Gerry Nicholls makes an excellent point in his post today. Maybe this is one of the reasons that I find partisan politics so boring, even if the politicians want a debate on ideas that can't get one.
...politics is presented not as a clash of ideas, but as a sporting event. And the media takes on the role of colour commentators providing the fans with all the inside dope of what's really going on in the field.
When I don't want the inside dope, I want to see some goal scoring.
And yes, I know I am as guilty of this as anyone.
Comments (1)
Politics is exactly like professional sports - an overhyped and noisy clash over meaningless (actually ridiculous) objectives constrained by arbitrary but inviolable boundaries, in which the participants make enormous sums of money and the public gets nothing for their money but a bit of yelling and screaming. And every year the same battles over the same meaningless objectives are repeated.
What passes for inside dope as presented by journalists is about as relevant to your life as finding out whether Barry Bonds rubbed in the cream or the clear.
The real game is going on in the deduction columns of your paystub and inside all those hulking government office towers full of people doing god-knows-what. And at the gas pumps, in the nearest hospital waiting room, and in your city council and school board meetings where nobody says anything until after they look at at the union guy glaring at them and decide whether he’ll allow it.
You wouldn’t figure out that this is the inside dope by following the ups and downs of political parties in the media. That may be a pleasant pastime on a Sunday afternoon or when you’re at the dentist’s office, but it’s more of an inside dope avoidance strategy than anything else.
Posted by Clash of what? | November 15, 2007 10:21 PM
Posted on November 15, 2007 22:21