I am nudged into this post by my e-pal, Michael, who in a comment to the post below vehemently disagrees with my suggestion that, in effect, politicians are us. I can understand his 'Shlock-Horror' given that so many politicians are more or less total A1 shits of the first order. Surely, we all say as we shudder, we're not like them. Sorry and all that but oh yes we are!
It's another version of 'Dubya's famous "vision thang" but using the word 'vision' in the strict sense of seeing. The fact is that we 'see' politicians on an almost daily basis and because we have political opinions we find ourselves disagreeing with at least half of them and dismissing them as fools and poltroons. Also, because we live in democracies our pols are watched fairly closely and in the end any bad behavior usually floats to the surface like a 'you-know-what'!
Now, just suppose for a moment that the people who live in your neighbourhood - including you and yours! - were placed under the same glare of public scrutiny on a 24-hour, 365-day basis. Oh my, what secret naughtinesses would be displayed. And in some cases, the, er, 'naughtinesses' would be nauseating! Of course, in a sense it doesn't matter because by and large our neighbours do not have power over us which is why, on the whole, we leave them alone with their secrets and they leave us alone with ours.
Unfortunately, and despite our fervent wishes that it wasn't so, we need politicians. That has been the way of the world since Man began to congregate. The ability to be a great politician is an exceedingly rare gift, so most of them are second-raters - or worse! They undertake it for a variety of reasons which cover the gamut of human strengths and weaknesses. Most, more or less, fail! Some get lucky - I think of Churchill who was by general opinion up to WWII dismissed as a totally untrustworthy, romantic buffoon.
Now, my e-pal, Michael, seems to say that we can do without politicians. Not so, Michael, alas, someone has to stand up on the platform with the levers of state power before them and take public responsibility for the outcomes. Without them there would be chaos - or dictatorship. The most that 'We, the People' can hope for is a chance at regular intervals to turf the rascals out. Nor should the hideous difficulties of coping with those immense responsibilities be ignored. Matters of war and peace, of economic probity, of social justice and so on are not easy and rarely clear cut. They require judgment, cunning, intelligence and experience. Would you really trust those sorts of decisions to the bloke who lives next door? Perhaps more to the point, would he want to go within a mile of them?! He might sound off in his local bar or, dare I say, on his blog!, but actually taking on those sorts of responsibilities would concentrate his mind wonderfully!
No, I'm sorry to say that we really do need the rascals but of course we should take every opportunity to hurl rotten veg at them and, when we see them on a platform, pace the late, great Auberon Waugh, insist that they show us their willies!
