The topic of the day around here is small town politics. I'll have to do a longer post later, but just a few, quick observations.

People turn up to vote, but they don't do anything beyond that. They never write letters to people in power or to the editor of the regional paper. They don't go to town meetings and they most certainly never get up to speak. Why aren't they participating beyond the voting booth? Some say these are time intensive activities. Others say that we're spending too much time on the Internet. I think that there's something else going on.

People don't participate beyond voting, because they associate letter writing and public speaking with complaining. Speaking out in this way is in bad taste. They have been taught to be good soldiers who should accept low level positions at work and to take whatever scraps are thrown at them. And that good soldier mentality extends to politics. It's beyond just low levels of personal efficacy, because they look down on others who write letters and speak up at meetings. The participators are vilified as complainers who just accept their fate like everyone else.

The few people who do participate don't do it in a public way. They pull strings and ask for favors behind the scenes. They monopolize information. We have a community garden that the town subsidizes, but only the connected families receive information about it.

I have been thinking a lot about E. E. Schattsneider. I need to extend the sphere.