragic battleground where much blood is about to be spilled. Thus we see two opposing forces tightly grouped and facing off against each other, perhaps the armies of King Henry V of England and Charles VI of France on the field of Agincourt. A few outriders from the “red” force are scouting the No Man’s Land of the political center, but neither side has yet made a decisive attack. Of all the participants in this developing war, one is quite obviously staying as far away from the front as possible, satisfied to shout inflammatory bromides about “change” from the far rear and perhaps prepared to flee. Two “red” captains are absent from the field (“for want of a horse…”), symptomatic of the fact that political campaigning has become an overwhelming burden on those who should be serving their nation full time.
This image of political divisiveness and polarization does not bode well for our nation, not well at all. And, it shows once again that a picture (in this case a computer graphic) is worth, well, a whole lot of empty rhetoric. I just wanted to share this visual experience with my readers. Make of it what you will.
Hello, David,
Here in our Midwestern state all the legislators are term-limited which has only served to increase all the endemic evils of our wonderful “democratic” system. Yes, it’s always been true that the budding American politician, at all levels, knows in advance that public service itself pays very little and so must be only a stepping stone to some higher calling. No matter what his or her original ideals that calling invariably wind up being one version or another of the world’s oldest profession. It cannot be otherwise because the “johns” are there, with money hanging out of every pocket, and they are always in need of something the politican can provide.
For guidance in all things political I must quote my guru in this arena, Ferdinand Lundberg, “The quixotic democratic idea that an officeholder, a man of no hereditary substance, dependent only upon his salary, should be subject to offhand dismissal every few years at the hand of the hoi polloi, thereupon to join the throng of job seekers in the open labor market, is one that has very little appeal for the ordinary, up from nowhere, jerk-water politician.”
And this applies to nearly all of them, who truly are “up from nowhere” and subject to heading right back to nowhere at light-speed. Just ask Governor-for-another-two-days Spitzer. I hope he’s saved his money, but it looks like he hasn’t!
Val
Hi Val — You are right that office holders are beholden to themselves first, last and always.
The sad thing about the graphic reproduced above is that what it should reveal if our political system was working as it should be is a solid consensus in the middle with relatively few extremists in evidence the farther you look to the left and right. Instead, it shows a very stark black-and-white, good-vs-evil, socialist vs. capitalist split into two opposing camps. This could represent the Soviet Union and the U.S. during the Cold War, rather than the U.S. Senate for crying out loud.
There is no longer any doubt that our political system is completely broken. When and how will it be fixed, if ever? These yahoos aren’t going to fix it, that’s for sure. History tells us that governments in such situations end in revolution, civil war, or defeat and collapse from outside forces. (Think Carthage, think Rome in its turn, think Nazi Germany, think the French monarchy, think all the Mideast, North African and South Asian nation states that live under the conquering heel of Islam.)
Does one of those options describe our future? — David
Hello, David,
The U.S. has already had one “civil war” and is certainly heading for another one at some point. The advent of “peak oil” and resource depletion will before too long make cheap food a thing of the past, ending little items like the Federal food stamp program and most of the private food kitchens around the country, kitchens that help keep the lid on U.S. “society” by feeding many of our millions of indigent citizens and zillions of illegal aliens.
But, no joke, most of that is going away, and fairly soon, too.
After that it won’t be long before this nation, with its melange of peoples (who hate each other, to a great extent), and with 300 million private guns, begins to “go Baghdad.” The little city where I currently live already has in part “gone east” and features whole areas that are “no-go” after dark — except by the cops. And we haven’t seen anything yet, I’m afraid. That is, this town is already boiling and it’s still winter!
Val