Cluster Fuck

The bad sides of Washington:

Meetings are either
1- a cluster fuck- everyone that's an expert on vague things becomes an expert on specific things suddenly: ie i work on middle east, so i am going to talk about blogging because middle easterners blog and then they leave it once it isn't a trend.
2- administered by generalists who don't know how to extract really important details from panelists/audience, instead of wide trends, lets talk about how something does or doesn't work specifically
3- are full of people that think the same way, so nobody learns anything new.
4- are attended by or organized by people who do not care about society or people anymore, instead they are concerned with getting published because that's how they will keep their current fellowships/think tank positions. not much is on the line for them in terms of the populations they serve.

The good sides of Washington:

1- a bunch of people are choosing not to go to meetings, and instead of working in coffee shops on cool projects that make a difference
2- a bunch of people are choosing to be creative instead of talkative
3- a bunch of people are meeting to create, produce, or reflect on concrete projects