Doc Searls quotes Britt Blaser about the problems of partisanship:

Fire-breathing partisanship is what we¹ve always done. It's what got us here. Maybe it¹s time to lay down that hatred and back slowly away.

That's just not going to happen. The middle - whether it's IT, partisan politics, or sports - is where ideas go to get crushed. Let me throw it back at Doc - are you ready to take a middle course on net neutrality? How about on Linux?

I rather doubt it. Likewise, people who are political partisans tend to be highly motivated, and highly interested. They are the 1% who actively engage in the game (to pull in what Nick Carr likes to note about participation in any field). The supposedly "reasonable" people in the middle are those who are not actively engaged - pretty much by definition. Pick a field - marketing, software development, politics, what have you: do you really want the people who don't care that much to be in charge?

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