{"id":6678,"date":"2019-07-08T13:54:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T13:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=6678"},"modified":"2019-07-08T13:54:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T13:54:29","slug":"bandwagons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=6678","title":{"rendered":"Bandwagons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Bandwagon\/Michael Pereckas\/Flickr <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is often acknowledged that there is safety in numbers. This can apply to\nall sorts of issues where we want to feel common cause in our likes, dislikes,\nallegiances and concerns. It\u2019s nice to know there are people out there who\nthink like I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in areas involving ethics or morality, knowing that we are part\nof a general consensus regarding, say, the prohibition of capital punishment,\nit is reassuring to know that our country\u2019s legislation wholly supports us.\nEqually, I am relieved to be joined by my friends in regarding UKIP\u2019s policies\nas extremely repugnant. On a frivolous note, I would hope to not stand alone if\nI held out against beehive hairstyles, although maybe Amy Winehouse was the\nexception that proves the rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far so good. But when does allying yourself to a campaign, which is in\ngeneral perceived as a demonstration of commitment, simply become a question of\njumping on to a bandwagon? Most of us receive countless requests through email\nand social media to like\/support\/tweet on a variety of causes and issues, and\ndepending on how much coffee we\u2019ve drunk\/other campaigns we\u2019ve liked\/charities\nwe\u2019ve supported this month, we might click in or just click out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trouble is, as so many psychological experiments have demonstrated, in general\npeople prefer to conform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandwagons are useful things in the appropriate context. The term was\napparently coined by Phineas Barnum, the American circus owner, to describe the\nwagon that transported his circus from place to place. It would be lavishly\ndecorated as the troupe arrived in town, with the aim of attracting as many\npeople as possible to the show.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1848, and also in the US, Dan Rice was a well-known clown and extremely\npopular amongst the general public; as his popularity grew he decided to run\nfor the office of President.  He started\nto use his bandwagon and music as a vehicle to attract attention to his campaign.\nIt was so successful that other politicians strove to join and get a seat on\nhis bandwagon, hoping for success by association. \u2018Jump on the bandwagon\u2019 became\na well-used phrase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Twain said that history doesn\u2019t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Fast forward\nto the present day and Ukraine has, literally, a clown for a President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on politics back home, I can recall the somewhat unfortunate\nspectacle of John Major on his soapbox during his 1992 election campaign \u2013 not\nexactly a bandwagon and I don\u2019t remember the soapbox looking particularly\ndecorative, but he did win after all.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the current battle to decide who will be the next leader of the\nConservative Party, Rory Stewart tried a similar approach, albeit with a handheld\ncamera rather than a soapbox. He didn\u2019t do as well as John Major. Maybe the soapbox\nis the key to political success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the Brexit party bandwagon is racing through the country, assuring us that a no-deal Brexit will lead us all to the land of milk and honey. People seem to be flinging themselves on to it with gay abandon, but the image of lemmings comes to mind here. An elderly acquaintance of mine is French by nationality and has lived in the UK for at least 40 years. Her neighbours hung a Brexit party flag outside their house and told her that \u2018she isn\u2019t wanted here\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this what Messrs Farage and co. have in mind?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

as so many psychological experiments have demonstrated, in general people prefer to conform..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,55,65,56],"tags":[76,97,35,92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6707,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678\/revisions\/6707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}