I read in a book once (shit, I never retain things like who wrote it, title etc) that a kind of media spin tool used by various famous and infamous people is to ask people to choose or answer a question whilst assuming a premise. One of the most famous cited was Adolf Hitler, master of the media and knowledge of the human mind. In his famous 'Jewish Question' as he called it, he would ask " What shall we do about the Jewish question?" The assumption is that there is a problem, its just what are we going to do about it! It is a technique both masterful and dastardly.
Imagine if I said, (to use an exaggerated example) "How shall we best administer corporal punishment?" "By hanging, lethal injection, electric chair or firing squad?". The premise is that we already have decided on corporal punishment. But people by and large don't pick that up Ok, I choose lethal injection. Wait a minute! Inherent in the situation is our hard- wiring; our desire to trust authority, that 'somebody' knows or 'somebody' has decided.
Fast forward to our joke referendum papers on the flag design which ended up in my mailbox a couple of days ago. Pretty basic fuckup to ask people if they want a new flag after they've chosen one. I heard the politicians debating the flawed document, but now I've seen it for myself I'm a bit stunned. Here's an example below I did as a sendup
It's back to front for a reason though. It took me a really long time before I warmed to the idea of changing the flag. Then once I saw the flag I preferred I became resolute. If you had asked me at the beginning, one year ago, I would have told you that I didn't want a flag change. People need time to chew the fat on subjective issues like this. So I think the process has been about right. (I would make subtle changes)
ReplyDeleteI was at my friends yesterday and I asked "Would anyone like a cup of tea?" to which someone answered "It depends on what kind of tea you have" which is kind of what you are saying. However if I like the existing flag and don't want to change then its weird as my cartoon points out.You could argue that the (resistant to change)voter may be swayed by an even greater variation of designs. At the afternoon tea mentioned above someone said: how about a greater number of designs (based on popularity) and include the current one. Rank them.One referendum. We came up with that much better process over a cup of tea. Which doesn't say much for the months of powerful thinking in meeting rooms.
DeleteGlad to see there are other people that can see why the referendum was done this way. Also if the question of whether to change the flag or not was done first, then we would either be locked into the flag that was chosen in the second referendum, or we would need a third referendum to see if the majority of New Zealanders were ok with the outcome of the second referendum. (I know it seems like the majority should be but we if the vote is a tight one then their may be just over a fifth of the voter population in favour of the winning flag. With 2 flags near identical and 3 of them having the silver fern as the main feature there's every chance this race will be close).
ReplyDeleteIf you mean a majority liked a design, that's not locked in, that's democracy No, you voted for either keep the flag or get another. If you voted for keeping the current one, then there aint anything to do in the second. If you voted for a new flag, you choose in the second.So you could veto the vote if you didnt like the one chosen. You could opt for the current flag, which you may not like, if you didnt like the results of the first referendum. Aaarrgghh! Negative voting. I think it could still be done so that people are voting for what they want, and in one hit.
DeleteThe potato analogy is fallacious for a number of reasons, and misrepresents the flag situation.
ReplyDelete- You already have a particular type of potato.
- You have to have a potato of some kind - that is not up for discussion.
- The second question should be "Do you want to change your existing potato?".
If you actually frame it correctly, it doesn't look so bad.
Yeah ok, we dont already have potato. It wasnt a direct analogy. I was making a comment on the clumsiness of the referendum.
Delete