What binds the opposing forces of creativity and politics?

I have just finished the Netflix series triumph, House of Cards, Season 2. This got me to thinking about the seemingly alien world that has taken hold in the White House.

If I were to baldly describe the plot and subplots, they would appear to be a glory-fest of cold heartedness, scheming and vaulting ambition. Men in immaculate suits cutting through swathes of other less artful men, out-manoeuvring and face-stepping on anyone in their way. Apart from the tasteful decor and fashionably muted tones of the office interiors, how could this possibly relate to the mind-expanding, truth-searching and innovative quests of the creative world that we seek to inhabit?

Let’s compare House of Cards with another series, closer to home. The protagonists of Mad Men seem like light comedians in comparison. Surely the creative community is a fun-loving playground of technicolour, jolly slogans and smiles?

Perhaps not. Perhaps we should own up to the hard-faced, scheming reality we really represent… Anyone involved in the frenzied blood-letting of a creative pitch will have to take the Fifth Amendment if asked about their true state of mind when going into battle.

It might pompously be called ‘strategy’, but in reality its devious brain-power that goes into hyper-drive – every weapon possessed, primed and cocked; every chink in the opposition is agitated, prised and peeled in an effort to surpass them. Win or die. There is no prize for second place. The suits are equally sharp, the relative reward equally great as career ladders are tilted upward.

And the satisfaction of victory… It would make even Frank Underwood and his own Lady Macbeth blanch. Don’t you just love it..

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