The New Colosseum
As some of you might know, the second presidential debate took place last night. In the customary reaction of this election cycle, it was difficult to decide who was worse. Between Clinton’s calm sprinting away from any question with the words ‘Goldman Sachs’ or ‘emails’, and Trump’s strategy of treating any question as an opportunity to attack, I think it’s more appropriate to declare a ‘survivor’ rather than ‘winner’.
As I watched the carnage, there was something that kept crossing my mind: this may be the first election where the real profiteer isn’t the candidates. Neither is it the corporate donors, lobby groups, or any of the usual beneficiaries of and determinants in politics. Granted, they’re still important factors, but there’s another group that is emerging as an increasingly key player: the media.
The media, of course, is nothing new; it’s always been there, from the first newspapers to the beginning of television. It is, however, a new phenomenon that the media seems to have stopped covering politics as merely a niche programme. Now, from online news to TV to vloggers, it’s treated as just another part of the entertainment.
In 2008, when John McCain was sparring with Obama, did you see the debates as part of your nightly shows? Something you did to relax? Maybe, but probably not. Elections have up until now been reserved for the spectator, the enthusiast, or for ‘ceremonious’ watching by the masses. Today we have Twitter wars between candidates and Senators, ‘debate and chill’ is a thing, and those debates are racking up an unprecedented viewership of over 100 million. There was an article in Bloomberg recently discussing a sharp plummet in the ratings for the NFL this season—a drop is to be expected during election cycles, but not to this degree. The only explanation they could offer was the increased general interest in the ongoing campaign.
It’s been so subtle a transition, almost an unconscious thing, but politics has almost overnight been transformed from a dull exercise of watching two old white people wage formal discussions over their differing point of views, to two old white people ripping into one another like a pair of rabid wolverines, vying for clever remarks and emotional agitation instead of logical superiority and interesting ideas. More emphasis is placed on the reaction from the crowd than the substance of their words.
The sense (though in many ways the illusion) of seriousness, and of sophistication, that previously surrounded the idea of politics and government in our minds seems to have been erased. Though we might lament on this, and wish for the ‘good old days’ when our leaders were ‘civilised’ and ‘respectable’, we then promptly turn around and contribute to the problem. We tune into the debates to watch the comedy, rather than look at positions and proposals. We read the latest ‘unbelievable’ thing to come from Donald Trump’s mouth, or be shocked by the most recent ‘scandalous’ revelation of Hilary’s dubious past, and then discuss this avidly with our friends like fashionable gossip. Politics has essentially become a new form of entertainment.
If you’d lived as a Roman, there would have been no TV waiting at home to avail you from a long day’s work. There would, however, be the Colosseum. High in the stands—the place most affordable for the average citizen—you would let loose and watch the latest pack of lions face off against a horde of elephants, or gladiators fight to the death for freedom and glory. In between the carnage, however, there would have been the ancient forerunners of commercials. Officials would come out and make announcements, politicians would deliver speeches, and criminals would be executed to warn bystanders against similar deeds. All of this was treated as a part of your ordinary routine.
It seems to me that elections, and perhaps by consequence politics by large, have evolved into a new, digital variant of the colosseum. They have become something we watch in our spare time and see through lenses of apathy and cynicism, forgetting that these things actually have massive consequences. Whether or not this trend will survive the excitement of the campaign I can’t say, and if nothing else maybe it will at least get more people to pay attention to their government. However, if this is indeed to be the evolutionary destiny of politics, one can only wonder whether this renewed interest will save America from itself, or help finalise its descent into disgrace.
