Tweetolitics
Op-ed
The modern world doesn’t need any more portrayal than it already enjoys. We all know that it has become digital, which in essence means that the fulminant spread of any amount of information throughout the world has become possible. No sooner is a word uttered somewhere on the earth, then it reaches our ears wherever we happen to be on the surface of the planet at the very moment of its utterance. The time for a message to reach its target has shortened to a mindboggling extent: sending a message has become more than cheap, and the effort used on dispatching a note has turned into nothing. So the info-boom and its light-speed distribution have changed almost every piece and facet of human life. Except politics, though!
Notwithstanding the pungent smell of drastic change in the air, politics is still done by means of using a lot of words, time, money and energy. For instance, the American presidential candidates are publicly bickering about their views and hues, this making no sense because both have a readily accessible tool to express themselves just by tweeting. The tweet may have a higher level of distribution and influence over the listening public than any other means for telling them what a presidential candidate is promising the country. Just one little tweet can turn the world upside down, depending on the charge of the message, delivered by a quick and brief snap. So much for their Excellencies of other nations!
Let us now talk about our own political caboodle and its truculent inside-outs. What we the people need in these pre-election days is a brief piece of info on what the running animal represents as a person and a politician, plus a clear message from the challenger on what his or her plan is for bettering our lives. That’s all we need – literally! So any wannabe can punch into his computer a couple of lines about his intentions, hit the button, and bingo – the tweet is out and we all know what we can expect as a result. What we are getting instead is a round-the-clock earsplitting and nervous gabble and twaddle on how indispensable and irreplaceable this or that politically overexcited man or woman is, exuding the same exactly verbal content. This is so tiring! And boring! And unlikely to yield into anything very useful for us the people!
There is hardly a family in Georgia living without a computer and internet access today, and of course without a cell phone capable of any sort of a communicative magic. I wouldn’t even use a big box, called a TV set. Just tweet me and I know what you want from me. When I say ‘tweet’ I mean any handy tool of sending out information by an electronic medium. There can’t be a better way to buy my vote if you need one. Look at President Trump of the United States: he is doing much better with his out-of-the-blue tweets than in a direct presidential debate, which takes a lot of time, money and energy to be organized and broadcast.
It is high time for all of us on Earth to understand that democracy is surely staying with us, but that it has acquired certain sophisticated electronic instruments for executing its functional essence, which is totally different from what we used in the past to put our best choices in the offices that be. Imagine a picture of turning Politics into Tweetolitics in Georgia: we, the voting penguins, are sitting at home, happily ensconced on fluffy sofas and in comfy armchairs, sipping on a glass of wine and staring at the screens of our comps and cells that are tweetting away handy information for us to make the most educated electoral choice, all this happening without need to join in abominable street broils and rows, or listen to those eternally ubiquitous politicians stuffing into our poor ears the hateful propaganda of which we might soon run amuck if we don’t manage to stay away. What a piece of bliss this could be!
By Nugzar B. Ruhadze
Image source: fivethirtyeight.com