What is politics?

Turkish politicians brawl on the floor of parliament. Photo by Burhan Ozbilici, AP

A surprising amount of our communication about politics takes place in metaphor, analogy and assumption. These can be surprisingly powerful — and confining — setting the terms of discussion in ways we're rarely aware of. Whether you view politics as a revolution, a slow tinkering process or a noble stand against decadence, that image is going to influence what actions you think are acceptable and what goals you pursue. It will shape who you dislike, who you trust and what you believe should be done to them. Those images and group identity, more than actual policy, are often the prime drivers of political activity.

Yesterday, I put out a call over Twitter for readers to send in their short (eight words or less) political metaphors and analogies. I'll repeat that request here, and add in some classical thoughts on the matter. Send 'em on and I'll put 'em up.

"Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards."

-Max Weber

"This is how change happens, though. It is a relay race."

-Alice Walker

"I've always said that in politics, your enemies can't hurt you, but your friends will kill you."

-Ann Richards

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies."

-Groucho Marx

"The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world."

-Jimmy Carter

"Politics is the art of the possible."

-Otto Von Bismarck

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."

-John Kenneth Galbraith

"Politics is war by other means."

-Carl Von Clausewitz

"Politics is who gets what, when and how."

-Harold Lasswell

"All politics is local."

-Tip O'Neill

"The finest form of free entertainment ever invented."

-Molly Ivins

"Poetry is about grief. Politics is about the grievance."

-Robert Frost

"The art of reconciling aspirations."

-Bruce Sterling, in the novel Distraction

"Being nibbled to death by cats."

-J. Michael Straczynski, from Babylon 5

"Morals: lubricant for the machinery of social justice."

-Wolven

"People only lose if the interests continue spreading $"

-ashvillein

Lastly, even though it's not really a metaphor, these are both pieces of sage advice:

"All of us who are concerned for peace and the triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field."

-Albert Einstein

"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-Plato

(A tip o' the hat to Cat Vincent for the Sterling and Straczynski quotes)

Comments

[twitter.com/catvincent]

Glad to be helpful!

And if you've not read it, Distraction is a hilarious near-future tale of political gamesmanship, set in a bankrupt USA which looks more and more likely. One of The Chairman's best.