The Politics of Bad Politics

Sep 07, 2008 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
I have ventured to crystallize my analysis of the politics of bad politics by highlighting some peculiar features that may help conscientious citizens identify these practices more clearly.

My broad brush depiction is intended to capture implicitly, the raging tensions between traditional notions of power, authority and development in contrast to postmodern concepts of the same.

As a paradigm for normalising this dominant mode of politics as practiced in the region, I confess the realities of bad politics predate any particular political leader, although I would have to grant that some have expressed tendencies to embody it more acutely. Yet those political players are undoubtedly not the reason for bad politics or the centre of it.

A culture of taken-for-granted acceptance of a politics of poison is.
I must also acknowledge that facets of bad politics exist in all societies where power differential shape economic outcomes and social structures and where powerful persons try to find legitimate modes to sanction illegitimate behaviours.

The deadly effects of bad politics lengthen, when gender disparities, class inequalities and ethnic rivalries are prevalent.

That bad politics in the Caribbean is not just commonly accepted but imaginatively institutionalised in plots and schemes better than every theatrical drama anywhere else in the world, gives greater impetus to rigorously keen undertakings.

What is Bad Politics?
As one form of traditional approach to power, authority and development, bad politics operates between the power of the scorn of the fury, and the fury of the power of scorn.

It disguises itself as royal and majestic but it delights in over talking and underperforming while being overpaid. It has an indomitable meanness of spirit for lying effortlessly without shame.  It double speaks.

It believes in brinkmanship. It fully accepts and proudly imitates cutthroat politics without seeking to recreate a new political vision.

Millions matter over mission. Corruption is more important than character. And fraud is seen as cold facts. Power, not productive plans, guides it.

It promises what it plans not to deliver, and it smiles while planning to stab. Bad politics floods the culture with tornadic bile and callously treat people as things.

As a type of camaraderie, bad politics is brotherhood that discards, and sisterhood that injures. Its ethics is power.  Its strategy is cunning maneuverings. And it will stop at nothing to drag down opponents – Machiavelli’s style.

Political legitimacy is undeniably granted as long as it pays homage to self interest disguised as what the people want. Yet it offers silly distractions as substitute for substance. It misuses the law for purposes of political vendetta.

But it justifies its actions via a vicious underground rumour mill, making character destruction its main focus.

How is it expressed?
By subscribing to vexed utterances, village bravado, rum shop brattle, and thuggish tactics, bad politics cannot discriminate between that which is appropriate for street corner liming, where the aim is to engender laughter and a forum where critical ideas matter.

It feeds on optics but cannot replicate workable options. Ambition is chosen over justice.  The suffering of others, not their survival, gives it glee.

In cases of public dialogues, it uses the geography of party loyalty and the blueprint of national pride to kick beneath the belt with ruthless dispatch.

If you dissect it, you’ll find predatory forms of deception.  It shuts down leadership integrity, and it permits scoundrel behaviours to govern our need for truth seeking discourse.

Much like a beguiling ruse that conceals the sources of real power and inequality, bad politics poses as an angel of light but is a wolf in sheep clothing. It rages at notions of free speech, which functions as a weapon of justice against injustices.

In foreign affairs, it negotiates without leverage and begs rather than innovate.
And, it falsely accepts first world official finesse for personal validation. In consulates and foreign missions, it uses protocols and technical justifications to undermine competitive talents, and to prevent others from exposures to merit based positions. It hates its own.

Bad politics specialises in techniques of foolishness. It shifts debates into mud squabbles from ideas where lives are at stake and destinies are on the table.

Lacking conscience and compassion, bad politics is prepared to extract a pound of flesh from a child under the cover of business cool and avoids being forward-looking or backward learning.

How can we recognise it?
It roils against scrutiny. Expose bad politics to any intelligent task, like defending a government’s policies or providing actionable advice to wise leaders and it unleashes abject cacophony, brutal absurdities and inconceivable thinking flaws.

It runs far from examining concepts that require originality in analysis. It has no need for Solomonic wisdom.

Functioning with a 20/20 type of vision, bad politics manipulates by scoring cheap points on the vulnerable. It specialises in hiding behind an apron of civility whenever it is called to give account.

Through a stream of consciousness, it entwines rotten expediency, and instant gratification into masterful schemes of preying on the public purse. 

It survives by feeding on widespread fear while remaining powerless to tackle deeply troubling but real issues affecting the livelihood of the masses. Bad politics knows no degree of measured objectivity and honest transparency.

Bad politics does not provide sustainable solutions. Bad politics simply resorts to idle barking, believing all the while that it is championing worthy causes. 

It does not mediate on the sublime; instead it uses slime to agitate. Shamelessly, bad politics uses religious symbols, words, and associations as mere tools to consolidate power. It pretends to know God but despites divine instructions. It is horrific for the islands and destructive to the world.

Even Kindergarteners are capable of recognising bad politics. Yet it remains unaware of its mindless blindness, and lingers as a powerful distracting force, eating away at the walls of traditional values.  

How can we destroy it?
Although bad politics has turned the Caribbean into a wounded region, it has not devoured our hopes.
It is chronically afraid of the masses being provoked by a critical consciousness that seeks out its own interest.

A postmodern approach to power, authority and development demands a process of re-socialisation based on cultural enlightenment and relentless self-investigation.

To interrogate our cherished beliefs and unsavory practices and to set in motion corrective structures and processes grounded in big picture progress are necessary steps we must be willing to take.

An informed but self aware leadership that validates indigenous talents and gifts and make relevant changes to suit regional strategic advancement is another element of this approach.

Any attempt to compromise our intellectual energy and subordinate our aesthetic vitality to selfish market forces, instead of the common good of the region-defined in higher order ideals and quality of life opportunities – cannot be sustained against the odds of bad politics.

We must rid our psyches of these vicious power practices or our collective destiny will become a fix and crude point with no concrete good, in time and space.

We cannot concede to bad politics’ far reaching impact or we will have to accept cycles of poverty in place of prosperity-for-all development. Why must we accede to the comfort of a few, in preference to the betterment of all?

We must never give up on decreasing our discomfort. We must never accept the selling off of our natural resources for peanuts. We must speak the truth to the powerful expunging the need for our silence to equal our slumber.

Our eyes and ears, hearts and feet must be chorale with community initiatives and radical action that reclaims our dignity and worth. 

Tolerating bad politics guarantees that we descend into the valley of futility.  Our most supreme challenge is to create a new political culture based upon the best ideals of a postmodern worldview. How?

We will have to deploy our inventive disposition and regional genius to plot out a successful pathway to sustainable progress and to struggle against mind-blowing fear, poverty of confidence, and moral cannibalism.

We will have to judiciously exercise our collective obligation to choose visionary leaders to coach and support them, to develop healthier organisations, and to establish higher expectations of ourselves and the leadership we embrace, so that we can realise our best dreams of self and region.

Such political transformation requires that we commit ourselves anew to self-love, self-confrontation and a dedication to excellence in function and being. But I suspect that anyone bold enough to speak out against the politics of bad politics will have to fight valiantly to normalise that right for others as well.

Regardless of political affiliation, putting the needs of our region first, given the multi-hued global challenges that are before us, is above all, the most significant thing we can do, especially in these trying times. 

Against the sincerity of pretense, which is the essence of bad politics- our spirit must scream in protest and our soul must rebel in love.

Dr. Isaac Newton

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