Notes on Chapter 06

This is the chapter with the cheat that was mentioned in the Preface.  The initial video goes viral.  Presumably, it tapped into some as of yet unfilled need. I have to say here that this goes well beyond anything I have ever experienced.  I have had reader reactions to my online writing that were strongly positive and similarly I've had such reactions to some of the (instructional) videos I've made.  But that has never created a chain reaction of new readers or new viewers. So this chapter is more fantasy than anything else.  

The chapter makes a point of distinguishing hits on the white papers, which grow but in a more modest way, from hits on the videos, which grow in a viral way.  The videos themselves are readings of the executive summaries from the white papers.  So a lot of people are getting an overview, and seem to be engaged with that, but much fewer are getting the in depth argument in the white papers.  

I wrote this as my way to utilize my recent experience with teaching (an upper level course in economics) as an exemplar for what is going on here. Reading in depth is on the downs.  People are on information overload already.   Yet we need an informed electorate to articulate their wants in an intelligent way and to choose candidates who are best situated to satisfy those wants.  I'm afraid that too much of this is done by feel, without a lot of thought behind it.  We do a lot on polling - what do the voters think about x?  We do much less on, why do they think that way about x?  I'm afraid that in far too many cases ephemera matter more than thinking it through. 

The chapter also serves as a bridge to the second half of the book, which is about implementation.  Even if this chapter is pure fiction, it does serve to make the rest of the story plausible.  Without it, we'd be stuck in low gear the entire time. 

There is also another point that I wanted the reader to keep in mind.  Small donors literally make their donations purely to support he mission of the organization.  Large donors will have some quid pro quo in mind.  What the large donor wants may go against what the organization intends to do.  The examples I gave in this chapter were deliberately made to seem benign, so the reader wouldn't fixate on them as the story progressed further.  I wanted the reader to be aware of the quid pro quo issue, but then keep it in the background.  If this was reality rather than just a story, it would become a front and center issue.