Whenever a news organization interviews someone about the Big Issues, we invariably hear the person interviewed starting sentences like this: “We should…”, and “We shouldn’t…”, and “What we need to do is…” Then they fill in the blank with a sweeping statement of a solution that assumes knowledge of what the true problem is.
Those being interviewed rarely represent people who are actually able to make decisions and enact those solutions. Usually, we hear from politicians, advisors, consultants, academicians, pundits, people who used to be in roles accountable for solving such issues and celebrities. The question I never hear being asked, but which is central to the value of the opinion being offered, is “Who’s ‘we’?”
