Comments on: The Unavoidable Empty Campaign Promise

By: vivt

vivt — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:40:17 +0000

old saying: politics is show business for ugly people.

concerning politicians, intentionality & veracity, oliver sacks has an amusing story about visiting a ward full of patients with kind a language aphasia which rendered them unable to decode words and syntax, but left them attuned with a kind of hypersensitivity to the tonality of speech. rather like dogs and other domesticated animals. they (the patients) were sitting in a dayroom, watching Reagan make one of his earnest, paternal presentations. it was eerily silent for the longest time. and then the entire room erupted in a raucous, derisive laughter, the kind of laughter reserved for a liar or a charlatan who has been found out.

try a thought experiment: listen to candidate x, y or z and tune out the words, listen only to the sound, contour, and dynamics of the speech. what do you hear? would you trust the person behing this sound with your bank account, with your child?

By: joebleau

joebleau — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:57:07 +0000

I think that it's perhaps more productive to view politicians not as liars, but as performers. Sure, a lot of folks get sucked up into the narrative and lose track of reality, but there are those of us too who understand that, from the performer's perspective, s/he's just trying to project a credible performance, one that doesn't jolt the audience out of the dramatic moment.

Just like a brilliant acting performance, there can be truth in the message, even if the words themselves are delivered according to a pre-arranged script that's written more to manipulate and entertain then to edify or illuminate.

At least, that's what I tell myself so that I can get through these abysmal and hysterical election cycles without sinking into a pit of depression and substance abuse...

By: vivt

vivt — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

old saying: politics is show business for ugly people.

concerning politicians, intentionality & veracity, oliver sacks has an amusing story about visiting a ward full of patients with kind a language aphasia which rendered them unable to decode words and syntax, but left them attuned with a kind of hypersensitivity to the tonality of speech. rather like dogs and other domesticated animals. they (the patients) were sitting in a dayroom, watching Reagan make one of his earnest, paternal presentations. it was eerily silent for the longest time. and then the entire room erupted in a raucous, derisive laughter, the kind of laughter reserved for a liar or a charlatan who has been found out.

try a thought experiment: listen to candidate x, y or z and tune out the words, listen only to the sound, contour, and dynamics of the speech. what do you hear? would you trust the person behing this sound with your bank account, with your child?

By: joebleau

joebleau — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

I think that it’s perhaps more productive to view politicians not as liars, but as performers. Sure, a lot of folks get sucked up into the narrative and lose track of reality, but there are those of us too who understand that, from the performer’s perspective, s/he’s just trying to project a credible performance, one that doesn’t jolt the audience out of the dramatic moment.

Just like a brilliant acting performance, there can be truth in the message, even if the words themselves are delivered according to a pre-arranged script that’s written more to manipulate and entertain then to edify or illuminate.

At least, that’s what I tell myself so that I can get through these abysmal and hysterical election cycles without sinking into a pit of depression and substance abuse…