"I'm a Pillar of My Community"

Hat tip to my friend Lee who sent me this story about a death metal artist forced to serve on local government against his will. It sounds like something from the mind of a first-year MFA creative writing student, but it's all too real.

It started last year, when Norway’s Liberal Party recruited Nagell to run for a backup town council seat.

“I said yeah, thinking I would be like 18th on the list and I wouldn’t really have to do anything,” Nagell told the music site CLRVYNT.

As election season approached, however, Nagell sensed he might actually have a chance at winning. So he did what anyone in his position might and set out to sabotage his bid.

“My campaign was a picture of me holding my cat saying, ‘Please don’t vote for me,’ ” he told CLRVYNT....

They did anyway.

Apparently charmed by his lack of enthusiasm for the office, Kolbotn residents voted for him overwhelmingly.

“People just went nuts,” said Nagell, who now serves as an alternate representative on the council for the town of 9,000.

“I’m not too pleased about it. It’s boring,” he said. “There’s not a lot of money in that, either, I can tell you.”

I'm not sure if it says more about me or the state of politics that this "funny" post made me kind of sad. Our own country's Presidential election has made it clear that a candidate doing everything possible to turn off voters is actually somehow attractive because that's how much people like or trust the "establish" that indifference or even contempt is somehow considered admirable. But also, you know, death metal and a cat.