Hardhats and...

The hardhat symbolizes work and honesty, so when we see a politician wearing one our nerves should bristle. The image of a polished shovel gleaming as it rips into the soil, its happy wielder joyfully looking at the cameras and ignoring the earth itself, says all we need to hear. But it doesn't: instead people are filled with the hope that the sight of a job getting done brings with it. If the government builds homeless shelters, why not have homeless people themselves breaking the earth and earning a living (and a place to live) with their own labour? Politicians earn their living finding money and a place for projects, but taking credit for the actual labour of creation often appears to be their real job—ensuring the continuation of their own species—as if they were new fathers wearing their hospital gowns and having their pictures taken in the delivery chair, feet in the stirrups, gleaming forceps about to penetrate their nether regions.