tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post8098741432777016003..comments2024-03-19T22:42:04.062+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Showtime!Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-29386957712507083772011-01-21T10:32:38.431+13:002011-01-21T10:32:38.431+13:00Right now, America has a President that was effect...Right now, America has a President that was effectively elected BY the media.WAKE UPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09136292620916207019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-91383527907995899872011-01-17T00:08:58.652+13:002011-01-17T00:08:58.652+13:00ak has something there - radio and TV, and Tweetin...ak has something there - radio and TV, and Tweeting do not make an informed electorate, just a satiated one. Thinking is hard work, and few Kiwis seem to relish it, sadly.<br /><br />Which is why we face the supposed rise of Winnie, still offering warmed over Keynesian capitalism. Mind you, his nationalism is the only real economic alternative offered right now to the uniform liberal capitalism of ACT, National, Labour, and even the Greens! (Russel Norman saving capitalism from itself - sheesh!)<br /><br />Pity none of the minor parties see their own self-interest (and ours) in ganging up on Labour and National, and demanding the urgent repeal of the 5% MMP threshold, which would let more diverse parties and views into the political scene...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-50813631410375884742011-01-13T09:43:04.692+13:002011-01-13T09:43:04.692+13:00"Brevity may be the soul of wit, but it doesn..."Brevity may be the soul of wit, but it doesn’t make for a very well-informed electorate." - well put Chris!pyGranthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09017282266652883905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-2643478380806817282011-01-12T23:01:48.362+13:002011-01-12T23:01:48.362+13:00Rob Muldoon understood this, and so did Bob Jones....<em>Rob Muldoon understood this, and so did Bob Jones.....the critical importance of putting themselves in front of flesh-and-blood human-beings...</em><br /><br />Ae. The Live Gig rules, and it always has. So why has it failed the Left?<br /><br />Because it relies on Bums on Seats. <br />And as any impressario knows, the most ample Bums on Seats come from Word of Mouth.<br />Thus reliant on mouths; literally.<br /><br />And the Words of Mouths have been mute since the 60s. Till now.<br /><br />Karl had it sussed when he fingered technology - the "seeds of their own destruction". But he failed to mention the weeds.<br /><br />Back to Mouths: what's been the biggest leap in communication technology since Karl's day (i.e. the political watershed of the ages)? Ask anyone over 70. Stroll through provincial NZ and natter with our real historians and befuddled chroniclers of social demise. <br /><br />TV.<br /><br />TV, TV, TV. Bye-bye flicks, clubs, and town hall debate; hooray reading, writing, gossip and imagination. Hello shallow. Mellow mesmerism, owned by the marketeers. Welcome neoliberalism, shiftwork and regression.<br /><br />And owned too, the political opinion of the crucial, Coro-st watching swinging voter: stroked, poked, tested, sampled, pampered, pandered, provoked, flattered, buttered-up, sucked-up - and ultimately, triennially, delivered the manufactured desires. <br /><br />From the grainy, amateurish Dancing Cossacks of 1975 to the blitzkreig saturation Winniebango and Smiley-Helen-sans-testosterone vignettes of 08, it's been the reign of the 6 o'clock soundbite and its advertising-dependent creators. <br /><br />Until now. As those seeds sprout into glorious true technicolour mass media. The second comms coming of the ages: interweb, tweeter, skypeface, yourspace and mytube: the Words of a billion Mouths tapping rapping and chatting through hyperspace daily. The demise of the manipulators at the hands of full, free, flowing information and constant, instant, budget-friendly keyboard-to-kanohi communication. <br /><br />And thus, most recently and significantly, <em>contra</em> the predictions of pollsters and journalstic bolsters: Mining, Mt Albert, and the nationwide Lenslide; Loughner and the demise of Fox News; the latest Horizon poll; and internal turmoil in Brighter Future heaven to a backdrop of shrill, Keylargo sibilance. <br /><br />And as you so correctly predict, my dear Chris, coming soon to a town hall near you: "WinnieUtu: revenge of the wronged". Spread the word.<br /><br />akAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-24186097732007222532011-01-12T21:39:55.105+13:002011-01-12T21:39:55.105+13:00Chris, keep an eye out for New Zealand First's...Chris, keep an eye out for New Zealand First's growing usage of digital technologies and online media. They've already set up at Winston Peters Facebook Page, which is doing quite well (http://www.facebook.com/winstonpeters), plus a page for New Zealand First members and stronger supporters (http://www.facebook.com/NZFirst).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-64814581368103980482011-01-12T15:14:07.678+13:002011-01-12T15:14:07.678+13:00Coverage of politics has shrunk in line with diver...Coverage of politics has shrunk in line with diversity of the parties. Not a lot changed under Helen and little has changed under Key, the free market and individual choice won the debate. Socialism is now confined to the USA and Venezuela.<br />The petty arguments that politicians have are of very little interest to your average punter. Take the 90 day law that has labour pollies trying to curry favour with their union bosses.I like my boss he is not a bad joker and if he employed some idiot who was a slacker and disrupts our workplace I would want him fired and someone decent put in his place. Its not the boss that suffers its us, conversely I have an 18 year old son who is just about priced out of the market but needs a benevolent boss who will take a risk and put the effort in. Thanks to the 90 day law he is working (on probation).Davidnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-32302949233508701782011-01-12T13:53:51.154+13:002011-01-12T13:53:51.154+13:00too much nonsense for too long at too big a scale....too much nonsense for too long at too big a scale. System is coming apart, not the capitalist system - the real system. And it's happening world wide, and no one can do anything about it.<br /> It's at the level that the climate is now involved in rejecting the system, annual record breaking cold winter after record breaking cold winter. There will be much bigger concessions made than a Winston Peter's in New Zealand as time goes on & it won't change the underlying shift. Greenisms in society will be the first big bye bye & that shows under the surface including whatever can be manufactured in the short term, the extent that this entire system & mode is at the coda of its days.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-64628269327325705742011-01-12T13:19:09.421+13:002011-01-12T13:19:09.421+13:00Just wondering if I could ask you a couple of ques...Just wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions<br /><br />Gut feeling, do you think WP will win an electorate seat or hit 5% and if so what will this mean for the next govt?chris73noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-2744761197867565902011-01-12T12:55:34.809+13:002011-01-12T12:55:34.809+13:00And he will go with NationalAnd he will go with NationalAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com