I'm finally getting around to reading the Tipping Point. This morning I was reading the chapter on Bernard Goetz where Gladwell explains the power of context. he expalins that how a person reacts often is in part effected by the cultural perception. In the Bernard Goetz example the high crime rate and inefficiency of the NY subway system created such a 'wild west' sentiment that Bernard Goetz was feted as a vigilante hero. Whereas if the same incident had happened a decade later Bernard Goetz would have been just another unstable person.
This got me to thinking about the Arizona shootings over the weekened. The right wing hatred speech might not be directly responsible for the shootings but the 'cultural peception' it develops does make hatred towards the government more acceptable.
The shooter is probably mentality unstable, and at some point he probably was going to lash out violently. I just think (after my morning read) that if the right wing pundits venom weren't so directed at the government the shooter would have focused his hatred on something else.
And it can serve as a cautionary tale of sorts because a couple of random acts of violence against the government are controllable; but if there is a tipping point (as Gladwell describes it) then the lucky among us will be those that can move to Canada.
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Taking it to a greater scope I do think that this power of context does have significance in how technology and innovation are implemented.
An example of this is our modern tech because, strictly speaking from a problem solving dynamic, most of the new gadgetry being developed in this country isn't solving anything.
Very few people need an I-phone to communicate effectively. And aside from space issues, A 1080i LED/LCD doesn't really solve anything more than a Sony Trinitron CRT TV did.
New gadgetry seems to be created more to augment social status than to solve problems.
So when did we as a society stop demanding that technology solve problems and that it simply make us look better? There is some context somewhere in there.
