Debate time. We’re a little over a week away from a provincial election here in Ontario.
Sigh.
I’ve spoken a few times before about how veryvery much I prefer dialectic to debate. It’s sort of the basis of my approach to the world. That there is a leader’s debate happening right now is symptomatic of what has gone so veryvery wrong in our political system.
Winning and losing. Diametrical opposition. Extremes of belief with no attempt made to find common ground.
And then there’s the mudslinging. And speaking over one another. The pomposity. The posturing.
The same old song and dance.
Speaking of song and dance…
Way back in 1980, that Sting Dude wrote one of my favourite tunes while he was still in one of my favourite bands.
(Hope you enjoyed that video, BTW. Watching it made me feel both nostalgic as Hell- I still have instant, visual recall of the boys being silly in their matching ski outfits- and as old as the hill on which they were skiing. Jebus. That was a looooong time ago. Sigh. I think I’m a little (more) depressed, now).
The song, which has been running through my head since listening to a wonderful live performance CD over the weekend, was a response to the attraction to the simple– how inane lyrics attract all kinds of attention and get our toes tapping, and how the most popular of songs are really all about their catchy hooks, while they say nothing of real consequence.
In his typically Sting-ish fashion (To be Sting-ish: 1. Involving cleverness and intelligence of insight with just the slightest soupcon of pretension and self-satisfaction. 2. Songs that contribute to the Logos of my life. 3. Brilliant, if occasionally pedantic.), Mr. Sumner (to use his once-upon-a-teacher name) was trying to highlight the power to be found in the straightforward, by interspersing his important ideas- about leaders and their attempts to drive their listeners into submission with their words- with the mainly nonsensical but oh-so-very-catchy chorus.
He contrasted the words of the poets, priests and politicians:
‘Words that scream for your submission
And no one’s jamming their transmission
‘Cos when their eloquence escapes you
Their logic ties you up and rapes you’
With:
‘De do do do, de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do, de da da da
Their innocence will pull me through
De do do do, de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do, de da da da
They’re meaningless and all that’s true’
Lots and lots and lots of words. Without clarity, rationale or substance.
Politicians (like priests, and yes, poets- like Mr. Sting) do have words to thank for their positions. They use those words to persuade- and when they can’t persuade they start yelling and screaming and hammering home their ‘message’. Sticking to sticking points regardless of logic or basis in honest examination of the issues (despite the overuse of the word ‘truth’ tonight).
Straying from the questions asked- by those they seek to govern- to iterate (and then reiterate) those choice selections that are playing best in the polls. Resorting to personal anecdotes to strum at our collective heartstrings. Throwing personal insults about- disguised as back-handed compliments.
None of my questions were answered, either. I learned nothing in the past hour and a bit that I didn’t know going in. Certainly nothing that will change my mind, or my vote.
Debate rather than dialectic? Waste of time. Without actual information- rather than sloganeering and politics-as-usual- voters’ discontent will increase. Having to sift through the bullshit trying to find a core of substance that might move us forward requires more effort than many are willing to expend.
That’d be why so many people buy the catchy, simple nonsense of the chorus (nonamesmentionedcoughFordNation). Or let their apathy overwhelm and can’t even ‘be bothered’ to vote.
Interesting that, like the debate raging in the background here in my living room, there were three of them-there-Police-guys- and they couldn’t manage to get along either. Their artistic differences (okay, and egos) resulted in a break-up that broke my heart (until the brief reunion tour a few years ago- Jebus, am I glad I lived to see that!) and left us, instead, with a whole bunch of mandolin-heavy music that we could have done without.
The vast differences in the wordy rhetoric being spewed by the three putative leaders on the t. and v. tonight, based in partisan ideologies that have more to do with power (okay, and egos) than with purposeful change in the province?
Those are words that can lead to the breaking of more than a heart. Regardless of what the paid political pundits, journos and analysts will have to say in its aftermath, NO ONE ‘won’ tonight.
This is our future, peeps of Ontario. Cut through the artful eloquence and see if you can figure out who might just best represent the innocence that might pull us all through.
Please.
It’s vital that we take the time to do so. Sad that it’s required, but essential nonetheless.
Word.
colemining 