thinking is the new black

I watched Question Time on the beeb last week after Obamas’ victory. It featured Brian Eno, for one, who is apparently a consultant to the Lib Dems. How about that? He is a  rather charming reactionary and good to see the Lib Dems appropriating a bit of cool. I’ve long thought that they’ve  catching up to do in the communication of democracy stakes. I know politics should be all about the policies, but in this day and age it has to also be about the brand. As well as be being on the money and having some sound political views, Eno mediates politics at the level of personal activism and social responsibility. Plus he allows the Lib Dems to draw on also sorts of connotations of hip and culture.

Anyway, as you can imagine the whole QT show was rather a viva Obama fest / “we are the world, we are the people”, including Bonnie Greer  who is normally very sensible telling everyone how she was in tears on victory night. Everyone wants to be Obamas’ friend, and every one wants to show  that their personal emotional reaction to the event is stronger than their neighbors, and some how more authentic. I mean don’t get me wrong I AM pleased ( though rather like Bonnie  I flipflopped from being a Hilary supporter to a Barack supporter).   2 events come to mind through all this.   One is the death of Princess Diana and the other, Tony Blairs’ victory in 1997. The whole emotional competitiveness is symptomatic of Western Society, particularly in the UK since the death of Diana. The notion of the media facilitation “our” ability to feel if you know what I mean. 1997 for me was one of the most important elections in the last 100 years, not least because it was the 1st one I was able to vote in. What I am reminded of more specifically is this discourse of optimism and hope obscuring actual policy.

I remember staying up all night watching the votes some in and seeing Neil Kinnock dancing awkwardly to D:ream. Remember this?

In 1997 I was an undergrad struggling to live independently of my family in East London during the eve of Cool Britannia. I was so hopeful and optimistic for the Labour party; all I’d ever known was Thatcher and that life as a young adult living on the bread line in the capital was quite hard. My pals and I got carried away with the election, because a change of government for us signified such giddy anticipation for the future. Alas, like so many others, I’m let down by what actually followed.

The language of new labour has been brilliantly analyzed by Norman Fairclough,  in his wonderful book New Language New Labour. But I thought it would be interesting to run a quick word cloud courtesy of wordle on Baracks’ victory speech.

Check out the focus on patriotism, words connoting change, inclusively and signifying society. The world awaits to see if this discourse will have any effect on social change. No pressure then..