‘Nudging’ Goes to College

Minding the Campus ^ | May 31, 2015 | Rachelle Peterson

[spokeshave]

And here is the Nudge Czarina.....

As if there aren’t already enough control freaks in the Obama administration, now we have a “nudge czar” named Maya Shankar who we’re paying to come up with ways to shape the personal behavior of Americans through her Washington, DC office. Shankar is only in her twenties, but apparently she knows better than the rest of us how we should live our lives, and her job is to nudge us in the right direction.

Maya Shankar is a senior policy advisor at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. Her mandate is to supervise the organization of a federal government ‘nudge squad’ that will subtly change the behaviors of bureaucrats — and the rest of us.

When does a nudge become a shove?

Americans may find out in coming years, as the federal government is setting up a ‘behavioral insights team’ to tinker with the way we accomplish everything from saving money and staying in school to losing weight and becoming more energy-efficient.

[duffee]

The “nudging” is penalties for not doing what they want you to do. islamist are only trying to nudge Christians to consert to islam by beheading, crucifing and raping those who don’t convert. So can we trust academics and politicians with their “nudging”. hitler, stalin and chairman mao “nudged” people into ovens and mass graves. “Nudging” is about power and control over people.

[alloysteel]

Choice and free will are such a burden for the vast majority of people. The Islamic Jihadists are probably right, in that they absolutely despise anything relating to free exercise of opinion, or democratic expression, unless, of course, the democratic expression may be manipulated to entrench themselves in power, then all dissent is shut down.

That is an extremely efficient way of managing human affairs. Unfortunately, not everybody fits in to that rather tight little box, so it is “necessary” to prune back all that excessive growth of dissident opinion, by driving out or simply liquidating the persons who choose to express any resistance to conformity.

But in pruning away all that dissension, there is also lost a lot of initiative, and ambition, and creativity, and yes, the avarice that does compel some part of the population to continuously advance in technological and economic benefits that do eventually make their way to the somnambulists who are sleep-walking their way through life.

Without the constant prodding and poking necessary to bring the sleep-walkers to some semblance of semi-consciousness, they would all lapse into a deep coma, from which they shall never awake.

[wintertime]

Ping for later read.

[Noumenon]

When does a nudge become a shove?

That usually comes before the death camps and the execution pits.

[Pollster1]

I miss freedom. A “nudge” does not infringe on my freedom, but the mindset that FedGov should be nudging us for our own good leads to a massive infringement on freedom. We need to aggressively cut FedGov back to its proper scope of responsibilities.

At best, we have until January of 2018 to do that, and it’s possible that we are already too late. We may already be irrevocably in some blend of Brave New World and Big Brother, with an inevitable slide to their final totalitarian dream.

[Catmom]

Nobody likes a noodge.

P.S. Look up the Yiddish meaning of the word.

[haroldeveryman]

“nudge” = “I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse”.

[Codeflier]

They are definitely correct about irrational behavior, even on the macro level. However, it is wrong to use the police power of the state to ultimately enforce what may be subjective “best” choices. Also, in a free society those that are able to make rational choices will be rewarded, which can steer society in a better direction naturally.

[Ohioan]

You nailed it, to be sure. The notion that committees of academics or bureaucrats sitting around a conference table will make better decisions for other people, than those people will make for themselves is idiotic.

So, too, is the notion that those academics or bureaucrats are less prone to the emotion driven errors that often do in fact afflict other decision makers. All we know of human nature cries out that those who are so arrogant as to believe that they can better plan the lives of others by imposed dictates from afar, are suffering from delusions, which almost guarantee what are usually excused as "unintended" consequences.

See, for example, Social Reform: Confusion & "Unintended Consequences?"

[tbw2]

Designing systems so you have two or three choices, and only those choices that the administrators allow you to have, with severe punishments for going outside the lines ... this is a way to make tyranny seem palatable, because see, you had three check boxes to choose from, all denying some of your rights or costing a lot of money.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Hey, Cass, I got something you can nudge . . . RIGHT HERE!

Nanny State PING!

[DUMBGRUNT]

The resultant micro-aggressions are seen as perpetuating cycles of racism by building up a social atmosphere that encourages stereotypes. The solution? Setting up safe spaces that nudge people to celebrate diversity, and policies of racial preferences meant to correct for instances of invisible racism.

Micro-aggressions ?
I must live on a different planet?

My nose has been broken a few times and most of my fingers trying to return the favor.
I was shot once, but that was in RVN.

In my world you better have a thick skin and hard head.

Once, at a meeting, had a guy jump on the table screaming, because some were behind schedule! (he was an attorney, trained to shout?)
No harm, no foul!

When the outcome affects your income/job you might get excited!

[Still Thinking]

Don’t be so hard on poor Cass. He meant “noodge”, he’s just too dumb to know how to spell it. (He’s a lib after all)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!