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“I don’t know what weapons the Third World War will fought with,” Einstein is reported to have said when interviewed after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “but the fourth will be fought with sticks and stones.”
I feel the same way about elections. I’m not sure how elections will be fought in the next few years, but in the next decade I fear most of them will become little more than auctions. It seems that there is competition all over the world to see what parties can make the most outrageous claims, in the manner of bidders at an auction competing to offer the most money.
“In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Trump’s famous claim, based on comments by J D Vance, who seems to have taken them from an “influencer”, who made it all up, seems hard to beat. But it isn’t . It’s been done before. I’ve seen and heard similar things in Britain over the years, and if I were in Lincoln 800 years ago I’d be listening to a story with a similar feel to it. It’s not much of an advert for the human race that this form of racism is still popular, and that it still wins votes.
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Apart from the outrageous claims, there is the financial aspect of auctions too, and Musk throwing his money about has brought that into the process in an obvious way. You probably all know my thoughts of the uS elections – get rid of all the clutter that surrounds it, like voter registration, postal voting, televised debates and just make it into a straight auction. You could save all the campaigning money and use it to buy a result then, in the style of the old tax farming days, you could concentrate on using your presidency for personal gain.
In case you are worrying that I’ve become political, I haven’t. I’m just continuing the old themes of cynicism and farce. The fact this involves politics is purely coincidental.
Subjects for future discussion include racism, religion and eating dogs.
Banknotes – Zambia
