Angry criticism of politicians, political parties and politics is increasing.
One trouble with this is that as people become convinced not only that individual politicians or political
parties are no good , but the political system is no good and politics is no
good either , the next thing is a demand
for firm, sure, and strong government. And
that, unfortunately can mean a dictatorship. Or a government formed without being selected by those whom it governs. Such
a government may do things good, bad or indifferent but it will certainly be hard to shift.
People say , Oh, that could not happen here, wherever here
happens to be, but it can happen anywhere. In Britain
during the Wilson
years it may have come near to it . What you need to get that result is a
strong and growing public distaste for politics , enough people able and willing
to pose as a ruling class and enough military and police support to make the
coup successful at first stroke. That is
a lot to require but it has happened and what has happened can happen. In Ireland and Britain there is outspoken and
cultivated disdain not just for politicians and political parties but for
politics. Strangely, some of this is cultivated by media who could be the first
to suffer in an authoritarian regime.
In every system there are struggles for power, media
strength against political party
strength, religious power against secular power, impatience among the military and police about
their hands being tied , between commercial interests and human rights
interests and many more. Such struggles for power and influence go on
all the time with one section becoming uppermost then another. And in vast countries like the USA or India the visible power of money is almost beyond
belief as billions, not mere millions, are demanded – and made
available – to gain political power in
societies where millions of people are in poverty and cities are dying.
Strangely, while such power groups are battling it out for supremacy,
commentators may still be writing about national conflicts as if they were
contests between religions or the result of people not being able to live together
in peace if they are left alone. As present and future elections in Britain and Ireland proceed political commentators have to decide whether they will give us their own opinions
which they are entitled to have, or critical analyses which we are entitled to
have, whether they will look at situations
professionally and analyse whose military, financial, religious, strategic interest
is involved.
In Ireland
this was often avoided by dividing the population notionally into
Catholic and Protestant and describing the political situation as the result of
this division, while all the time strategic military issues, financial issues,
control of economies and much else were at issue in Ireland. This time round opinions may become stronger and analysis weaker as passions rise
and sides are taken. That is not going to help anyone. It will not help even
the writers who do it because one day
they may find they need to say No to a demand for an authoritarian regime and will find that having
neglected to analyse what was happening to themselves and their readers their
only developed weapon is satire or insult which now they dare not use. At the
beginning and end of it all, perhaps
safest for us to remember is that whatever we may think of politicians or political parties they
are entitled to respect, as people first and foremost and as elected or possible elected
representatives of the people after that. That is a formidable claim to
courtesy. And it still leaves us plenty of room for being as critical
of policies and promises as we want to be. Strong, sure, firm government is what we want
but we have to be careful about how we try to get it.
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