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For those not familiar with Bradbury's work, Seth Macfarlane's comment is a concise summary of the problem: "Oprah is beyond doubt a magnificent orator. But th
by Jedd 9y ago
For those not familiar with Bradbury's work, Seth Macfarlane's comment is a concise summary of the problem:
"Oprah is beyond doubt a magnificent orator. But the idea of a reality show star running against a talk show host is troublingly dystopian. We don’t want to create a world where dedicated public service careers become undesirable and impractical in the face of raw celebrity."
- adrianratnapala 9y agoIf the likes of Oprah and Trump become the norm, it will have seemed obvious in hindsight that politics always was showbizz. Politician in democracies seem to lose more from specific bad events they gain from good ones. This gives them an incentive to push responsibility away from themselves out to unelected officials (regulators, judges, cops) and non-government lobbies (big businesses, NGOs, public-sector unions). And this pushing has been progressing for decades and decades already. So by now, while politicians collectively could seize the reins of their own power, they don't actually have them in their hands. In such a world, the "job" of the politician is then engage with the public, putting on a show of attacking the system, while not having, or even desiring, the power to change it. Who better for that job than Trump and Oprah?