The Rational and The Emotional

[technobabel]

Basically, people can be divided into two groups.
There are the Green and the Blue, of course.
There are terrible and the miserable.
Conservative and liberal.
The have and the have-not
Fortunate and the not-so-fortunate
And the list goes on and on.

Let's focus on who is rational and who is emotional.
In my own humble opinion, Taiwan's news media is...sensationally emotional driven, when compares to NY Times and NPR.org.

The Jedi master Yoda is rational.
Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader is emotional
Dalai Lama is rational.
龍應台 is rational.
席丹 is emotional
Jesus Christ can go both ways, I think, I am sure.

On the surface and in public, most people seems rational
KTV is a hotbed for emotional feelings.
Suicide happens when emotional feelings run amuck or go haywire.

倒扁 may be viewed as a text-book case of demagoguery,
and by definition, demagoguery is emotionally driven.

In extraordinary circumstances, a leader needs to be rational and yet compassionate. The best example of that is Mayor Rudolf Giuliani after 911.

[David_Liao]

I don't think most of our politic leaders are rational and yet compassionate. They just want to ruin the opposite side for their own benifit. And most of them are too rigid to create anything new no matter blue or green.

[technobabel]

Politician that appears to be too emotionally driven is known as a "hot head". Hot headed politician tends to be a laugh stock and quickly booed off the stage in the USA. 選民 or constituents wants to see a politician that is cool, calm, collected and able to take on nasty smear campaign with grace and flair. At this moment, we can only wish.

What about the chaotic media or 媒體亂象?
In my own humble opinion, this is a case of too many opinions spoils the judgement. Pundits/名嘴 's ammunitions will always be virtually unlimited. What worries me the most is that Taiwan do not have a so-called "silent and rational majority" that is cappable of buffering or drowning out the voice of the fanatically determined minority. Public opinions in Taiwan can be manipulated too easily. In any given day, there will always be those who cares too much about politics and those don't seemed to care enough. This may not be normal, but that is just the way it is.

Few Quotes by Elmer Davis, a respectable "名嘴" (1890-1958)

Applause, mingled with boos and hisses, is about all that the average voter is able or willing to contribute to public life.

One of the things that is wrong with America is that everybody who has done anything at all in his own field is expected to be an authority on every subject under the sun.

The first and great commandment is, don't let them scare you.

This nation was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the principle - among others - that honest men may honestly disagree; that if they all say what they think, a majority of the people will be able to distinguish truth from error.

This republic was not established by cowards; and cowards will not preserve it.

This will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

But, to put things in perspective, Taiwan's so-called "政治媒體亂象"
is a small potato when compare to this: