Further insights from Gore the Bore

If you can suffer through another moderately dry essay read this one by Al Gore. In it he points out the devolution of our general media from the literate marketplace of ideas it used to be (I'll take that on faith) to the WWE cagematch it is today.

Al Gore is one of the finest minds in politics and through this well-crafted essay he explains why he managed to put us all to sleep 5 years ago. He's still very intelligent, and he's still dry as hell. Oh Al, you're good at picking out these insights in Americana, why are you utterly incapable of using them to your advantage?

Philosophy's not really my bag, but I read a little Leviathan the other day (it helped me to get a nap on the train). Here's Hobbes's take on well-learned folk who just don't get it.

As much experience is prudence, so is much science sapience. For though we usually have one name of wisdom for them both; yet the Latins did always distinguish between prudentia and sapientia; ascribing the former to experience, the latter to science...

...But they that, trusting only to the authority of books, follow the blind blindly, are like him that, trusting to the false rules of a master of fence, ventures presumptuously upon an adversary that either kills or disgraces him.

I like hearing Al Gore, and I respect him as an academic. (Jury's still out on Hobbes) But as an academic he should recognize what is needed: Prudence first, and then sapience. That's why Bush can mispronounce his way into 2 presidencies. He lets Rove (who has both prudence and sapience) mold his image into what the people want. And (with some exceptions) what they want isn't a hold out from the bygone "marketplace of ideas". Liberals need to ditch the academics and find someone who can speak to the people. It's an old stunt, but given today's media circus I suggest finding a guy who can rip off his shirt off like Hulk Hogan (lest I be sexist, it also works for Mia Hamm types).