Self-Caricature
Appropriately, given that the idea of selling off state-owned enterprises has been brought to the fore by the Treasury report, Rodney's opinions on just what the status of TVNZ should be have been floated in the mainstream media. Contrary to what the Herald article may suggest, the ACT leader has held this opinion, and indeed has been pushing it, for a significant amount of time now. It is only now that Rodney's idea has properly made its way into the public eye, due to the fact that it fits in nicely alongside the news stories of Cullen's embarassment at the expressions of the Treasury.
It is surprising what one can find out about Rodney and his personal convictions just by reading his blog. When I say personal, I am meaning that some of the views expressed are somewhat beyond political, in that they would appear to be based on reactionary kneejerking as opposed to sound political thought. I completely accept that Rodney is, indeed, a right-wing politician, and as such he is virtually inherently opposed to socialist ideologies. However, I find it somewhat interesting that, as who I perceive to be an ever-more legitimate politician, Rodney appears to buy into the fear of so-called communism.
Earlier on in the week he described his meeting with his alleged "hero" Wei Jingsheng, a Chinese human rights advocate who, admittedly very bravely, opposes the misleadingly-named Communist Party that is, of course, in power in his home country. It was all very good-natured between them, but despite this I get the general feeling that Rodney is more concerned about the fact that the Chinese state is apparently "communist" than he is about the fact that it's a government that is mercilessly oppressing and repressing people systematically. In his blog entry he mentions that "the communist authorities tried hard to break his [Wei's] spirit" -- to me this shows direct identification with paranoid anti-communism. That Rodney did not capitalise the word "communist" serves to indicate that he is talking about the ideology, as opposed to the party that is in power in China. Ultimately it sounds to me as though Rodney is very afraid of a political system that is, in theory, good natured, and has never actually been realised on a significant scale anywhere in the world.
In the days that have passed since then, on the other hand, Rodney has come out with a number of amusing light-hearted jests that, in my eyes, serve to reinforce the notion that he is, after all, human just like all the people of this country. The jests have the same sort of effect as when footage of Parliament in session is shown on TV, and the MPs are all laughing at each other's statements and saying "ooooh" when one of them takes a stab at another. One example of Rodney's jests was this comment on a statement by Jeanette, which could possibly suggest that he recognises those factors that people unjustly pull him up on, and that he can maintain a sense of humour about them. That's a very admirable and very human position to be able to take.
The best and definitely the most amusing comment, entitled "Oops," was provided by Rodney on Wednesday evening. "Bother," he says, "I just got chucked out of the House by Assistant Speaker Ann Hartley. Unfortunately I am the first MP this session. Not good." Poor Rodney. It is clear that it really is being driven home to him that his ways are not without significant, pseudo-infantile error. In this case he was virtually trying to make satire over the fact that he has been pulled up "countless times" for mispronouncing Tau Henare's name. He thought that he was being intelligently abrasive with the initial comment. It would be apparant that he still thought he was being intelligently abrasive when he objected to the Assistant Speaker's ruling, in what could be perceived to be a performance of heat-of-the-moment antagonism. He would have been brought to back to reality when he was kicked out. One could certainly perceive, though, that he was in touch with reality for the whole spell -- Rodney, after all, acted just like any average person would have in a similar circumstance.
It is surprising what one can find out about Rodney and his personal convictions just by reading his blog. When I say personal, I am meaning that some of the views expressed are somewhat beyond political, in that they would appear to be based on reactionary kneejerking as opposed to sound political thought. I completely accept that Rodney is, indeed, a right-wing politician, and as such he is virtually inherently opposed to socialist ideologies. However, I find it somewhat interesting that, as who I perceive to be an ever-more legitimate politician, Rodney appears to buy into the fear of so-called communism.Earlier on in the week he described his meeting with his alleged "hero" Wei Jingsheng, a Chinese human rights advocate who, admittedly very bravely, opposes the misleadingly-named Communist Party that is, of course, in power in his home country. It was all very good-natured between them, but despite this I get the general feeling that Rodney is more concerned about the fact that the Chinese state is apparently "communist" than he is about the fact that it's a government that is mercilessly oppressing and repressing people systematically. In his blog entry he mentions that "the communist authorities tried hard to break his [Wei's] spirit" -- to me this shows direct identification with paranoid anti-communism. That Rodney did not capitalise the word "communist" serves to indicate that he is talking about the ideology, as opposed to the party that is in power in China. Ultimately it sounds to me as though Rodney is very afraid of a political system that is, in theory, good natured, and has never actually been realised on a significant scale anywhere in the world.
In the days that have passed since then, on the other hand, Rodney has come out with a number of amusing light-hearted jests that, in my eyes, serve to reinforce the notion that he is, after all, human just like all the people of this country. The jests have the same sort of effect as when footage of Parliament in session is shown on TV, and the MPs are all laughing at each other's statements and saying "ooooh" when one of them takes a stab at another. One example of Rodney's jests was this comment on a statement by Jeanette, which could possibly suggest that he recognises those factors that people unjustly pull him up on, and that he can maintain a sense of humour about them. That's a very admirable and very human position to be able to take.
The best and definitely the most amusing comment, entitled "Oops," was provided by Rodney on Wednesday evening. "Bother," he says, "I just got chucked out of the House by Assistant Speaker Ann Hartley. Unfortunately I am the first MP this session. Not good." Poor Rodney. It is clear that it really is being driven home to him that his ways are not without significant, pseudo-infantile error. In this case he was virtually trying to make satire over the fact that he has been pulled up "countless times" for mispronouncing Tau Henare's name. He thought that he was being intelligently abrasive with the initial comment. It would be apparant that he still thought he was being intelligently abrasive when he objected to the Assistant Speaker's ruling, in what could be perceived to be a performance of heat-of-the-moment antagonism. He would have been brought to back to reality when he was kicked out. One could certainly perceive, though, that he was in touch with reality for the whole spell -- Rodney, after all, acted just like any average person would have in a similar circumstance.
posted by Gary at 9:05 am
2 Comments:
Privatisting Telecom was the best thing that ever happened to the country. You never used to be able to call chch during the day because it was such a piece of shit. I expect the same would happen to TVNZ.
Tax. Cut. Act.
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