"ONE CAN ALSO NOTE that while we are better educated, we have less time to think, deliberate or read: modern life is a hurly-burly of work and home responsibilities, hectic sport or hobby schedules, and often little time to ponder or even daydream.
In such a world, even the best meaning politician quickly learns that, to get the message out, they need to "keep it simple, stupid" (as one political insider described it to me).
This generates what in psychology is known as the 'observer-expectancy effect': newspaper columnists delight in the pithy quote, and the nightly TV news reward the punchy soundbites - so that's what politicians do more of. Soon, all politics is just a parade of vacuous (if at times amusing) soundbites."
