Slogan

Prologue
Yesterday, more than anything and more than ever, I hated politics. The dumb rhetoric. The stupid tribal loyalties. The over eager selling. The absurd simplification of everything to meaninglessness. The knowing what´s best for everyone else, even when they´re telling you to stop because it hurts.

And worst of all - the very worst, the most burningly arsehole thing about it all - the empty slogans.

Hatred
Yesterday I despised the very thought of ´progress´. The belief that somehow things can ´get better´ by design made me sick and angry.

It was the kind of frightening clarity and dumb hatred a person can only experience at a party conference, totally surrounded by Minions. Minions; there to hear themselves talk about themselves and how right they are.
Forget talks of splits and infighting, that´s all a minor sideshow, something to do to pass spare time.

The main event is a gruesome orgy of self-gratification and tedious repetition. Designed to kill thought. More damaging to brain cells than any cocktail of drink, drugs and heavy blows to the skull.
There is enough crude propaganda here to make any clear headed person want to flee, or at least scream for mercy. The full scale of it is hard to convey. Self-congratulation. Dense jargon. Dense people. Badges. Those idiot fucking slogans.

I´m at the Labour Party conference ("Labour means fairness", "a future fair for everyone" continue ad nauseam), but that is only part of the story. Yeah, power makes them automatically worse and more threatening to our collective well-being than the other parties, in the way a cop with a gun is potentially more lethal than one with a Billy club.

But the same basic truths held at the Liberal Democrat conference. And, even though I´m a professional and like to reserve judgment until I see it with my own eyes, I´m sure the Tory effort in Blackpool next week will be the most horrific of a horrifing bunch.

The Lib Dems and Tories may both be fringe parties with minor followings, but you must still be afraid, especially at conference: a Billy club hurts bad enough if you aim for the right body parts and get the timing on with a nice, hard swing. You don´t need a gun, it´s just faster and makes the killer feel cleaner.

Those damned slogans. The posters. The free pens. The willfull blindness to failure and falsehood.

Yesterday, I knew why so few people bother to vote. And I realised – suffocating there beneath the tide of minions - that apathy was the solution not the problem.
Listen to a politician - of any party - and they´ll bemoan falling voter participation in elections. I used to see their point but now I´ve been to the sixth circle of this hell and I realise they are naturally deluded. It is clear to me now that it must always be assumed that a policitian is wrong unless they can prove beyond all reasonable doubt they are right.

That´s the level of certainty you need to convict someone in a criminal court, and it should apply to these people. Few would ever pass the test.

Caring Conservatives - Radical Reform - Progressive government
So, it is as instinctive for a politician to call for more people to take part in elections as it is for a businessman to argue for more profit. Or maybe a better way of putting it is to say; it´s as natural as the Pope arguing you ought to worship God, but have to go through him as a middle-man.

Politicians make trouble, then other politicians come to clear it away, breaking something else in the process. Making another problem for themselves - as a breed - to solve. Eventually you just forget the first damn thing was caused by one of these people and you let them sell you the high priced solution to the problem they created.

The gardener is weeding and planting weeds at the same time. A nice way to earn a living, but it makes him a bastard all the same.

Self-interest. Self-preservation. Ignorance. Greed. Expedience. Half-truths. Obfruscation. The populist appeal.
Smiles. Waves. Handshakes.

Baby Kissing. Power

Epilogue
Yesterday I hated politics, but the feeling passes. The knowledge of hating it stays, but the unbearable feeling of disgust leaves. A self-defence mechanism.
But apathy is still the only answer. Total political apathy across the entire population would starve the fire of oxygen.
I don´t know what that would leave, or what would fill the vacuum, but it must be worth a try. And maybe we´ll all soon get a look. Apathy is the future.