Actually it is the Religion of Politics more the Politics of Religion that is the problem.
August 10th 2008 06:01
Actually it is the Religion of Politics more the Politics of Religion that is the problem.
Who do you vote for and why?
Chances are many people would put their hand up for one side consistently. There are swinging voters but deep down they do have a preference for one particular side. The side that gives them what they want. Yet rather than admit that it is all about themselves they try to confuse matters with a concoctions of conscience appeasing ideologies. Throw a few noble ideals as justification and people feel better almost instantly.
Some tough guys need to display their toughness or it would be pointless accepting the title; smart people sometimes need to show people how smart they are; some qualified people love to show their diplomas but self serving people need to show that they are not self serving from time to time. Not that there is anything wrong with selfish motives but a little ideology flavouring can slightly cover the bad taste of selfishness. And suddenly that perfect world where they line up their enemies for expulsion is actually all about a greater good. A frowning of the brow to add a sense of sincerity and we have an appeased the conscience nicely.
The issue of politics is not so much personal as it is a numbers game. Hence we need the support of people to succeed with any policy, without support nothing goes beyond you own physical power. The pen is only ever considered mightier than the sword because of the support it can attract to a cause. So too we have the problem of personal ambitions not being fulfilled due to our inability to personally carry them out (Try building a hydro plant by yourself). So everything eventually gets down to support, support, support. You need sufficient numbers to support a policy for it to be carried just as you need sufficient numbers to crush one you oppose. The purpose of many public displays of opinions is often just to build a support base. Often building this support base is with the hope that the policy will be carried out due to a critical mass of number.
Now before everyone starts grabbing a soap box and ranting off to build up numbers there is a problem. Are you building the support base in an infective demographic? I am often amused by the way that some people will hammer an issue in the most provocative manner to a small audience yet at the same time they have forgotten the most basic realities in any power struggle: Why waste time on a useless battle that will never achieve the final objective? Some people may be quick to congratulate themselves over the biting comments that they left on the Stormfront Website but in reality they will be ignored in the grand scheme of things. Other may punch the sky with a bunch questionable tabloid quality accusations yet forget that they are really writing for a bunch of people who, despite being very impressed with such dishonesty, are in fact powerless. What a waste of time and energy that is.
It is amusing to watch the pointless and time consuming power struggles that have all the characteristics of petty office politics. Yet after having run the hard campaign and won the support of in effective minions they have to face up to stark reality that it is all pointless. No matter what end of the sandpit you control in a blog it will always be a blog and the world carries on regardless of your grand war of words. You have wasted all that energy on a war that has absolutely no effect upon the implementation of policies in the world. Instead all that has been exposed is a bunch of self centred and self serving people who have nothing better to do than to display their ignorance blaming scapegoats and giving one word answers to complicated issues.
Certainly there are problems in the world but if the answers were so simple that a blogger could fix them then they would have already been tried. Even if some small unknown writer magically does find the answers to solve the world problems then why bother selling the answer to a bunch of people who can do absolutely nothing about it? It certainly does not make sense to me.
So why the odd title on this post? Religion and Politics draws fire because of their controversial nature. People like to blame both in simplistic terms and then promote one or the other as the solution in even more simplistic terms. The whole cycle of blame has less to with solving problems and more to do with making self centred people feel good about their own in action. Sure I could name names and point fingers but that only distracts from the actual cause of much of the world’s problems: Palm Trees.
Wherever you get palm trees, you get problems.
I blame the Palm Trees.
Palm Trees Unite
Who do you vote for and why?
Chances are many people would put their hand up for one side consistently. There are swinging voters but deep down they do have a preference for one particular side. The side that gives them what they want. Yet rather than admit that it is all about themselves they try to confuse matters with a concoctions of conscience appeasing ideologies. Throw a few noble ideals as justification and people feel better almost instantly.
Some tough guys need to display their toughness or it would be pointless accepting the title; smart people sometimes need to show people how smart they are; some qualified people love to show their diplomas but self serving people need to show that they are not self serving from time to time. Not that there is anything wrong with selfish motives but a little ideology flavouring can slightly cover the bad taste of selfishness. And suddenly that perfect world where they line up their enemies for expulsion is actually all about a greater good. A frowning of the brow to add a sense of sincerity and we have an appeased the conscience nicely.
The issue of politics is not so much personal as it is a numbers game. Hence we need the support of people to succeed with any policy, without support nothing goes beyond you own physical power. The pen is only ever considered mightier than the sword because of the support it can attract to a cause. So too we have the problem of personal ambitions not being fulfilled due to our inability to personally carry them out (Try building a hydro plant by yourself). So everything eventually gets down to support, support, support. You need sufficient numbers to support a policy for it to be carried just as you need sufficient numbers to crush one you oppose. The purpose of many public displays of opinions is often just to build a support base. Often building this support base is with the hope that the policy will be carried out due to a critical mass of number.
Now before everyone starts grabbing a soap box and ranting off to build up numbers there is a problem. Are you building the support base in an infective demographic? I am often amused by the way that some people will hammer an issue in the most provocative manner to a small audience yet at the same time they have forgotten the most basic realities in any power struggle: Why waste time on a useless battle that will never achieve the final objective? Some people may be quick to congratulate themselves over the biting comments that they left on the Stormfront Website but in reality they will be ignored in the grand scheme of things. Other may punch the sky with a bunch questionable tabloid quality accusations yet forget that they are really writing for a bunch of people who, despite being very impressed with such dishonesty, are in fact powerless. What a waste of time and energy that is.
It is amusing to watch the pointless and time consuming power struggles that have all the characteristics of petty office politics. Yet after having run the hard campaign and won the support of in effective minions they have to face up to stark reality that it is all pointless. No matter what end of the sandpit you control in a blog it will always be a blog and the world carries on regardless of your grand war of words. You have wasted all that energy on a war that has absolutely no effect upon the implementation of policies in the world. Instead all that has been exposed is a bunch of self centred and self serving people who have nothing better to do than to display their ignorance blaming scapegoats and giving one word answers to complicated issues.
Certainly there are problems in the world but if the answers were so simple that a blogger could fix them then they would have already been tried. Even if some small unknown writer magically does find the answers to solve the world problems then why bother selling the answer to a bunch of people who can do absolutely nothing about it? It certainly does not make sense to me.
So why the odd title on this post? Religion and Politics draws fire because of their controversial nature. People like to blame both in simplistic terms and then promote one or the other as the solution in even more simplistic terms. The whole cycle of blame has less to with solving problems and more to do with making self centred people feel good about their own in action. Sure I could name names and point fingers but that only distracts from the actual cause of much of the world’s problems: Palm Trees.
Wherever you get palm trees, you get problems.
I blame the Palm Trees.
| 41 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Add To: 
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
All palm cause conflict.
Just look at the countries with palm tree and you will countries in conflict.
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Philippines
India
Sri Lanka
Indonesia
etc
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Do you suppose the twin towers were mistaken for palm trees?
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
With regards to the Twin Tower, it was filled with indoor palms.
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics