Democracy Has Bad Taste

In this age of multi-platform mass media
democracy is the most widely celebrated
brand of kitch that is commonly available.
Elections are the most popular performance art
going with all their whistles and bells.
The more corporate the sponsor of each party
 /show the more tightly compressed
the slogans each party message becomes,
the better to disguise their corporate origins.
They all want to attract the largest mass of voters.
Whichever act wins, the public have to be
encouraged to misremember the last show
as quickly as possible afterwards, for the bump
and grind of government legislation to continue....

Let Them Eat Chips

'The American dream' masks very well
the permanent division between rich and poor.
By shouting to all 'You can all can make it to riches' 
nobody gets to escape the advertising pitch.
The message lumps the fool get in with the wise.
Those born with money feel sure they will keep it,
those born with less will see money as attainable.
What both refuse to guess is how much growth,
and new wealth, takes away from old money.

The last U.S. election campaigns cost $18 per person,
or $6 billion dollars overall. The U.K. and Canada
spent £0.50 and $8 canadian dollars per person
on their elections, considerably less.
But then Americans spent $7 billion
in the same election year on potato snacks,
and $8 billion on Halloween. The dream
of continuous conspicuous consumption
may be better value,
compared with choosing leaders, than we thought.