Dear Friends,
It seems to me, people would rather believe fiction than the truth, especially in politics. Human beings have an innate ability to convince themselves of absurdities. Of course to believe a fiction over the truth is the path to tyranny, poverty and violence, but people believe what they want to believe, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This is why democracy is so self destructive. Democracy within a republic is tempered but the elite always eventually become an aristocracy. As time goes on the people’s self delusion coupled with the elite’s misdirection combine to destroy any human government. We see this happening today with the election of Barak Obama and now the rise of Donald Trump.
Politicians become entrenched and hold power their whole lives just like the aristocracy of old. Like an aristocracy a ruling class rises up to hold power and pass it to their children. The Bush dynasty is one example but around the world political power is passed from father to son and daughter like an inheritance. Democracy is supposed to prevent such dynastic political power but instead democracy fosters it. One characteristic of any aristocracy is that they will evolve to oligarchy. They stop ruling for the benefit of the nation and start ruling for their own narrow self interests. The national interests are undermined by both a political class that has become aristocratic and then oligarchical.
An election is basically a beauty contest and in any beauty contest substance takes a back seat to appearance. In any beauty contest how the girl looks in a bikini is more important than her research into cancer. A political beauty contest is no different. A philosopher once said, put a beautiful man at a podium, let him speak with eloquence and a commanding voice and no matter the drivel he spouts, he will be called a genius, put another man, give him a drooping eye, high pitched voice and let spittle run from his mouth, and no matter the genius of his words he will be ridiculed a fool…
Empty catch phrases become a replacement for hard policy. Politicians understand the fact that people would rather believe a glittering lie rather than an ugly truth. Ugly truths require thought and energy while glittering lies delight the mind and require no commitment whatsoever. A simple mindless catchphrase like, “hope and change” can mean anything to anyone. To one it means restoration of constitutional principles and to another it means Marxism. The phrase’s definition depends on the listener, not the content, and so is mind candy without substance, which fits perfectly with our ability to convince ourselves of absurdities.
In the physical world self delusion quickly brings consequences. Jump from a cliff in an attempt to fly and it quickly leads to a horrible death, the consequences are immediate, but in politics, the consequences can be held off for a long time. It takes years of bad regulations to destroy an economy, years of gradually increasing intrusions to create tyranny and years of morality corroded by perversity to create social chaos. All of which are the results of self delusion of the electorate.
To believe what you want rather than what is, is a sure path to economic destruction, governmental tyranny and societal upheaval. You might want utopia but in Greek utopia means nowhere. Real solutions don’t come from catchphrases they take real work and sacrifice. We may want some hansom, articulate politician with a deep voice to solve all our problems, but that is the surest way to making those problems much much worse. Moreover, by falling to the same self delusion, over and over, we install over us a new aristocracy, with all the negative baggage that comes with an aristocracy. We have deluded ourselves for a very long time now and the consequences are becoming manifested, isn’t it time to stop believing in modern absurdities and start believing in genuine truth?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
