To the blandest go the spoils

Beverly just rocked too
hard for Carson Daly.

I found the selection process on "The Voice" pretty interesting. Generally, whether the selecting was being made by the professional coaches (elites) or the audience (masses), the pattern was pretty much the same, with the more interesting artists being eliminated in favor of the blander but more broadly acceptable ones. The duos, the country singer, the chanteuse, the guy who sounded like a gal... all fell to generic pop singers. The final episode was no exception: the elimination began with both of the show's lesbians, leaving only the very attractive, versatile, but almost completely uninteresting Javier and Dia.

I think there's a lesson there for democratic elections. I'm not sure whether to consider "The Voice"'s electoral system nonpartisan or multi-partisan (the four judges had broad power to "nominate" their contestants). Regardless, it shows the down side of Downsian convergence. No one is really offended, but no one is really satisfied, either.

Okay, there are important differences between being The Voice and being, say, The President. Beverly or Xenia or someone else could have been chosen as a pop star and done the job very well, while, say, Dennis Kucinich or Michele Bachmann, while very interesting candidates, would not make particularly good presidents, in my opinion anyway. The nature of the job makes it vitally important to have allies who can help pass legislation, and bomb-throwers really don't have those kinds of allies. A pop singer doesn't need such alliances.

Okay, comparison over.