Okay, I keep hearing people complain about "social engineering." I'm not sure what they mean by this, because it's easy to trace "social engineering" back to the Ten Commandments. I'm no anthropologist, so I'll leave it at that, but I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find earlier examples of social engineering. Our own Constitution is one of the most brilliant examples of social engineering that comes to my mind.
From the context, it always sounds like "social engineering" means a governmental function of which the speaker disapproves. A governmental function like police protection or the regulation of interest rates by the Fed and which benefits business is not social engineering but legitimate activity. So also is the social engineering which grants big tax loopholes, er, incentives, to business.
This sounds suspiciously like something from the fevered brain of Rush Lim ... (oh, I just can't bring myself to mention him by name). Or is it something from The Sayings of Speaker Newt?
Let me know if you have an answer to this semantic conundrum. Otherwise, you can click here to return to the Council Page.