So when I first introduced the “Star Trek or Star Wars” question, John Odum indicated that Doug Racine had given the correct answer in answering Star Trek. This phenomenon, where a highly respected and powerful member of a community weighs in on a topic, thereby irreversibly spoiling the validity of a question, will now forever in statistics be known as the “Odum taint effect.”
Or so I thought the taint was irreversible. In this clip, you can see Matt Dunne single-handedly rescue the question, reject its binary structure, see beyond the options offered and find a third way. Having a governor who can create new answers could take some getting used to.
Before he discusses his current science fiction favorite (no, not the original show with Lorne Greene), Matt shares some of his concerns about the cynicism he hears on the campaign trail, a trend he finds striking given the tradition of idealism Vermont tends to pride itself on. His articulation of these concerns resonates strongly, and I was reminded of his points when I read this recent front page post on GMD.
Matt then demonstrates a lack of cynicism in sharing ways to find savings in our public education system without having to resort to draconian measures such as the forced consolidation of schools. The clip closes with his revelation of a third way, and a strong recommendation to the uninitiated (such as myself) to boldly enter the twenty first century and not content ourselves with past imaginings of our future to guide us.
Part 1 HERE
Part 2 HERE
[Note: No endorsement implied. Just continuing the VTblogosphereTV tradition of showcasing the qualities of the guest.]
BSG: good? Yes. Great, even. And it had the added bonus of getting Ron Moore away from Star Trek (where he was like a noxious poison) and into something where he could truly shine, and wouldn’t be a square peg in a round hole.
But to put it above ST? SW? When it hasn’t withstood the test of time? When we haven’t had the historical distance? Won’t this reinforce the “young” meme (in which case, perhaps he should have rejected the options and gone with Buster Crabbe and “Flash Gordon”).