Doug Foxvog wrote:
It would
be interesting to model this interplay.
-- doug
Yes, it certainly would!
But I think there needs to be some observable evidence
about exactly what self interest is being followed by the players you, John and
I have so far mentioned
(elected reps, lobbyists, financial entities {
corporation, NGO, party, bank, political action group, …}, citizens at
large, government employees, career department heads, and so on) .
The large list of players means that to realistically
model the doings of the players, we would need some kind of automated
source. That is why I have been considering Chomsky’s political
writings, news sources, and writings of the various players, and anything else
that provides a useful information source that can fit the framework.
I doubt that we could do a credible job just by
theorizing about what is happening. We would also need to subject theories
we are considering against some form of ground truth.
My view of how to do this is to load up the database
with these various documents, then to dredge the data to identify the direct designating
names of the players, and finally to partition less specific designation
phrases (“the rep from Detroit”, … “the oil lobby”,
… “the NSF”, … “the EPA director” and so
on).
By creating a column that identifies the players
directly, and adding other columns to represent more anaphoric phrases, we
could begin to at least identify the PUBLICLY available documents and reports,
and correlate them against the plurality of designated players.
Next, we would need a way to dredge the database for specific
activities which fit the profile of positive and negative political
actions. Again, a new column to describe the designated activities (fund
raising, press releases, news articles …) could capture and represent
those activities.
Then developing ways to map the texts into relational
associations with tendrils into both the activities and the agents, we would be
able to begin mining the texts for evidence to support or deny interpretations,
where theories can be advanced and tested against the documents.
Beyond this simplistic forecast of how to go about the
analysis, there is a lot of linguistic and context information to be organized,
which is likely to be very contentious and debatable. As we have seen,
each of us on this forum has our own subjective viewpoint about these suggested
tasks. The outcome of any intensive analysis of the text would depend on
the theories, values, unstated beliefs and allegiances of the observing
SME.
That, at least, is my expectation about how to provide
a more transparent view of political activities at this point in time.
But you are right; it would be interesting and
possibly useful in creating improved transparency for voters, as well as for
the players themselves.
Thanks for the thoughts,
-Rich
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper
EnglishLogicKernel.com
Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2
-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of doug foxvog
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 8:23 AM
To: [ontolog-forum]
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Self
Interest Ontology
On Wed, May 30, 2012 09:45, Rich
Cooper wrote:
> John Sowa wrote:
>> Anybody who has a small business knows that
the
>> biggest enemy of small business is *not* the
>> government. It's big business.
The regulations
>> that hurt small business were *not* written
by
>> government, they were written by lobbyists
for big
>> business who want to stamp out the
competition.
> I (a small business owner for decades) disagree.
> The government is every bit as involved in the
> corporate-government partnership.
It's best to analyze the three branches of government
separately.
Each has their own interests and own duties.
John emphasizes that lobbyists enhance the perceived
self-interest of
their corporations by writing (laws and) regulations
to harm their
competition.
> The lobbyists are simply one part of that
partnership, paid by
> the large businesses to provide congressmen with
> excuses for their nefarious actions, both
> legislation and regulation.
What is the self-interest of the Congressfolk?
We can model their
two primary self-interests as being re-elected (if
they want to stay
in Congress), and getting a good paying job once they
leave Congress.
Businesses cater to those interests by funding
re-election campaigns and
proving future employment for Congressfolk who support
their proposed
legislation.
If you perceive a self-interest in Congressfolk
performing nefarious
actions, what is that self-interest?
Regulators, in the Executive Branch have a duty, and
thus self-interest,
in seeing that the laws be faithfully executed.
Laws have been instituted
and proposed so that they do not have a financial
self-interest in assisting
one business over another. They are banned from
accepting gratuities
from lobbyists, for example. Many laws have been
proposed, and some
have passed, to restrict the revolving door of
employment between
regulatory agencies and regulated firms for this
reason. It is in the self-
interest of regulated firms that any such laws be as
weak as possible.
It would be interesting to model this interplay.
-- doug
> -Rich
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Rich Cooper
>
> EnglishLogicKernel.com
>
> Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
>
> 9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On
> Behalf Of John F Sowa
> Sent: Monday, May 28, 2012 6:50 AM
> To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum]
Self Interest
> Ontology
>
>
>
> On 5/28/2012 8:30 AM, Mike Pool wrote:
>
>> He also summarily lumps Hayek in the same
> paragraph with __Rand__. That
>
>> is also a surprise to me. Too bad the
article
> is so short. I would
>
>> like to have understood his objection to
Hayek
> as well.
>
>
>
> Chomsky's primary objection to them is the same
as
> anybody else in the
>
> middle class: self interest.
>
>
>
> Anybody who has a small business knows that the
> biggest enemy of small
>
> business is *not* the government. It's big
> business. The regulations
>
> that hurt small business were *not* written by
> government, they were
>
> written by lobbyists for big business who want to
> stamp out the competition.
>
>
>
> Don't think of Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany as
> governments. They were
>
> oligarchies run by big bussinesses that stamp out
> all competition. Note
>
> that they achieved the goal of all corporations
--
> give the stockholdera
>
> as little information as possible about what
> management is doing.
>
>
>
> That's the primary blindness in Rand and Hayek --
> also Ron Paul, who
>
> blindly admires both.
>
>
>
> In comparison to Ron Paul, I am a *true*
> Libertarian. I want freedom
>
> from big corporations who stick their hand in my
> wallet and my personal
>
> life at every turn.
>
>
>
> John
>
>
>
>
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