Something Thoughtful

 Nicholas Reid reflects in essay form on general matters and ideas related to literature, history, popular culture and the arts, or just life in general. You are free to agree or disagree with him. 

NODDIES

 Have you yet met the noddies? Surely you have. They crop up on television whenever a general election is looming. When TV news stations report a partisan statement, the noddies stand behind the leader of a political party and vigorously nod their heads in approval of whatever their Great Leader is saying. Whether it is Chris Luxsoap or Chris Pipkins, there stand the noddies, ready to endorse the Great Leader’s words of wisdom. The Great Leader promises Utopia. The Noddies nod, looking like nothing so much as those nodding dogs that used to feature on the dashboards of cars. The Great Leader says that he can fix the economy. The noddies nod. The Great Leader says he will be hard on crime. The noddies nod. The Great Leader says he will make houses affordable. The noddies nod. The Great Leader has a sure-fire way of fixing our shattered public health system. The noddies nod. They do not speak or interject. They voicelessly nod.

Whence came this peculiarity? I suspect that PR experts advise aspiring political leaders that having silent people in the background nodding in approval has a psychological effect upon viewers. To have people standing and nodding behind the speaker creates a sense of solidarity. It suggests that what the Great Leader is saying is the consensus of the masses. The Great Leader must be telling the truth because these mute noddies are endorsing him.

I have sometimes thought of applying to be a noddy. After all, you don’t have to learn any lines and you just have to nod in the right places. It must be easy. Unfortunately, the noddies always belong to the Great Leader’s political party. They are usually from the front benches – ministers [or shadow ministers] of the Great Leader. Having the Minister of Health or the Minister of Finance standing behind the Great Leader and nodding approval creates the illusion that the Great Leader’s party is one big happy and united team. Which is why one so often sees Nicola Will-less standing behind or next to Luxsoap nodding furiously; or Grant Robberson doing ditto behind or beside Pipkins.

Of course this is purely for show. We know that front bench ministers and shadow-ministers are devious and ambitious creatures. They never stand whole-heartedly behind their Great Leader. As soon as the Great Leader loses an election, the nodding ministers will be looking for ways to replace the Great Leader, each noddy putting himself or herself forward. A back-stabbing coup ensues and the mute noddies suddenly become vocal antagonists. Mercifully, we peasants don’t hear most of their mud-slinging and recriminations for losing an election, as the fight takes place mainly behind closed doors. But there will always be some who make the party’s dirty washing public, and then we hear prominent noddies failing to be mute.