Light

The question was straight; the answer infuriating, a labyrinth of generalities. So it had to be asked again, the minister prevaricated again, so it had to be asked again.......

No light forthcoming; the minister wasn’t answering, wasn’t acknowledging that she wasn’t answering and was, seemingly, hoping nobody would notice.

Goddammit, stop talking! Same minister does it all the time. I can’t stand her. And no, this isn’t a sexist rant, she just happens to be the one this time, and my head is demanding I offer some resistance.

To my way of thinking, this is a clear insult; does the minister somehow think that she has mesmerised us with canny wordplay, that all of us out here in listener-land are nodding our heads like those dogs that nodded, years ago, in the back windows of cars; is she so arrogant that she believes that her evasive handling of the question makes a good enough answer for a dim-witted population.

Democracy doesn’t count for much in a fog of obfuscation and lies, yet we tolerate it every time we allow a politician to use filibustering tactics in an interview; to talk over or try to drown out an opposing argument; introduce red herrings e.g. maybe X was corrupt, but don’t forget forget how well Y was managed. If the supreme power of a state is invested in its people, it follows that they shouldn’t be stumbling around in darkness.

Whistle-blowers are victimised unmercifully in these systems for daring to throw light on nefarious practices. No matter that they selflessly expose themselves to this for the common good, no matter that they show levels of bravery that are admired in other circumstances; the prevailing darkness suited these politicians, and that’s the wholly all of it.

Nor do cults of personality support democracy, when all the available light is used to spotlight a chosen one. Here the message is, keep your eyes on me, follow me, I am your source of light. And, of course, a spotlight always deepens the shadow around it.

I don’t buy the notion of western democracy as it’s presented. Sure, it’s an improvement on most dictatorships, but it doesn’t confer the freedom it claims to; not as long as public information is purposely garbled and deceptive, nor as long as advertising campaigns funded by lobby groups with deep pockets and partisan views are allowable – advertising is not an open forum – or indeed while there are systems that are overwhelmingly two party driven, when we all know that it takes more than two colours to produce white light.

To say I am troubled by recent trends in politics would be to understate it. It seems to me that the further we have travelled from the pioneers that founded our states the more our politicians have become blowers of smoke. I am afraid that a generation of politicians cleverer than the current will turn smoke to tar, and light doesn’t penetrate tar.