A computer guy on a policy wonk reading diet makes for boring reading.

Policy wonks are often systemizers who think of society as a machine. That’s why they take the intuitive concept—scarcely even needs explaining—of informal everyday rituals like queueing and repackage it as yesteryear’s buzzword “trust”. We don’t need extrinsic rewards to queue politely. Amazing?

A computer guy is gonna take that and explain to us, of course, that society is like a machine. Running on trust. That’s the oil or whatever. Because there aren’t enough formal transactions to explain all the minute well-behavedeness.

Then condescend about how we think of (especially) corporations as friends. Sigh.

What policy wonks are intentionally blind to are all the people who “trust” by not making a fuzz. By just going along with it. Apathy and being resigned to your fate looks the same as trust from an affluent picket-fence distance. Or like being a naive friend to corporations.

The conclusion is as exciting as the thesis. Status quo with bad bad corporations. But the government must regulate the bad corporations.

I’m sure I’ve commented on this before. But anyway. Another round.