Saturday, August 25, 2018

Popeye in Petaluma

Petaluma is boiling over a public art project supported by their art committee but frowned on by some voters. This begs a question about who should decide questions of public art. Start with this. I should not be the decider. 

Democratic procedures are quite useful in selecting political leaders. This method strengthens social stability and guards against outright lunatics (most of the time). Democracies aren't foolproof. Athens committed genocides, and we attacked Iraq for no reason. Keep in mind that Hitler, Bush and Trump were elected (by minority votes).  But in general, representative democracies seem to be an effective system.

We don't take public votes on whether to have cancer surgery. We leave that to experts. We don't vote on whether George Washington was a woman or if the planet is an oblate spheroid. We rely on scientists and historical evidence. And we don't ask the public to vote on public art. If we did, on every pier we'd find an old statue of Popeye.

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