The Chameleon Image of John F. Kennedy

I got no closer to Wisconsin in primary week than the State of Michigan, but maybe it was just as well. For it was in Michigan—Ann Arbor— that I came upon the term eiconics, invented by Professor Kenneth E. Boulding to cover the prevailing theory of how the average human mind works. As the horse fanciers would put it, eiconics is by Madison Avenue out of Immanuel Kant, with a blessing from the gestalt psychologists thrown in for good measure. To come down from the stratosphere, it means that Joe Blow arrives at conclusions not by testing, comparing and analyzing information but by grabbing for images and stopping right there.

Since the politicians have learned this nobody is safe. For what it amounts to is saying that principle is the refuge of fools. The new science of politics consists of putting images together, the synthesis following a bastard form of marginal analysis to determine what will catch the last and laziest and most uncommitted voter on election day. It follows from this that the Democratic Party has the perfect Presidential candidate, one it will reject at its own peril.

JC

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John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain (1903–1995) was an American writer.

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John F. Kennedy

Presidential Election

I got no closer to Wisconsin in primary week than the State of Michigan, but maybe it was just as well. For it was in Michigan—Ann Arbor— that I came upon the term eiconics, invented by Professor Kenneth E. Boulding to cover the prevailing theory of how the average human mind works. As the horse fanciers would put it, eiconics is by Madison Avenue out of Immanuel Kant, with a blessing from the gestalt psychologists thrown in for good measure. To come down from the stratosphere, it means that Joe Blow arrives at conclusions not by testing, comparing and analyzing information but by grabbing for images and stopping right there.

Since the politicians have learned this nobody is safe. For what it amounts to is saying that principle is the refuge of fools. The new science of politics consists of putting images together, the synthesis following a bastard form of marginal analysis to determine what will catch the last and laziest and most uncommitted voter on election day. It follows from this that the Democratic Party has the perfect Presidential candidate, one it will reject at its own peril.