look, just kill me, ok?

[substitute]

Courtesy (if that's the best word!) of brevity we have this article, which seems to indicate that our cheesy government and our cheesy TV hosts are converging in the true synergy of the early millennium: Govertainment.

If anyone needs me I'll be screaming in my attic.

Comments

missed my chance!

[flipzagging.livejournal.com]

Heh... didn't think it was LJ-worthy, especially since it's a paid link. Maybe by tomorrow more journalism outlets will be looking into this.

I had long had a related idea to write a short story about govertainment, but as usual events have outstripped satire.

It would go like this: the government machinery for producing legislation is replaced by a free market. Emotion-driven "message" style politics and test-marketing of entertainment would finally merge. One would gain support for a legislative thrust by doing a movie of the week about it. It might star or feature the politician/actor in question, be a multi-million dollar extravaganza, or for less well-heeled lobbyists, simply be Compelling Reality TV. If it got higher ratings than other such movies, and pulled in more advertising dollars, those monies partly go into bribing off the relevant parties to have legislation passed.

Everyone would agree this system was the best, and was in fact just a technological extension of the way it had always been. Economists would laud this efficient market for legislation, uniting the people's wishes and power in a tight feedback loop.