Super Genius John Allen Paulos (left); Banksy's Elephant in the room that no one talks about (right)

Temple University's super-genius John Allen Paulos always manages to make us feel simultaneously smarter and dumber:

"Arrow’s Theorem, a famous result in mathematical economics, essentially states that no voting system satisfying certain minimal conditions can be guaranteed to always yield a fair or reasonable aggregation of the voters’ rankings of several candidates."

By cherry picking the above quote and presenting it in a different context, we're giving you the impression that Paulos' essay on thorny data issues from the NYT Magazine (link) is about politics.(1)

Well, it isn't about politics. Politicians talk about taxes and crime and immigration and whatever hot-button issues and talking points the pollsters want them to push. And what is the one thing they never really talk about?

Politics.

Of course, that's exactly what they are talking about when they are not talking about politics.

It's not just the elephant in the room.

It's the entire room.

And it's packed with Pachyderms.

(1) For the record, Paulos is no slouch when it comes to pointed political commentary. Click here to see what he thinks about religion and politics.