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generating an appearance of political unanimity for the camera is an old tactic--it worked pretty well in "triumph of the will" for example.
these events are for tv viewers. it is understood as important that the Leader utter his Propositions before a unified and adoring public. the insistence on the appearance of unanimity seems to follow from the logic of hyper-nationalist politics---so it is also important that the unified and adoring public be the mirror of the symbols of national idenitity (flags) and of presidential power (the seal).
i am inclined to think that the nonsense cited at the beginning of the thread---its persistence in contemporary american pseudo-politics- (this is not a matter of absolute origin, btw)-- is yet another thing that we can thank ronald reagan for--it seems to me linked to the practices of press pooling, choking off access to unofficial information about conflict where-ever possible. it seems that his administration believed that controlling information was necessary to control opinion, and that they blamed the absence of such control for their fiction of the "vietnam syndrome".....in this, as in so many things, the reaganites followed margaret thatcher's lead.
quite a democratic way to think, isnt it?
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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