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Books
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A Political History of the Two Irelands competition…
It’s not often we get free things to give away to our readers, but courtesy of Palgrave Macmillan we have a nice paperback copy of Brian M Walker’s excellent history of partition of the island and how identities shifted in both the north east and the south and west: as most of the territory that [...] read our review »
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A New Vision for the Catholic Church – Book Review
The oft-quoted verse from the book of Proverbs, ‘where there is no vision, the people perish,’ (chapter 29, verse 18) opens a new book by Gerry O’Hanlon, A New Vision for the Catholic Church: A View from Ireland (Columba Press, 2011). That verse could be considered an apt summary of the current state of the [...] read our review »
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Hearing the Other Voice from the Grave: Why Should we Listen to David Ervine’s Stories?
Ed Moloney’s Voices from the Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland has received considerable attention in the press and in the public realm since its publication earlier this year. Although the book relates the experiences of the Provisional IRA’s Brendan Hughes and the PUP/UVF’s David Ervine, much of the discussion has focused on Hughes’ stories [...] read our review »
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“The slogan was- “Change you can believe in” which I think was quite good, actually.”
Enitled of course Kensei – it’s in the eye of the beholder but “quite good” for what?
A good slogan stimulates a narrative in your mind. To be effective it needs to stimulate the sameish narrative amongst many. I think the most effective messages provide comfort and substance:
“Come home to a real fire”
Got everything really: “Come home” Very reassuring
“Real” – integrity and substance.
And we all know what a real fire looks like.
“Change you can believe in”
“Change” – challenging? dangerous?
“You can believe in” there’s a bit of good in that but not a lot.
He won easily enough though…..
Dewi @ 11:41 AM:
Gawd ‘elp me! Deconstructionism! Wretch! Wretch! Spew! Erque!
Change: surely the essential, all-purpose come-on for any opposition, with the incumbent Prez down in the sub-30% approval ratings, even more so with the promise of a new social relationship across ethnic divides. It picks up the generational shift as well. No Democrat could have missed that word this time: they’re already commissioning the 2012 word — which will turn this lot on its head and involve stability, steady progress, continuity, safety (so get your draft in quickly).
you as opposed to “them”. Would it be even better with “we can believe in …”? Perhaps not: this is going to be “your” victory. not just “mine”/”ours”. Equally, Democrats are not being inclusive here: they want to identify a specific enemy, “them”, and Obama spent a lot of time and effort identifying McCain with Bush — probably not entirely fairly.
can: potential, liberation, ambition — the American dream.
believe: faith, religion, an echo of ML King. Also a direct reminder of “their” past broken promises.
Notice, too, that the impersonal “change to believe in” is less street-wise, more abstract.
No, this is one of Madison Avenue’s best: a 24-carat gold-plated slogan, well worth the six figures it cost to mint.
‘a pile of Americans realised that Palin wasn’t capable of being President.’
Obviously Senator McCain did’nt share that view:(
One wonders if McCain was ‘forced ‘ to pick Palin because others in the running ‘refused’ to join what they perceived as a losing ticket ?
‘Don’t disagree with your analysis but would have been closer.’
Senator Lieberman is now ‘damaged goods’. His support of McCain over Obama was not reflected in the Connecticut voting which Obama won comfortably.
Lol Malcolm – Derrida Rules…love this stuff.