| | A talk show on the radio today was about the political candidates appearing on Saturday Night Live.
The DJ said he has a problem with mixing entertainment and politics (like this video does). However, his specific problem is when candidates themselves ham it up. He said that if you're going to be a politician in charge of writing laws that affect the welfare of others, then acting like a ham is inappropriate/dysfunctional.
He imagined out loud about a talent show where the political candidates tried to impress the audience with their juggling skills, their magic tricks, or whatever. I presume we'd then vote for the candidate most qualified to entertain/distract us.
Alasdair MacIntyre wrote about how politics has become a big, puppet show production where the rivals -- like beauty contestants hidden under gobs of make-up -- never really show their true faces. They just listen to the polls and bend with the wind. Money is channeled into the right spots. Ads are calculated based on geography in order to show a dozen sides of a person who is only in 3 dimensions in the first place.
Just like star actors that you never get a chance to have coffee with, we never get to know who they truly are -- just how good their performances were.
Ed
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