Up Front by Emma Hart

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Up Front: What's the Big Idea?

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  • nzlemming,

    there’ll be another bit of utter crazy along in a minute,

    Gold!

    So much this.
    I've been saying to Labour people for ages: "Give us something to vote for - don't rely on us voting against the government, just because you think it must be your turn by now"

    Waikanae • Since Nov 2006 • 2937 posts Report Reply

  • Dinah Dunavan,

    I really miss my bath.

    Dunedin • Since Jun 2008 • 186 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    You've nailed it Emma. I don't know whether to write an epic post or continue just sorting out the minutiae ATM. I do know this - I won't write it while I'm paying for parking, and I really should fix that fucked door handle in my tenant's bedroom and fix the fuse that's blown first. Then it will be kids and dinner and homework and assignments and shitloads more statistics study, and then it will be Friday evening, my one night out with the lads. Perhaps I should do it after then. Or perhaps not at all. I haven't felt so indecisive about writing in 20 years. I don't know if this is a middle-aged thing, an X-gen thing, a Left wing thing, a cautious statistician thing or dismay at international politics.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Tim Michie,

    there’ll be another bit of utter crazy along in a minute,

    usually immediately after a policy announcement, derailing the conversation from a significant issue to one guy's brainfart.

    Bathos indeed.

    Auckward • Since Nov 2006 • 614 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Max Harris expanding on a politics of love.

    Love, in sum, is a deep sense of warmth directed towards another. This approach, which I developed with the New Zealand writer Philip McKibbin, highlights love’s depth and directedness. It’s consistent with self-love, which involves a deep sense of warmth being directed towards our own selves. The word ‘warmth’ gets at the outpouring of goodwill that is associated with love. And warmth can take more specific forms, such as affection, attention, care, and concern.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • mark taslov,

    But I want a country where everyone can feel safe, no matter their race or sex or orientation or gender identity.

    Until New Zealand actually recognises gender identity – not contingent on spending hundreds of dollars – not contingent on undergoing medical procedures – not contingent on fronting up to gatekeeper shrinks who have allegedly been bequeathed the necessary attributes to both identify and as such define gender – i.e basic recognition that we exist by our own account – accompanied by a strident public awareness campaign – safety will continue to feel like a secondary concern.

    Steps aside as trans allies fall over themselves clamoring to assist trans people in fighting structural discrimination.

    meanwhile

    Te Ika-a-Māui • Since Mar 2008 • 2281 posts Report Reply

  • TracyMac,

    The word on the street prior to elections is often that people are "sick of negative politics". Personally, I'm sick of reactionary politics (in terms of reacting to what the other mugs are doing), which pretty much epitomises the Australian Labor party's "strategy".

    So I definitely think there's a place for visionary words, followed by "this is how we intend to do it".

    Why reinforce the "old message". For example, by prefixing statements about housing cost blow-outs with "the National govt". I think it's more powerful to actually not name them - talk about the "last few years", talk about the current policies that are making things worse, but even most importantly, describe YOUR strategy for fixing them.

    The more you sound like you're engaging in a tit for tat war with the Nats (or Winnie, or whoever), the more defensive you sound, and the less assured you seem about the intrinsic merit of your solutions. And the less you sound like you have an attainable vision of your own.

    Canberra, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 701 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    Long John Balladry…

    we could do a little bit of that campaigning in poetry

    It’s a doggerel eat doggerel world out there…
    ..and vice versification.

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • mark taslov, in reply to TracyMac,

    The more you sound like you’re engaging in a tit for tat war with the Nats (or Winnie, or whoever), the more defensive you sound, and the less assured you seem about the intrinsic merit of your solutions.

    That’s exactly the feeling I had reading this. One minute we were focused on the dire need to fix our mental health system – nek minute defending an activist group. Hook, line and sinker.

    Te Ika-a-Māui • Since Mar 2008 • 2281 posts Report Reply

  • Jeanette King,

    I, too, love my bath.

    Ōtautahi • Since Oct 2010 • 43 posts Report Reply

  • Shaun Scott,

    Yes, govern in prose. But maybe we could do a little bit of that campaigning in poetry first?

    Perfect.

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2008 • 90 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    Then I remembered that they don’t have any kind of PR, and all English people can do is vote for their local MP

    If you wouldn't mind, can you point this out to our entire press corps, who insist on reporting evey single election as if it's presidential under a PR system? Cheers.

    Or how to spell the plural of ‘dildo’.

    Oh great. Another thing to worry about. Thanks a bunch, Emma.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell, in reply to Rich Lock,

    you can avoid that problem, “she threw a dildo, an then another one, then a whole ….” .... oh crap what’s the collective noun ….

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • nzlemming, in reply to Paul Campbell,

    oh crap what’s the collective noun

    A carton, or a drawer. Perhaps a stash?

    Waikanae • Since Nov 2006 • 2937 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    I particularly love the idea of a bath full of wine. I could so go for that right now.

    Collective nouns for dildos (N.B. my spellchecker doesn’t allow an “e”) … TBH the first image that came to mind was a “pincushion”; but sufficient quantity for typical use more simply suggests … a fuckload. (BTW I’m getting a spelling error message for that word, and hilariously the suggested correction is “cuckold”, which may say something about how far this spellchecker should be trusted.)

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • mark taslov, in reply to nzlemming,

    Submission: a comb of dildo (adhesion req.).

    Te Ika-a-Māui • Since Mar 2008 • 2281 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Paul Campbell,

    “she threw a dildo, an then another one, then a whole ….”
    …. oh crap what’s the collective noun ….

    I'm thinking 'a clutch'
    or 'a handful'
    perhaps even
    'a plenitude of pene-forms'

    Though it's a concept I usually keep at arm's length...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • andin,

    bit of that campaigning in poetry first?

    Yes big ideas expressed elegantly and simply, in a way that resonate's our rattled psyche's.
    You want this from our leaders who now call themselves 'politicians' not lords, dukes and sirs?
    Don't we all!
    I imagine some trusty underling scuttling along a vaulted corridor with the news.
    "Milord, milord the peasants are revolting!"
    Yep the message is misunderstood yet again.

    And so it goes...

    raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report Reply

  • linger, in reply to andin,

    “Milord, milord the peasants are revolting!”

    "Yes, horrible little drug-addled oiks, aren’t they.”
    “No, milord, I mean they’re taking up arms.”
    “What sort of arms?”
    *sproing*
    "Pitchfucks.”

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart, in reply to mark taslov,

    Submission: a comb of dildo (adhesion req.).

    Well, if we're using bananas as a metric, then a hand?

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    Bennett’s speech was forced to end after cries of “Give her a hand!” led to a shower of dildos. One eyewitness later described it as “a dildonic plague”.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson, in reply to Emma Hart,

    OK, I'm going to stop feeling guilty about taking the call for a big idea seriously and failing to even deliver a small one. Maybe, just maybe, it will actually be dildos that save the world. The Dildocalypse is coming. Dildogeddon, when consciousness emerges in the Dongularity. Good Vibes coming!

    But! Beware the Dickening!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • mark taslov, in reply to Emma Hart,

    Well, if we're using bananas as a metric, then a hand?

    Naturally I defer to you on matters of this nature.

    Te Ika-a-Māui • Since Mar 2008 • 2281 posts Report Reply

  • mark taslov, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    I’m thinking ‘a clutch’

    captures the ergonomics fittingly.

    Te Ika-a-Māui • Since Mar 2008 • 2281 posts Report Reply

  • william blake,

    Collective noun of dildi: a parliament.

    Since Mar 2010 • 380 posts Report Reply

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