I've been running an experiment for the past several weeks, facilitated by the work load of a few projects I'm trying to close out.

I've been living like the vast majority of Americans; the "lifestyles of the low-information voter" where there is no CNN or Fox News on the tube, no talk radio in the car, no newspapers perused for national and world events. If I get a glimpse of Barack Obama, I change the channel, preferring to amuse myself with the antics of Dr. Gregory House or Ray Barone instead.

I gotta tell ya, its not bad. I can see why people prefer to live uninformed. The lovely bunny--unaware of the process, remarked off-handedly that I've been in a remarkable good mood in the past few weeks, and consistently so. Gone is the seemingly unexplainable irritation that affected me after thirty minutes on the laptop. I'm not grinding my teeth at night anymore either. Ignorance IS bliss.

I don't intend this as a permanent lifestyle, because as Edmund Burke observed, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Yet paranoia over the antics of evil politicians isn't actually the same thing as acting assertively to oppose evil.

The Tea Party movement has been very interesting from this perspective. I've associated this kind of protest with the silly and ignorant people on the left for decades at this point, but its like a light came on over my head all of a sudden when I realized that the people who attend these protests are "doing something", and doing is infinitely preferable to talking. Attending a protest is something ordinary people can do to participate in the political process, and as it stands, it may well be the most meaningful thing someone can do at this point.

There is of course still a need for "information", but we clearly have to come up with a new strategy for delivering it to people who don't want to be assaulted with hair-on-fire rhetoric about ultimately meaningless events.

...I'm thinking...