Tuesday
Yes, it is; and I am pleased that you have now caught up with this :-)
There is nothing like an easy-to-follow illustration like this: no quantity of words can ever convey the message so readily.
Although there is a risk of being "too clever", and of ingeniouesly-crafted false messages being put out in similar form, this should not stop all of us thinking about how a genuine message can be conveyed in a digestible form.
Posted by John Ward at March 31, 2009 02:56 PM
Genius. The guy has Jamie "motormouth" Oliver down to a tee.
Posted by Johnathan Pearce at March 31, 2009 03:12 PM
Okay... I get the spoof (very, very well done) and i get the headline (about 400 quid per person per year) - but aside from the creative form of the ad-hominem I don't actually feel any better informed for watching the piece.
I hang out with enough Samizdatistas to have a grasp of the issues and complaints - so don't flame me on that, please - but I'd be praising it if it did more than cited a few inaccessible numbers (of the bike-shed painting variety) and some comedy props.
Like, for instance, demonstrating the incompetence? Enumerating the controls and stupidities?
Making me care about this N billion more than the other N billion being spent on bailouts?
Just a thought.
Posted by alecm at April 1, 2009 01:00 AM
Alecm, who is on the side of the angels, demonstrates why our side is usually so bad at fighting the propaganda war. TaxPayers' Alliance is a lobby, not a think-tank, and they are very good at the propaganda war. It is fighting for hearts and votes, not the intellectual high ground (not that they do not occupy it, but they are just fighting a different battle than, say, the Adam Smith Institute).
Posted by Perry de Havilland at April 1, 2009 01:47 AM
What Perry said. There are different ways to fight against nonsense, and taking the piss is part of that. Consider the influence of South Park's skits, or the Penn & Teller "Bullshit" series, or for that matter those old Monty Python sketches mocking silly laws, etc. Go further back to the Ealing comedies of Passport to Pimlico, etc.
And of course look at the examples of Denis Leary, PJ O'Rourke, etc, in spreading anti-state, anti-nannying ideas.
I think you get the idea!
Posted by Johnathan Pearce at April 1, 2009 08:50 AM
I had to post it on facebook. Nice distraction from President Chavez taking over GM.
Also spits in the soup of those Americans who think Europe is Oz. They really need to peek behind the curtain.
Posted by kentuckyliz at April 1, 2009 02:50 PM
