Here is Bush's interview with reporter from Ireland - it is embarrassing- Pres Bush cannot explain why we are in Iraq, and he stumbles through all the phrases he has memorized to throw out at reporters. This is stunning.
Watching this, it really struck me how imperfectly Bush seems to grasp and be able to replicate his own sloganized version of reality. In Chinese politics, the language of political discourse is highly ritualized and there is a very strange sense of unreality to much of the rhetoric that gets used; on reflection, the same can be said for political language in the US. Of course we can just dismiss it as spin, but I think it goes deeper than that. The verbal constructions that give meaning to the Bush worldview are obviously more powerful to him than the reality of what is going on in Iraq or in Europe or anywhere else.
1 comment:
Watching this, it really struck me how imperfectly Bush seems to grasp and be able to replicate his own sloganized version of reality. In Chinese politics, the language of political discourse is highly ritualized and there is a very strange sense of unreality to much of the rhetoric that gets used; on reflection, the same can be said for political language in the US. Of course we can just dismiss it as spin, but I think it goes deeper than that. The verbal constructions that give meaning to the Bush worldview are obviously more powerful to him than the reality of what is going on in Iraq or in Europe or anywhere else.
Post a Comment