What every traditional politician aspires to is to transcend any actual effort and just become the brand, while everyone else just maintains it (i.e., them).
That explains why the overwhelming majority of politicians are so much more concerned with narratives and PR optics. It’s not because it’s inherent to politics, though we certainly can be forgiven for thinking that having seen it all our lives. Branding and PR is important in modern times, sure, but really only in service of the work. It’s never, ever more important than the actual work.
No, politics should be the art of negotiating differing opinions to get things done on behalf of communities of people. But instead it’s just people who probably have spent their whole lives thinking about marketing, but instead of going to work at ad agencies to advertise other companies and people, they advertise themselves.
It’s why Mamdani, at least as he exists today (and god, I hope in the future) is so refreshing. He just seems to want to get stuff done.
What every traditional politician aspires to is to transcend any actual effort and just become the brand, while everyone else just maintains it (i.e., them).
That explains why the overwhelming majority of politicians are so much more concerned with narratives and PR optics. It’s not because it’s inherent to politics, though we certainly can be forgiven for thinking that having seen it all our lives. Branding and PR is important in modern times, sure, but really only in service of the work. It’s never, ever more important than the actual work.
No, politics should be the art of negotiating differing opinions to get things done on behalf of communities of people. But instead it’s just people who probably have spent their whole lives thinking about marketing, but instead of going to work at ad agencies to advertise other companies and people, they advertise themselves.
It’s why Mamdani, at least as he exists today (and god, I hope in the future) is so refreshing. He just seems to want to get stuff done.