The Economist - USA (2022-01-15)

14 The Economist January 15th 2022
Letters

Wither the centre ground

Far too few Republicans are

prepared to stand up for the

sensible and staid party it once

was, known for its belief in

free markets and private

enterprise (“In his image”,

January 1st). Donald Trump

may have no true convictions

at all and so he’s happy to

promote the Republicans’ new

focus: the protection of perso­

nal liberties, a category that

has broadened to include the

right to threaten the well­

being of the vulnerable, as in

the belligerent behaviour of

anti­vaxxers. To its great

shame, the party also tolerates

political viciousness, as well as

the poisonous notion that the

government is engaged in a

“purge” of “patriots”, otherwise

known as voters who can’t

accept a loss with grace. 

When, every so often,

Democrats claim that moder­

ate Republicans are extinct, I

pipe up and say, “Still here.”

But it does appear now that the

party has decided we are

expendable. If they cared to

retain our support, the leader­

ship would have the courage to

risk dispatching the bully in

our midst, demand that he

stop sabotaging the campaigns

of the centre­right candidates

who are most palatable to

voters, and tell him point

blank that the party can no

longer afford the ongoing

damage his continued insis­

tence on a stolen election has

done the Republican brand. 

margaret mcgirr

Greenwich, Connecticut

If it is correct to call the storm­

ing of the Capitol on January

6th 2021 an “insurrection”,

then why has no one arrested

in connection with those

events been charged with

insurrection, which is, after

all, a federal crime under the

United States Code?

hugh myers

St Albans, Hertfordshire

One of the fastest­growing

electoral reforms in America is

the use of ranked­choice vot­

ing. By allowing voters to rank

their preferences, their vote is

not split among similar candi­

dates.Rankedchoicehas

supportfrommoderatesin

bothAmericanparties.Ithas

enabledcentristRepublican

senatorsinAlaskaandMaine

tostanduptoMrTrumpwith­

outthefearofbeingdeselected

atthenextelection.Glenn

Youngkin,whomyou

describedasa “countryclub”

Republican,wasselectedas

theparty’scandidatefor

governorofVirginiausinga

ranked­choicevoteata state­

wideconvention.More

electionsshouldusercv.

kathrinesantos

Executivemember

LiberalDemocratsforElectoral

Reform

London

Killingbystarvation

Anothervitalingredientin

Ukraine’svoteforindepen­

dencefromRussia(“Unfin­

ishedbusiness”,December

18th)isthelastingmemoriesof

thedeathbyhungerofatleast

3mUkrainianpeasantsfrom

JosephStalin’sbrutalcollectiv­

isationofagriculturein1933.

RareistheUkrainianfamily

withouta relativeoracquaint­

ancewhosegrandparents

perishedintheGreatFamine,

theHolodomor.

Somequarterofa million

ethnicPoles,atthetimealso

citizensofSovietUkraine,

werelikewiseliquidatedby

orderofStalin.Hardlya

recommendationforreviving

thehistoricallinksbetween

UkraineandRussia.

lesliecolitt

Berlin

Improving gaming data

A focus on data from the video­

game industry will not be

enough to understand whether

excessive gaming can become

addictive (“Share the data”,

January 1st). We recently devel­

oped the Smart Gaming

campaign in partnership with

the Electronic Sports League,

and have conducted the largest

survey on gaming disorder to

date. From our standpoint,

functional impairment experi­

enced by gamers is a key

feature of gaming disorder

(now recognised by the World

HealthOrganisation).How­

ever,howcanfunctional

impairmentsbeunderstood

fromgamingdataalone?Time

spentgamingisnota

sufficientpredictortodiag­

nosethedisorder.

Weagreethatit isimpor­

tanttounderstandhowA/B

testingofdifferentgame­

designelementsimpactson

playtimeandotherobjective

playvariables,butthisneeds

tobeunderstoodwithina

largerframeworkforstudying

thewell­beingofgamers.

Hence,suchindustrydata

needstobecombinedwith

self­reporteddataprovidedby

gamers.Finally,independent

scientistsshouldnotonlyhave

accesstosuchindustrydata,

butbeabletoconductstudies

onthemanyexistingonline

platforms.Thiswouldenhance

ourknowledgeoftheassocia­

tionsbetweenwell­beingand

gaming,andalsothepotential

linksbetweenwell­beingand

social­mediause.

professorchristian

montag

DepartmentofMolecular

Psychology

UlmUniversity

Ulm,Germany

halleypontes

DepartmentofOrganisational

Psychology

Birkbeck,UniversityofLondon

No place to hide

There are few places one can

passively view “controlled

panic” than the streets of

Pamplona during the running

of the bulls. However, I do not

see a need to widen the town’s

streets (“Of architects and

bull­running”, December 11th).

I worked as a film producer in

Pamplona for six consecutive

years filming with a crew. We

worked in and around the

“panic zone”, every morning

for seven days. 

During the filming we had

to contend with panicked

people climbing up and over,

onto our equipment and

colliding with our gear and

crew. We tried many ways to

steer them clear. What we

learned was that when

humans become panicked you

cannot stop them, but you can

steer them effectively by

simple gestures and shouts to

redirect their path. We suc­

cessfully deployed a crew

member to each position who

would shout, “Run!” and point

away from the camera and this

worked beautifully. 

You can’t beat the panic but

you can direct it. Rather than

bulldozing streets to create

more space, it would be far

easier to just install large signs

showing an arrow and the

words “Run” or “Escape”. 

jonathan kitzen

Vancouver

Pitter-patter

When I lived in Darwin the

sound of the monsoon rains

on corrugated iron was a

happy sound (“Gimme shel­

ter”, December 18th). Corrugat­

ed iron is the roofing material

of choice in Australia’s North­

ern Territory. Because of the

intensity of the rains most

houses don’t have eaves or

gutters. Instead the roof

extends a metre or so outside

the wall, so when it rains the

corrugated channels simply

funnel the water away from

the sides of the house, much

like the function of gargoyles

on a Gothic cathedral.

john shield

Gladstone, Australia

The doors of perception

“The new normal” (December

18th) told us that many “of the

institutions and attitudes that

brought stability in the old

world look ill­suited to the

new. The pandemic is like a

doorway. Once you pass

through, there is no going

back.” This intriguing view of

doorways must complicate The

Economist's commute. But I've

often gone back through door­

ways (most of them, in fact).

Perhaps there is hope?

matthew draper

Charlottesville, Virginia

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