Last Sunday night’s Academy Awards saw The Hurt Locker win best picture. The win came from a 10 nominated films field rather than 5. What’s remarkable is how this victory was likely achieved and the lack of controversy in the aftermath of the announcement, i.e. I have not heard of any "We were robbed" commentary from the other films.

Remember the process in Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) means whatever film had the least votes for number one choice were redistributed among the other nine films. This process was repeated until just two films remained. I don’t have access to the ballot data, but the RCV process the Academy used means one of two things is true. One, The Hurt Locker had enough votes to win on the first ballot. Or, two, The Hurt Locker had a combination of sufficient number one ballots and the good fortune of being everyone else’s second choice to win. And, because The Hurt Locker was the consensus number two choice, no controversy emerged over the choice.

That’s what RCV could do for our political elections, too—establish consensus around the winning candidate. That’s just one more reason I am such an advocate of the process.

I’ve just been to see the movie and it is excellent. There is some poetic license taken, but it’s worth your time to see, especially while you can still see it in a theater. Unless you have surround sound in your home, you will be missing something if you wait for the DVD. The Hurt Locker also won awards for best sound mixing and editing. If you see it in a theater with surround sound, then you will clearly note the sound of helicopters overhead and other staples of the military experience. The sound definitely adds to the realism and intensity.

One of the tricks wilderness hikers use to keep from getting lost is to stop and turn around occasionally so they can see where they have come from. Getting that point of view helps them to remember how to get back to a known point. Once they reach a known point, they can reorient themselves with the map and a compass to begin again.

I used to use a similar trick when I set up a defense. If circumstances permitted, I always wanted to go forward of the ground I was defending and look at that ground from the point of view of the attacker. Unlike sports, there is no level playing field in the real world, so the view of the field can be different and makes the exercise worthwhile. Sometimes, the approach I thought an attacker would likely take from looking at the map would be much different when I actually looked at the ground. Having that revised perspective caused me to change my plans. At the very least I confirmed the plans I had.

Similarly, I’ve been thinking about considering my position about Health Care Reform by comparing it to my thoughts on the proposal to privatize Social Security from five years ago. Is there something I’m overlooking in the opposition’s point of view?

Five years ago we were in the opening months of the Bush Administration’s second term. We were enduring the spectacle of the Terri Schiavo debacle and many people were beginning to have buyer’s remorse for having voted for Bush. Why? Because the Bush Administration was pandering to the radical Religious Right and violating what the late George Carlin called the 11^{th . . .}

To be able to read the rest of the Ezine, please email customerservice@KindredMindsEnt.com and subscribe to our free weekly Ezine by providing your first and last name, an email address and your zip code. We will forward a copy of the complete text of this Ezine to you and you will receive all future editions in your in-box. We do not share our list of subscribers for any reason, You may unsubscribe at any time (as noted in the Administrative Instructions included with each Ezine) by replying to the Ezine with the word UNSUBSCRIBE anywhere in the subject line.

Once you have subscribed, we suggest you check your spam file in your email account to make sure you’re receiving your copy of our weekly Ezine.

Thank you in advance for becoming a member of our community seeking pragmatic solutions for our political problems by overcoming polarized politics.