An Aristides Effect?
Oct. 14th, 2009 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kent_allard_jrAs most of you (probably) know, the ancient Athenians had a policy of Ostracism. Every year the assembly decided whether to banish someone for 10 years, and if so, who that person might be.
Right before the Persian Wars, there was a wealthy aristocrat named Aristides. He acquired the nickname "Aristides the Just" and his allies did his best to spread the nickname everywhere. On the day of the Ostracism vote, an illiterate voter approached Aristides, not knowing who he was, and asked him to scratch a name on his ostrakon (potsherd).
Here in New York, Mike Bloomberg's ads are everywhere. His Democratic opponent, Bill Thompson, is largely invisible, but this hasn't stopped the Mayor from blowing gazillions on the campaign. I get fliers by the truckload, see his ads at every bus stop, and I even get phone calls asking me to "join Mike Bloomberg's campaign for New York." (I tell them I'm a Democrat and they can blow it out their ass.)
I keep hoping there will be an Aristides Effect, and voters will find Bloomberg's approach so overbearing that they'll punish him at the polls. Not enough for Thompson to win -- that would be too much to ask for -- but enough to get him a respectable showing. I'm not counting on it, though.
Right before the Persian Wars, there was a wealthy aristocrat named Aristides. He acquired the nickname "Aristides the Just" and his allies did his best to spread the nickname everywhere. On the day of the Ostracism vote, an illiterate voter approached Aristides, not knowing who he was, and asked him to scratch a name on his ostrakon (potsherd).
"What should I write?"Alas, Aristides the Just "won" the vote and was banished from Athens.
"Aristides," the illiterate said. "He never did anything to me, but I'm sick of hearing him being called 'the Just' all the time."
Here in New York, Mike Bloomberg's ads are everywhere. His Democratic opponent, Bill Thompson, is largely invisible, but this hasn't stopped the Mayor from blowing gazillions on the campaign. I get fliers by the truckload, see his ads at every bus stop, and I even get phone calls asking me to "join Mike Bloomberg's campaign for New York." (I tell them I'm a Democrat and they can blow it out their ass.)
I keep hoping there will be an Aristides Effect, and voters will find Bloomberg's approach so overbearing that they'll punish him at the polls. Not enough for Thompson to win -- that would be too much to ask for -- but enough to get him a respectable showing. I'm not counting on it, though.
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Eight is enough
Date: 2009-10-15 12:45 am (UTC)So who would you like to ban from NYC and exile to New Jersey? Well, other than Mike Bloomberg :)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 06:59 pm (UTC)In any case, awful as Bloomberg may be, I can't imagine voting for that other guy, so Bloomberg gets my vote.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-06 07:21 pm (UTC)I love that story.
Stasia