Everyman Strategy

Y'know, I've been thinking about this tonight (I have a pretty high fever, so I'm sort of lying here unable to do much and doing a lot of thinking, probably very little of it coherent), and I'm trying to figure out why "just like us" / "joe six pack" is a winning strategy and "elitist" is a bad thing in our government officials.

Now before anyone tells me why, I actually do get the human nature principles involved, but for me, I would really like to see the people involved in our government be WAY smarter than average. When it comes to movie stars or sports heroes, the "just like me / would I enjoy hanging out and having a beer with them" yardstick may be perfectly reasonable.

But we've got some pretty serious problems in our country right now. Two wars. A catastrophic financial crisis. Others.

I'd really kind of like to have the most elitist people we can find (in terms of education, intelligence and capability) working on those problems. The "just like me" test may bring us people we feel closer to, or people we may believe more likely to understand our particular situation, but I wouldn't want me working on many of the problems of the world. I want someone way smarter than me working on those problems.

Liam.