The paradox of politics

“It’s ridiculous to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own. Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one – Marcus Aurelius

In political life, men and women make decisions about their own welfare. Politics has to do with making choices and implementing decisions. The realm of politics therefore constitutes one of the highest aspects of a people’s culture. 

The Italian writer, Machiavelli, is famous for his analysis of politics as the art of manipulating power. Machiavelli’s best-known book, ‘The Prince,’ was written some 450 years ago. Prince represents Machiavelli’s effort to provide a guide for political action based on the lessons of history and his own experience as a foreign secretary in Florence. 

His belief that politics has its own rules so shocked his readers that the adjectival form of his surname, Machiavellian, came to be used as a synonym for political manoeuvres marked by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith, as advice to a ruler with absolute power. Through one-man rule, the dictatorship reduces politics to the art of manipulation. There is nothing big or small which lies outside of his personal intervention. 

Such a ruler can be construed as one who elevates himself above all other citizens, Emperors, kings and nobles of the feudal period easily became dictators because they could justify despotic acts on the grounds that royal power and authority were of sacred origin. In more modern versions of dictatorship, the absolute ruler has to fabricate an elaborate cult of the personality to prove that he is more intelligent, more potent and generally superior to any other human being.

By definition, such a person is responsible to no one, to no organisation, to no social institution. On the contrary, he creates the impression that he holds in the palm of his hand the existence of every person and every organisation and considers him paramount. 

He gives out land, scholarships etc., not because they belong to the people, or the people deserve it, but because he considers that he is doing the rest of mankind a great favour. At best, an individual is expected to be eternally grateful to the dictator. After all, that which the dictator giveth, he also taketh away. 

Such leaders are charismatic and they survive not because of their use of force or ideology but because they convince the public—rightly or wrongly—that they are competent. Such regimes simulate democracy, holding elections that they make sure to win, bribing and censoring the private press rather than abolishing it, and replacing ideology with anamorphous anti-Western resentment. Their leaders often enjoy genuine popularity.

State propaganda aims to boost the leader’s ratings, which, so long as they remain high, are widely publicised. Political opponents are harassed and humiliated, accused of fabricated crimes.

These authoritarian rulers surround themselves with mediocrities and lackeys – that is to say, by men and women with little competence and integrity who maintain their positions though cunning, opportunism and boot-licking in relationship to the ruler. So that for everything and anything they turn to him for guidance – they do not know what to do, they are ignorant, unqualified, incompetent and clumsy and the dictator tells them what to do and they follow his ‘guidance’ without question.

In relationship to the people, these stooges of the dictator are far worse than the dictator himself; they become tyrants, who imitate as best as they can, the intolerant behaviour of the big boss.

Small nations too have produced discouragingly large number of lackeys and stooges. In such a situation, we have a double tragedy:

First there is the tragedy of the incompetent, the mediocre and the corrupt making a mess of things. Secondly, there is the tragedy in which men and women of ability and integrity have been dismissed or they have run away or they have been reduced to silence.  This part of the tragedy involves honest police officers who must condone corruption, doctors who must heal without drugs, managers who are not allowed to manage and workers who are not permitted to produce and are then forced to consume a diet of lies and deceit. 

The smallness of our society also draws attention to the highly personalised nature of the dominating leadership. A leader and his cronies make it their business to hire and fire as they please. They interfere with major management decisions and they intervene in the most trivial affairs. The ruling clique can be vindictive with appointments whether ministerial, or chairmanships to state institutions – even the private sector is not spared.

On having studied their lives, personalities, their rise to power and how they governed once achieving that power, we find that the one common theme in their theories of governance is fear. It is easier to govern and dictate to citizens through fear. Some have even pretended to be benevolent autocrats, ruling in the interests of those over whom they exercised absolute control. They certainly have the capacity to make life miserable for the entire population of a small nation if defied or confronted. 

When people fear punishment, they obey the rules. Authority figures have this kind of power.

 The psychological element of this kind of obedience is the anxiety we feel when it comes to consequences. We are terrified of being attacked. We dread having our luxuries taken away. Similarly, our obedience can be influenced by “rewards”. In this case, we obey the rules and demands of others because we want to be rewarded. This could be praise, a raise, or even awards. Because rewards can even be more influential on our willingness to obey than the fear of punishment.

But nowadays, hardly any rulers admit that they are dictators. The demand for freedom has become universal, hence, repression feels the need to camouflage itself. 

According to the constitution of any democratic country, the armed forces and the civil police force take an oath of loyalty to the country symbolised by the head of state. Each soldier or policeman is expected to be loyal to the commands of an elected government representing the people.  If the citizens of a country has to lead a respectable life, the domination of a monocratic leader has to be rejected. The population must learn to denounce the falsehoods which surround the individual; they must refuse to accept any halo of greatness around such a leader. 

A final word of counsel to the people of Sri Lanka – Do not be upset by the misdeeds of others. You may be disheartened in trying to correct them; but if they are stubborn and not willing to change, leave them alone. In reacting to such people, we must never allow our own principles to be violated. 

We believe that people do bad things out of ignorance and cannot differentiate between what is good and evil, they cannot discriminate what is right from what is wrong, and that we should forgive them for their errors, even when they harm us. We are social animals - as humans are meant to live in harmony.

The evil that men do harms you, only if you do evil in response.

We are fortunate today, that the world has come to shun racist regimes, military dictatorships and Totalitarianism. 

Thomas Jefferson is reported to have said: “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”