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Originally Posted by Edo  Roc - I have to disagree with you here - meybe in the Dublin you can get away with it - but in Rural Ireland - the funeral thing is vital.
I know that its not nothing to do with how good you will be as a legislator - but thats not the point here. The point here is that the family of the bereaved are important enough in your world for you to take the time out to be there, be seen there and that the family know that everybody has seen you there - from your (in the eyes of the electorate) busy hi-powered world - the fact that you had absolutely nothing on for the evening and were going to spend a few more enjoyable hours adding to your collection of handbuilt Tall ships inside glass bottles is neither here not there - the family keep count and by jesus you will know about it next time you can canvass there.
Irish society - in common with every other society on earth - is class and status obsessed - its hardwired into our biology - everything we do or dont do in life - when you break it all down to its basic components - is down to sex - the fight to get your genes matched with the best genes possible and that the next generation will have the best opportunity to do the same - its a barrier that every ideology comes up against and the best that any of them can hope for is to make an impression on it.
Ye know sometimes I think that whole electoral system is like asking a woman what she wants in a man - you'll get the list in triplicate - it will be the most idealistic, aspirational high falutent job description ever - then you'll see here walking down the street the next day arm in arm with 90kgs of spam - and then you "go figure" as the Yanks say.
There are a lot of intelligent people posting here - a lot of them know seem to know their ideologies and political systems inside out and fair play to them - but they also appear to know very little about human nature and human interaction - a lot of folks here could do worse than just sitting with a cup of coffee inside or outside a streetside cafe and just the watch the world go by and the people in it and how they conduct their lives.
It is possible to beat the electoral odds and really leave your mark and change things - but you are going to have to play smart - you are going to have to take account of the massive divide that exists between what a person will give out about when stuck in traffic listening to Joe Duffy on a rainy afternoon - and what floats their boats in the ballot box on election day. Instead of decrying FF and to a slighty lesser extent FG and the rest - take a hard objective look at what they and their elected representatives doe to get elected and how their machine works - and learn and take what you can for your own advantage..........
I keep coming back to this - Garrett Fitzgerald telling me that politics is all about getting the chance to do one or 2 good things to make up for all the populist bullsh^t you have to do get the chance to do it in the first place - if Garrett had said that on the stumps in 1981 - he would have been horsewhipped, instead he told me many years later in retirement - its as relevant today as ever - Garrett was the celebrity economist who joined FG in the mid 60's to the chagrin of the party's conservative establishment etc etc and look what he achieved- Pity George Lee didn't give him a call for some advice - but then it appears that George knew everything already. |
I know the funeral thing is vital.. remember, been there, done that. And that is why we have a Parliament full of politicians who realistically shouldn't be there at all, because when it comes to actually doing the job that they are paid to do, they are not up to it. Jesus, in some cases I know of personally, they arent even interested in legislation.
But unless people actually start to wake up and realise that this is what happens when you expect someone to do something and reward them for it, despite it having nothing to do with what you actually elect them for, then we are going to continue to have sub standard politicians, and carry on with the consequences of it. And there are huge consequences.
This drives me demented, because unlike most here, I've been through it. I've also seen how useless some of the people who got elected ahead of me are in actually doing the job they were elected to. For instance, I sat on a county council strategic policy committee for 5 years, discussing economics by the way, and here are a few examples of some of the elected members on the same committee
One sat in every meeting for 5 years, and made no contribution whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. He literally sat like a stone and didn't open his mouth for 5 years.
Another was drunk at the majority of the meetings. Which was some achievement because they were held at 2 pm in the day.
A third totally ruled out wind power as a means of alternative energy, because of the "emmissions" off the mast the windmills were mounted on. Explaining to him that a windmill was a hunk of metal rotating around, and didn't give off emmissions was futile.
A fourth came to one meeting, and never re-appeared again. Afterwards I found out he claimed expenses for every single meeting.
It was farcical.
But by Jesus.. they were some boys for the funerals.
9th February 2010
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