The language of political leaders

After yesterdays post, Johnnie Moore wrote:

I can't help thinking that all this "boxing" of people only serves to distance politicians from genuine contact with the rich diversity of the real world. And emphasises the frame of politics-as-board-game instead of being about real issues.

You’re correct Johnnie. They are distanced from us by a collection of political advisors, media advisors and journalist types in various media. It’s a “new normal”; we take for granted that our politicians are either scripted, or in some other way prepared by their team of advisors.

These advisors rely upon market research, focus groups, polling, and whatever else in order to provide our leaders with scripts that contain the words we want to hear. And like a ventriloquists puppet, our leaders say them, again, and again and again, they stay “on message.” So much so that we start to believe them. We accept that they have defined us as aspirational or as a battler, or as someone from the “bush”

And that the game isn’t it! Successful politicians are those who can create a picture of something that approximates the view from where the rest of us sit. We then start to think that they are in touch….

But they aren’t really in touch, just primed to say the things that the focus groups have told their advisors we want to hear; commitment, strong, responsible, strategy, outcome, transparency, leadership, stability, support, security, freedom. Zzzzz.

(Words like these seem to be drawn from big business mission statements, don’t they?)

These words are bandied around so frequently, we don’t even hear them properly, don’t even question the fact that they use a sleight of hand to alter the traditional meaning of these words.

But there is nothing particularly bad about any of this, it’s just that I would like to see more spontaneity, see our leaders demonstrate their wisdom. Loose the unnatural gestures and facial expressions people. Surely you are just itching to say something more that the twaddle prepared for you. Surely you have a real vision for this countries future?

Just watch them next time you see them on TV, watch the body languauge, listen to the words as they try to get “on message”, getting tangled up between what they really want to say and the grab word they are trying to dredge up from their memory….

Doesn’t democracy depend upon our political leaders speaking freely, saying what they really mean, and really want, and using words that we all understand?

Tommorrow I'll give you some examples of how the common meaning of words is used by politicians in attempts to pretend they are in touch...

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