This chapter is basically about how information can be used to its posessor's advantage. Typically the term information assymetry denotes a negative use of information for personal gain; this is usually the case. Not all of the time though. Stetson Kennedy was most definitely not trying to take down the KKK for his own personal gain. He went under cover into a dangerous situation to improve society at large. Some psycologists (and Ayn Rand) would argue that his actions were actually for himself and that his intentions were just aligned with the betterment of society, I'm not going to affirm that though. Nonetheless, such a notion puts him more in line with the real estate agents and the rest of the examples in this chapter. I don't know if that's what the authors intended by putting Kennedy's positive example with the other negative examples but it seems to make at least some sense.
What does the collection of facts in Chapter 2 mean to me? It means that knowledge is king; he (or she) who possesses the information posesses the control. That say a lot about modern society if you asked me, money and power seem to be a byproduct, even a side-effect of information. The real battle isn't over cash or command, it's over what you can learn and know that no one else can. This can be appplied to every facet of life in this world: international relations, corporate business, intrapersonal relations like romantic or otherwise, gambling, I can go on forever. I partially feel that this is sad and wish I could change it somehow but I also understand that's just how things are; this is a dog-eat-dog world.
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Ch.2
I agree with you John. In modern society knowledge is king. Chapter two goes through some examples of this and analyzes them through an economic view point. From chapter I feel the best example of knowledge being used as power is the Ku Klux Klan section. In this section the authors explain how Stetson Kennedy basically brought down the Klan through the use of information. At that time I believe the book said the Klan was 8 million members strong. That to me is a fairly large organization and large accomplishment for one man.
I also found the fact that voters lie very interesting. I don't really understand why someone would lie to a pollster. If you feel you want to vote for a certain candidate why not show it in the polls?
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