As I was watching the Second US Presidential Debate for 2008 today, only half paying attention to the words half following the commentary in the popular blogs, something occurred to me.

The sad truth is that modern politics is a clear case of the applicability of the Tragedy of the Commons to almost any corner of human endeavour.

Arguably we would all be much better served if politicians all stuck to the high minded ideals of substance over personal attack... accurate facts over populist sound bites. But as The Tragedy tells us, whenever there is a pristine scarce resource (unsullied votes) that multiple people have an interest in cultivating (Obama/McCain/others) and where doing the wrong thing (mudslinging) although worse for the overall outcome disproportionately favours those that go all-out, the worst comes out in human nature.

I cringe for both McCain and Obama whenever they do it. McCain by all accounts actually was a maverick once, worthy of the term reformer... but you'd hardly recognise it this final month of the campaign. Similarly Obama started his campaign on the high-minded 'Hope' and 'Yes we Can', but ultimately was never going to be able to skate through without at least tit-for-tat.

I get it... attacks are easy. You can say whatever you like about your opponent; those that support you regardless will believe whatever you say, those that may research and expose the lie weren't likely to be voting for you, and the undecideds? That's where these tactics try to fight the battle... crafting smears and insinuations that are calculated to pull the heartstrings of the middle whilst not waking them out of their trance with an overt lie. It is all a carefully calculated strategy of small attacks, and I hate it, but I also understand why.

It is all just emergent behaviour from the combined "laws of politics" and "human nature", to expect another outcome would be akin to expecting a metropolis in the desert: not impossible, but definitely not likely.

Thank god it's all but over now... barring a miracle/disaster (depending on your point of view) Obama will be the 44th president of the United States of America, where he will arguably get the most messed up country in the history of humanity and a deadline of 4 years to make the best of it.

Consider it Changing Rooms on the ultimate larger scale; there is no saying how weird, wonderful or cringe-worthy it could be.