stevenberlinjohnson.com: The Dems Debate

My favorite moment from yesterday's debate: Brian Williams ends with a "lightning round" question for all ten candidates with the question: "What's the least popular, but most right, decision you will make as President." Everybody pretty much avoids the question in the same way: they all put on a stern face, and then announce that they'll do something scandalously unpopular like reduce the deficit. (Note to candidates: the unpopular stuff is in the specifics of what you'll cut, or what you'll raise, not in the idea of reduction itself.)

After the first nine gave their non-responses, the camera turned to Dennis Kucinich, who had a massive grin on his face, and a general demeanor that suggested he was dying to answer the question. ("Ooh! Ooh! I know the answer to this one!") In fact, he had a whole list of unpopular decisions: "First, I would take action to stop the federal death penalty. Second, I would move to cut the Pentagon budget by 15 percent Third, I would move to create a Department of Peace which would seek to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society and to work with the nations of the world to make war itself archaic." You got the sense that he could have gone on for another fifteen minutes.

Not that I disagree with any of his unpopular ideas, but it was pretty funny to see how eager he was to deal them out.

Anybody else watch the debate? What'd you think?

The Basics

I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of seven books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej at earthlink dot net. Media requests should go to Matthew.Venzon at us.penguingroup dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

My Books

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.
The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.
The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.
Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!

Comments

Wouldn't you know that politicians would duck the spirit of the question. That tactic reminds me of the old job interview cliche-question, the one wherein you are asked to describe your greatest weakness. The obligatory answer, of course, is, "I work too hard." It helps if you go on and on about how you know that's a fault, and how it has been tough on people around you, but you are just so, so ... competitive.

Posted by: Paul | September 26, 2003 at 12:48 PM

The problem is that everyone hears a Republican say "reduce the deficit" and reads into it "cut spending", and then hears a Democrat say "reduce the deficit" and know that means raise taxes.

Since neither of those is all that popular, they all try to hide what they really mean.

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Posted by: uhoiuh | November 26, 2003 at 06:54 AM

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