Are today's politicians all crooks or just plain stupid?
The image that keeps occurring to me to describe the current situation is the world, is that of the ship "Titanic". The world is the ship and it's slowly sinking; meanwhile - because there is no competent captain - the passengers are squabbling amongst themselves as which cabin they have and what the furnishings should be and who can be where. The crew that is there, is trying frantically to warn the passengers and trying to slap patches on the multiple leaks, but nobody is listening because they are too busy squabbling.
The politicians are the stupid passengers and the crew that's trying to do something are the many people trying to do something which the idiocies of the politicians have caused with their "this is mine and I want to keep it" attitude which totally ignores the real situation in which, not only the earth as our home but also most of the people living on it, find themselves.
In the West we have an obesity problem, in the South people are starving. In the West we want everything so cheaply, that only slavery can produce at the price we buy stuff at. We spend trillions on weapons wherever we are, most of which are considered obsolete and never used within a short time span. Talk about Nero fiddling while Rome burns!
Along the equator more and more countries are suffering from such terrible drought that the only option for those living there is to migrate to places where there is still enough water to grow crops, but those countries do everything to prevent migration. Genocide is taking place wherever we look, based on the excuse of the differences between people instead of understanding the far more important commonality of wanting to survive in reasonable conditions.
Every day we read about another politician who has used the position for self enrichment or for personal aggrandisement . Corruption is everywhere. We see companies (in particular their leaders) - especially in the commodities markets - who exploit not only the earth's riches, but also people working for them, just to increase profits and fill their personal bank accounts. We have so many billionaires and so many more with nothing and the truly sick thing is that most people would like to trade places with them and be stinking rich themselves.
We see dictators who have not learnt the most preached thing in all management theories: a happy people will work much better together and individually than an oppressed people. Fear is deemed the best management method, be it by ruthless killers in power or within the workplace with threats of loosing a job.
Given that the ship is sinking, to me corruption and stupidity go hand-in-hand. Will we learn that feeling good, feeling happy - which is what everyone seems to want to be - has never and will never be achieved by these negative means. Every corrupt leader and politician has to constantly look over their shoulder in case somebody tries to stop them. Perhaps they should go and work with a funeral director or a pathologist to see what their inevitable end will be, whatever they do. Will that realisation happen? Not in my lifetime.
My definition of an illusion is of something that appears to have permanence but is, in fact, changeable. Everything is constantly changing but we desperately try to make stop that. On of the words I really dislike, is "Tradition"; it's a tradition, we've always done it like that; it's always been like this. No it's never been the same, it may appear like that, but just as each one of us grows older and changes over time, so does everything else. The proof of the illusion is all around us, even in us, and yet, we don't accept that, we try to stop change. In this way, our corrupt politicians try to maintain at least a status quo, especially if they find themselves in a situation they like. It's impossible, but in trying to do the impossible, they are quite happy for millions of people to suffer and carry the pain of their greed and stupidity.
I also suspect that even when millions have died through malnutrition and lack of water, those remaining will be bitterly fighting each other for what remains.
And you voters, what are you going to do? Keep supporting the idiots? All it takes is to not play the game. Ah, but then I'll suffer at the hands of the idiots, I hear you say. True, but you are suffering at the hands of the idiots anyway. The main cause of Russian revolution was hunger amid the indifference of the elite. When you're starving, you might as well die through your attempt at revolution as from starvation. People with nothing to loose are the greatest fear that corrupt politicians and leaders fear. So, give them games and bread. Currently that option is working for many, but for how long?
It's a sad state of affairs and each one of us has to look at themselves and ask the question: am I part of the problem or part of the solution?
