I attended March Meetup: New Media & the 2008 Elections tonight over at New York University, Courant Institute. The Moderator was Jeff Jarvis, CUNY & BuzzMachine and Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post and Off The Bus, Lisa Tozzi, NYTimes.com Caucus Blog, Micah Sifry, Editor, TechPresident.com and Jay Rosen, NYU Professo… Read more (I copied this from the Meetup Notice).
Thought it was a pretty good discussion and I tweeted quite a bit about it while there - but one thing struck me - someone from the audience (forgot his name, a well known commentator for TV) said he thought the political elections process this year is different in that it’s more like a reality show with candidates being “thrown off the island” or getting to stay alive a little longer.
Makes sense, since we’re so into “reality shows” why wouldn’t our political process become another reality show? The only thing that was left out was in Reality shows like American Idol, Project Runway and Top Chef, the runner ups often do as well as the winner - sometimes better.
I know the political process isn’t exactly the same thing a reality show - but if it’s becoming that - than what does it mean to win? Would winning actually be worse than losing.
In this case, it might be.
The next president, whomever he or she may be is probably in for a Thankless Job. The world banking system is heading towards collapse, lead by Wall Street and caused by Sub-Prime mortgage meltdown and other credit problems that is beginning as a recession and might end up as a depression if it goes on long enough.
As if that wasn’t enough, the War in Iraq needs to be ended somehow - how, no one is quite sure. Meanwhile, The Earth is getting Hotter and the polar icecaps are melting. Plus, the world is consuming OIL faster than it can produce it now - and that’s driving up the price of everything.
Just about everything that could have been done wrong in the last 8 years has been done wrong - and just about every bad thing one could think of could well happen in the next 4 to 8 years - for all we know.
Under those circumstances - being the loser of this election might actually be a better place to be than the winner - just my two cents.
Just think it through - who is going to be able to deliver anywhere near the solutions that are going to be needed soon - none of the 3 candidates left - meaning that dissatisfaction with whomever wins the presidency is almost a given within a year.
