Michael Joseph Savage was perhaps the first NZ politician to form relational bonds with voters. He was charismatic and a great orator and inspired huge respect, indeed love. My father, a hard-headed mining engineer and not given to hyperbole, would have laid down his life for him. Unlike most of those who came later, his emotional appeal was backed up with solid and tangible policies and achievement, including the foundations of the modern welfare state. In comparison Ardern and her kindness mantra and the TPM rhetoric pale into insignificance, but as you rightly say this is the age of the social media influencer and you don't need to worry about actual reality when post-modernism holds sway and theatre is paramount.
Since I wrote my comment yesterday I spoke with a young friend here in the North Island country town where we live. We both have Maori ancestry (her more than me); I'm 77, she's in her late 30s, a solo parent with a family, all of whom are still at school. I asked her if she'd been tempted to join the hikoi and she shuddered. She said it was because they say they speak for all Maori and it just isn't true and she and a lot of her whanau and friends don't want a bar of it/them. Make of that what you will, bit I think David Seymour is correct in his claims that the hikoi is not representative of New Zealand.
I don’t think that TPM will expand beyond being a pool of publicity seeking losers. Sooner rather than later their shock tactics, slavishly encouraged and abetted by the MSM, will be their undoing. Another victim of social media and limited attention spans.
Your observation will see them only attracting other radicals and the haters and wreckers, a shallow pool. All of the theatrics and stage managed outrage will wear thin.
It’s the day after the Hikoi and what has changed? The Bill will still be debated and we can finally have a conversation, something that Kiwis have wanted for a long time.
Don’t forget that Shakespeare wrote many tragic plays. TPM will probably end up as a tragic-comedy.
Michael Joseph Savage was perhaps the first NZ politician to form relational bonds with voters. He was charismatic and a great orator and inspired huge respect, indeed love. My father, a hard-headed mining engineer and not given to hyperbole, would have laid down his life for him. Unlike most of those who came later, his emotional appeal was backed up with solid and tangible policies and achievement, including the foundations of the modern welfare state. In comparison Ardern and her kindness mantra and the TPM rhetoric pale into insignificance, but as you rightly say this is the age of the social media influencer and you don't need to worry about actual reality when post-modernism holds sway and theatre is paramount.
Since I wrote my comment yesterday I spoke with a young friend here in the North Island country town where we live. We both have Maori ancestry (her more than me); I'm 77, she's in her late 30s, a solo parent with a family, all of whom are still at school. I asked her if she'd been tempted to join the hikoi and she shuddered. She said it was because they say they speak for all Maori and it just isn't true and she and a lot of her whanau and friends don't want a bar of it/them. Make of that what you will, bit I think David Seymour is correct in his claims that the hikoi is not representative of New Zealand.
I don’t think that TPM will expand beyond being a pool of publicity seeking losers. Sooner rather than later their shock tactics, slavishly encouraged and abetted by the MSM, will be their undoing. Another victim of social media and limited attention spans.
Your observation will see them only attracting other radicals and the haters and wreckers, a shallow pool. All of the theatrics and stage managed outrage will wear thin.
It’s the day after the Hikoi and what has changed? The Bill will still be debated and we can finally have a conversation, something that Kiwis have wanted for a long time.
Don’t forget that Shakespeare wrote many tragic plays. TPM will probably end up as a tragic-comedy.