How would football fans use their general election vote to vote against the new bureaucratic measures quoted in the previous post? It's a rhetorical question of course, because as we know they can’t.
A huge protest might achieve something, but the most likely outcome of that would be a more gradual phasing in of the new measures, not their abandonment. Even a party political commitment to abandon the idea would not be a reliable reason to vote for that party.
We all know voting makes virtually no difference to the wider political game either, the game Disraeli referred to as the Great Game. Even the words ‘virtually no difference’ may be too optimistic because, Brexit excepted, voting makes little difference to how the Great Game is played.
Yes there is a certain residual satisfaction in casting a vote and even a spoiled paper is a gesture. Maybe that is all we should expect a vote to be – a gesture. Perhaps that is all it was ever likely to be with such a huge number of voters.
We all know voting makes virtually no difference to the wider political game either, the game Disraeli referred to as the Great Game. Even the words ‘virtually no difference’ may be too optimistic because, Brexit excepted, voting makes little difference to how the Great Game is played.
Yes there is a certain residual satisfaction in casting a vote and even a spoiled paper is a gesture. Maybe that is all we should expect a vote to be – a gesture. Perhaps that is all it was ever likely to be with such a huge number of voters.
There is still a strong inclination to vote for the least bad option as a feeble attempt to prevent things from being worse than they need be, but even that seems futile. Things already are worse than they need be.
A culture of professional political persuasion seems to be one problem lurking in the roots of the thing. Professional persuasion isn’t new, but professional political persuasion has become very much like a toothpaste ad without even the possibility of choice. The ingredients are not up for debate. You want nice clean teeth don’t you? Of course you do.
The Great Game has become a theatre of persuasion, not a public debating arena. The last piece of the bureaucratic jigsaw, the final gloss applied to decisions already made.
These are the new rules – you know they make sense.
A culture of professional political persuasion seems to be one problem lurking in the roots of the thing. Professional persuasion isn’t new, but professional political persuasion has become very much like a toothpaste ad without even the possibility of choice. The ingredients are not up for debate. You want nice clean teeth don’t you? Of course you do.
The Great Game has become a theatre of persuasion, not a public debating arena. The last piece of the bureaucratic jigsaw, the final gloss applied to decisions already made.
These are the new rules – you know they make sense.
3 comments:
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
I don't think elections present any clear options about expected laws, perhaps, if we are lucky, only styles of government.
Referendums do give a chance for the ordinary man to have his say, but after the stitch-up over proportional representation and the 'wrong' result over leaving the EU (at least as far as The Powers That Be were concerned) chances of future referendums are slim.
I don't think there is much of an attempt at changing the electorate's mind, so that people adopt a new world-view or set of principles. That probably only happens when people pick up a book or mix with a new group of people. The "persuasion", such as it is, seems more to do with getting the public to accept excuses around particular issues or cock-ups. "It didn't happen the way you think it did", or "let's explain why this will actually be good for you".
DJ - yet referendums are a good idea, they create a greater degree of involvement. Brexit suggests they can be extraordinarily divisive, but that was fostered by the way things are done now.
Sam - I think there is a great deal of persuasion. Climate change, diversity and woke culture generally would be nowhere without pervasive persuasion.
Post a Comment