Tilting towards Paradise

Peter Rukavina

Here’s a handy tool to assist candidates aspiring for the leadership of a political party. Select one action verb, one connector, and one destination and, blammo!, you’ve got yourself a political campaign.

  • Action Verbs — Building, Grasping, Tumbling, Energizing, Leaping, Hunkering Down, Aiming, Leaning, Tilting
  • Connectors — towards, in the general direction of, into, at, on top of
  • Destinations — the Future, the Past, Paradise, Hell, getting Organized, Winning, not Losing, Absolute Power, Recognition

Potential candidates are welcome to make use of this tool at no charge.

Leaping into Hell.

Comments

Submitted by Kevin on

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Having been over there for a few days this feels a little more heartfelt than it might have otherwise: Perhaps we could give them a listen first.

Submitted by Ken on

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Haikus sound like Haikus.
Politicians on TV sound like politicians on TV.
I’m using the form of the Haiku as a metaphor for how stiff sounding politicians come off talking in broad cliches so as not to be too specific, yet still give a sense something good is happening. The need to say something to the camera that will fit into a brief edit with little context leaves politicians stuck in a small vocabulary of safe cliches. Our own premier speaks almost entirely in vague truisms, as he must not offend any one by saying anything off the cuff, which could be misinterpreted as a fact.

Submitted by Christopher on

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Actually, what you say is more telling about our media than our politicians, Ken. McLuhan improves with age…

Submitted by Kevin on

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Ken, nice thread, I like your capture of that point; so many agree with what you’re saying but so few can say it quite so concisely. Having said that, I would like to offer the other side and I’ll see if I can do as well as you have. I could go long and detailed but I’ll try it this way:

Just watch the next time a politician gets into real hot water over something and s/he has to back pedal like the devil just to stay on the slippery end of The Plank.

Pay attention to what I’ve been calling the “B channel” to see if you can’t pick up a sense that the very thing that clobbered him/her was the moment they tried to be a little bit “real” in front of a media hack who then clipped tape and served up ripe innuendo in just the right number of sips so as to lay waste to the innards of a person’s life who just happened to believe he or she could make a difference if s/he could managed to stay away from the knives and shark teeth long enough to get near the center for a chance at change and has decided to stand as one we call a politician.

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Photo of Peter RukavinaI am . I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.

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