Political Opportunism

Many people are in positions of power, including those we refer to as Accidental Politicians. The electorate continues to elect persons best described as clowns and “rough diamonds” due to Stockholm syndrome and a conditioned mind.

They lack the wherewithal to steer their country forward. Instead, they’re ‘famous for being famous.’ They’re clueless about what governance is all about.

“He knows nothing,” says George Bernard Shaw, “and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.”

They indulge in demagoguery, through which the electorate falls prey to their unsubstantiated manifesto, controversies, and empty rhetoric.

It’s embarrassing and ludicrous that some Red Chambers have turned into a political circus, a pantomime, an organized disaster, and a cataclysm of frustration.

Their proceedings are nothing but a dime a dozen where they constantly ‘beat their gums.’ Therefore, to unshackle this chain of political dingbats, “we must terminate our loyalty to ineffectiveness, pursue a goal that satisfies the future yearning and not the one that pacifies the current hunger.”

Should we continue in this disorder, leaving governance in the hands of those anxious about future elections and not future generations? Not at all, but regrettably, “the oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.” ―Karl Marx.

It is painful when people are brainwashed through different means, leaving them vulnerable to the mercy of their creator. More painful is that “Of all kinds of credulity, the most obstinate is that of party-spirit; of men, who, being numbered, they know not why, in any party, resign the use of their own eyes and ears, and resolve to believe nothing that does not favour those whom they profess to follow.” ―Samuel Johnson. 

These ‘accidental politicians’ hardly refrain from politics of calumny. They’re ‘economical with the truth’. In their cynical and deceptive attitude, they utilize blame games to conceal their incompetence, forgetting that “a leader may inherit either an untoward situation and turns things around or an impressive one, and continues with the transformation.” These unpolished politicians speak with both mouths in public. As if to say it’s anosognosia, they suffer from chronic denial syndrome as they are so quick to deny every public statement, they make capable of implicating them. Since they’re in the corridors of power not by meritocracy but as a stooge to do the bidding of their oligarchs, they can’t perform any magic or anything better. Meanwhile, some of them are in the corridors of power either because no one is willing or able to challenge their candidacy or because they rigged their way through. ‘These accidental politicians are so myopic that they’re willing and can comfortably compare a dog with a rabbit because of their penchant for rabbits.’ Having metamorphosed into Religious and Racial bigotry and with a holier-than-thou attitude, they bent on enslaving the mind of the younger generation. They ‘pit one against another’ using race, culture, or religion to perpetuate the act. Their meteoric rise in politics, an undignified one, has placed them in a position where they continuously display a foolish sense of importance. In that case, they glare even at any slightest provocation and constructive criticism. They fancy talking down on anyone whose idea appears complex to their myopic reasoning style, not minding that ” Politics means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state”. —Max Weber

Furthermore, the masses are being steered through political manipulation and, mind control, cultural and religious indoctrination, which repudiate the integrant of a dynamic world such that they perpetuate the culture of fear in the citizenry’s life. To that effect, the conditioned mind will be reinforced by the religious and racial bigots who claim to uphold traditional values devoid of imagination, inspiration, and innovation. These “Moral crusaders with zeal but no ethical understanding are likely to give us solutions that are worse than the problems.” —Charles Colson. Undoubtedly, “Great leaders can see the greatness in others when they can’t see it themselves and lead them to their highest potential they don’t even know.” ―Roy T. Bennett.   

Incidentally, there is a growing concern by the enlightened, progressive-minded youths and the voice of reason, those who are fazed by the decay in the polity, that there should be a paradigm shift with regard to governance. These people who are not submerged by the concept of Stockholm syndrome reiterate that most of those who occupy the seat of power have no sense of value, a guaranteed disaster’ without a vision for the younger generation. In their brute struggle for political relevance, they prefer to muddy the walls and floors of every government parastatal. Their preoccupation with a political dichotomy is an archetype of ants fighting for crumbs while famine metastasizes. However, suppose we’re ready and willing to change the status quo. In that case, we must concur with Louis D. Brandeis’s advice as he says, “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel the invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding”.

The only thing real is their lust for power and love for provocative statements. Simultaneously, their lust for power transcends morals, ethics, and apparent piousness. Anthony de Mello was right when he said, “These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness, and worship without awareness.”

These opportunists claim to be ‘Primus inter pares’ (first among equals) and ‘sacred cows.’ Sequel to that, they uphold a political culture of identity, cronies, and personalities without focusing on ideas and principles or intellectual discourse that could result in significant policies.

According to Joe Biden, “Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs”. How long will we wait to see things being directed towards the right path? The crux of the matter is that if we fail to uphold sanity, continue rationalizing mediocrity at the expense of magnificent, hereditary aristocracy in place of meritocracy, and defend the indefensible, it’ll be difficult to escape from the prison of our taskmasters. “We are like bears pacing in a cage,” says Anthony de Mello. “Even if the cage is removed, we keep pacing in the same timid limits. We are afraid to get out”.

We are just like spectators on the football field, watching how the game is being played. So, should we continue to sit back and feign ignorance of the transformation process? It’s distressing that “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” ―Maya Angelou Stay tuned…

March 31, 2023 March 31, 2023Categories

Political Opportunism

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