As the formal intermediary between language and power, the bard plays a key role in post-tribal society by manufacturing social cohesion through the application of communication techniques that constantly connect the political to the mythical and vice versa. Strikingly similar bardic work is carried out today by spin doctors as they manufacture the form of social cohesion necessary to produce electoral majorities utilising communication techniques that intertwine politics and image. To confront the present wave of cynicism about democracy requires the democratisation of spin doctoring and a return to the practices of the bard in order to re-create the dynamic relationship between language and power that recovers both the political force of myth and the mythical dimension of politics.