Our Crazy Polarised Politics

Why do we hate politicians or is that a dumb question? Listening to all the vitriol you could be forgiven for thinking that they are some kind of separate species to the rest of us; that they have a different DNA predisposing them to corruption, dishonesty and all those other negative attributes with which we so readily condemn them.

 

Of course there will be really bad ones, but overall, are they really so different to the rest of us – and I’m thinking here of reasonably sensible and established democracies?  If we were in the same positions, would we be any different or better? The answer to that is probably not. Power corrupts, so they say, and if any of us were to be given access to that power, then we may already be starting to delude ourselves if we think we would be different. We look at politicians with their elastic morality. "We are not like that; we would not be corrupted like them, or do or say the things they do", or so we think. And as we do, are we not becoming guilty of dressing ourselves up, like proverbial emperors, in the cheap robes of our own smug, self-delusions. I'll bet most politicians, left, right, up, down or inside out, all thought exactly the same, when their individual idealism and honest intentions were yet to confront the real world.

 

Perhaps some of it is down to how they are now so often career politicians who've never really worked or lived in the real world, remote from the public and obsessed with clinging on to office. It's that ruthless streak of self-preservation and the willingness to do or say what necessary to stay in power. Sounds like an emotion a lot of us share, especially if our jobs or livelihoods are threatened.

 

It's the same with political parties. Just listen to them. Have they all gone mad? And more seriously, have we as we journey down the super highway of angry intolerance, hoarse with shouting and the waving of our verbal fists.  Every side spews forth its own torrent of effluent for this is no longer about a civilised difference of opinions; all reason seems too often to have fled way to be replaced by something that sounds like it's based upon raw fury alone. Just listen to the anger about the outcome of the US mid-terms for instance. Anyone might think there had been some kind of military putsch. It's an election and a mid-term one at that. Put it in perspective - these things are cyclical. People die for the right to vote. It seems some are now on the verge of giving themselves near fatal aneurysms based upon the outcome of one.

 

It's the same in many other places too. The outcome of an election too often heralds a period of rioting, clamp downs and messy compromises. Why are we all so angry and intolerant (wait for the retorts "it's not us, it's them")? Generally, humans are seeing a broad trend towards living longer and have rising standards of living and health care. Poverty and child mortality are on the decline and have been for years. More and more people now benefit from improving levels of education; literacy is rising. Yes, perpetually angry pedants can always point to painful exceptions, however, we seem to be getting more and more angry about less and less. Everybody....just chill out a bit.....after all, they've just legalised marihuana in Washington DC.