Astroweeds?

Thomas Shaller just posted a very good analysis of the current "town hell" phenomenon. He noted that there have traditionally been two types of activism/lobbying. Grassroots and Astro-turfing.

Grass-roots activism is a spontaneous uprising of the masses. Such activism is generally not well cooridnated, may be uninformed, and can get messy. But it has the virtue of being authentic and comming across as authentic.

Astro-turfing is activism directed from the top. A well funded group or organization specializing in a cause will find citizens whose stories are compelling and make them public representatives of why action on the cause needs to be taken. Such activism is carefully scripted for public consumption which increases its effectiveness. But the fact that it has been staged diminishes its force to a certain degree.

Shaller says that if these two types of activism are the poles, what we're seeing in the "town hell" phenomenon is a hybrid of the drawbacks of both types of activism - a top down stirring up (and funding) of angry misinformed people wwithout any effort to package their message.

His analysis is surely worth a read.

Joe