Friday 5 October 2012

pageantry or deconstructing dumbo

Proctoring and participating in something established, like a formal debate, is confounded with expectations, necessarily anticipating that one defend and champion his causes over those of his opponent and the demands of the audience to see that conviction come, that overlay the chest puffing and stepping up to the challenge not only with the notion that a leader be unflinching but also polished, rehearsed and unhesitating.
Rhetoric and delivery are the vehicles of these matches, but they are only that—shiny and serviceable and not the chosen weapons in a duel or necessarily acquainted with civil negotiations outside this particular venue.
Rhetoric and delivery are also indicative of substance and style, and aside from keeping a tighter rein on the direction of talk, which was possibly a miscalculation and under- estimating but more likely a sign of exasperation for having to play to a farce or a baiting tactic that allows one’s adversary to dispatch and exhaust all the questions with prepared answers early on, thoughtfulness and circumspection seem indeed more befitting leadership. There was not an unwillingness to engage, as opposed to the true disdain and disregard revealed on the other side and pandering to an unallied demographic, but rather a weariness similar to being pressed to action by hateful stunts, where there’s also precious little chance for listening. Personally, I find it hard to believe—not having scrutinized the show play-by-play with the benefit of pundits and talking-heads, that anyone was much out of character, and proclaiming victory in these first rounds rings pretty hollow and is just a projection of bias and foregone conclusions. L’esprit d’escalier, staircase wit, thinking of better come-backs as one is walking away, maybe cannot redeem a supposedly bad night but the will to regroup and improve is certainly more withering in the long term. Perhaps, like the manifesto that’s based on math-magic and is malleable to the magical-thinking of the what the audience wants to hear, it was important to see that the challenger can perform, though over-exposure reveals the performance.