Monday, June 04, 2012

Slow Politics (In Favour Of).

What Is Slow Politics? "It takes as its point of departure recent psychological and philosophical research, which identifies quite clearly the social and environmental preconditions for the exercise of rational thought. It then calls for mobilization around the creation of these conditions. It does not have a political agenda, in the traditional sense of the term, but rather a meta-agenda. It is impossible to restore sanity merely by being sane, and trying to talk in a reasonable tone of voice. The only way to restore sanity is by engaging in militant action against the social conditions that have, over the course of the past few decades, inexorably crowded it out."

- Joe Heath and Andrew Potter.

1 Comments:

Blogger The Plump said...

...the rapid-fire pace of modern politics, the hypnotic repetition of daily news items, even the preponderance of visual sources of information, are all inimical to the exercise of reason

Absolutely, and I like this piece. Though the appeal to emotion over reason is hardly new - Graham Wallas, Human Nature in Politics (1908) is one classic text and repetition was a key propaganda tactic of the Nazis. Though when it comes to being divorced from reality, Regan was a superstar at times (but an amateur by current Republican standards) .

1:55 PM  

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