[quirkot]

I'll take the counterpoint. Tribal instincts exist because it is impossible to have rational/conscious debate about most things. It's basically over engineering the problem.

How would you convince an entire lakeside community to site a water treatment plant somewhere else? How many man-years of training would be required for them to have enough fundamental understanding to even enter a rational/informed debate? And what other topics are competing for that time? vs. "Chris is the expert and I trust Chris, so we'll do what Chris says"