Simplicity v. complexity

Some great commentary by Digby this week, somewhat in response to something Matt Taibbi wrote:

I think he's right that the world is about complexity and that the Tea Party is yearning for simpler times. (Conservatism usually is...) But the answers about how to deal with the complexity aren't simply technocratic, they're philosophical and ideological. And the combination of the three are what people are, in the end, voting for. The average voter can no more be expected to master the details of credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations any more that they should be expected to master particle physics or brain surgery. There is always going to be a need to entrust certain things to experts and elites, whom they charge with mastering the details on their behalf. Not everyone can be conversant in the arcane workings of high finance and they shouldn't have to be. That's supposedly what we have government for.



Our core American belief systems are still struggling along, fighting it out. They aren't especially useful, but they aren't where the problem is. What's broken down is down is the institutional system that forced elites to work at least somewhat on behalf of the people. Government, clergy, journalism, high finance, the legal system, the military, all of it, has stopped functioning properly. I don't know what the reasons are for all of this (although I know someone [WaPo's Christopher Hayes] who's writing a book on the topic which I can't wait to read.)


The ideological question for the people simply comes down to whether or not you believe that society is better off with a government mitigating the sharp edges of capitalism or whether you think society is better off without it. The practical question is what to do about the fact that however you come down on that question, the elites who are running the institutions you depend on and believe in are corrupt.


Basically, everyone's confused and agitated because both capitalism and government are failing the common people. And nobody really knows what to do about that.