Charlie's Blog

And here is the audio for the un-re-mixed (original) version:

I'll be the first to say that this is fairly old news (sometime in 2006 AFAICT) but it is still pretty hilarious and worthy of a small resurrection.

Despite all its hilarity I believe there is a serious note to be struck here. Now perhaps the Senator was having a bad day, Perhaps he was hung-over, or perhaps he was simply tired from staying up all night downloading 10 movies at a time to his Seagate drive. Whatever the case, I think everyone will agree that a Senator attempting to influence public policy needs to have enough interest in the subject or at least the courtesy to understand a subject before making a personal decision, let alone, try to sway public policy toward that decision.

In this particular case, for people who understand the technology involved, this speech is completely ridiculous. The ongoing issue with BitTorrent,the RIAA, and public file-sharing is a perfect example of this: The MPAA has, since early 2006 declared war against file-sharing. Shortly thereafter they filed suit against www.isohunt.com, a BitTorrent tracker site. In this case, to the Judge's credit, the right questions are being asked but the facts will be convoluted in court and a possibly precedent-setting ruling will be given by someone who has a cursory knowledge of the issues at stake.

Fact is: There are many, many people who don't have the technical understanding that is necessary to make an informed decision on this sort of subject, just as I would be if the science in question were Biology (Stem-cell research comes to mind), or Socioeconomics ($3/gallon gas anyone?). And that's fine. I (and most people) don't make those decisions. The real problem is that if our Representatives can't keep up with these issues and continue to oversimplify then bad decisions are going to be made. It really made me stop and wonder how many Economic, Social, Educational, Legal, Diplomatic etc... policies are shifted or even created due to this sort of half-minded dribble. The fact is, we are supposed to have checks and balances so that these sort of things don't happen. We have 100 senators and 435 Representatives in the House. They are all learned men (and women) and quite able to make informed decisions in most cases. So, why do we have scenarios like this?

Let's go back to 1787. The Revolutionary war was over. The US Constitution was penned and ratified. Early America was growing. At this point in time it was entirely possible for a well-educated mind to be able to make good, competent decisions on even some of the most complicated subjects. At a time like this, having a general education was sufficient.

Fast-forward to today...

The sad truth is it's not sufficient anymore. There is such an insane volume and range of information and different areas of policy that there are areas outside the functional range of understanding for our policymakers. As a generalization, politicians of today are simply politicians. Just like my job is to diagnose, fix, and test computers, their job is to argue, get votes, and make policy. They are generally not scientists or experts, they are likable and charismatic enough to win an election, those are their real job requirements. There is a second issue that is outside the scope of this article but I feel I should mention and it is: public education. I'm not talking about our public school system necessarily, I'm speaking more literally about the education level of the public, and specifically, the general public's attitude towards education. I hope to write more about the public education topic as the muse allows but to summarize: The public education level directly influences the way voters will vote.

In short: In a representative government, uneducated people elect uneducated representatives who make uneducated decisions.