As we go into another Groundhog Day for some there is a need to ignore the consequences, although there is an inevitable background of anxiety.
What shall I do to be saved? – John Bunyan, Pilgrims Progress
With a veritable Gordian’s Knot of conspiracy theories it is difficult to know what to make of it all and what to think of the implications. Unpicking the knot may be a good place to start.
Stand back and take a holistic view, scrutinise one issue and entangle it loosening the knot, or use different perspectives to analyse.
Conspiracy theories are likely inversely proportionate to trust, that may be a clue. So let us look at trust.
We think we are being cheated. We cannot understand the motives for actions and decisions. We suspect that there is a profit for the few at the expense of the many, profit that is linked to political decisions. Perhaps that is where trust is lost. Either there are no explanations, or when given they are perceived as lies.
The conspiracy theories provide explanations, filling a void left by the lack of credible answers to justified concerns.
If we cannot trust the actions of those in power, then we have to ask what drives them, what motivates them. Therefore one perspective is to consider how members of the Establishment profit.
Is it cynical to think that personal gain or benefit is the motivation?
Consider the types of profit made from politics. Financial gain cannot be the only one, prestige, power, perversion, anonymity, and the status quo can all be benefits from the ‘right decisions’.
Politicians who are proud to have been politic in representing their constituents can be forgiven, but to neglect responsibility to the electorate is a political sin. Profit may not be at fault per se, but profit and politics is mischief afoot.
Some may argue, even those who do good, have one eye on redemption. Survival is a natural phenomenon. Orwell took human survival to its limit, when Winston betrayed his love of Julia, he wrote of the strength of survival.
Is fear greater than love? Instinct greater than reason?
We know the nature of the knot is political. Justice may be as simple as putting a wrong right, but when there is something to hide, honesty turns to deceit, and simple turns to complex.
Hide or steal, the ‘profit’ is always at the expense of someone else.
Obfuscation, distraction, half-truths, defensiveness, offensiveness, subterfuge, prevarication, and ‘ducking and diving’ to evade an issue, are sure signs that the truth is being compromised. Clearly some topics are complex, but we are better than we know at identifying lies. We have had many thousands of years of subconscious training in identifying the liar. Even the lack of explanation raises a suspicion of deceit.
Some politicians may have to be nailed to the floor to explain themselves. But it is not just politicians who play at politics.
When fear of the unknown drives action, mistakes are made.
Who are the players in this game of Profit and Politics?
The politicians have their slippery words and demonstrable hypocrisy. At which point in the journey, from being a fresh candidate to being an MP, do they change their mental makeup? At which point do their secrets become negotiable?
Those civil servants who have influence. They can agree on a common purpose but are not so sure about common sense. Is the health of the nation a ‘serious’ matter, or are they more concerned with their own personal interests?
The judiciary who have lost their way in an open field, but are nevertheless, so very clever. It was their duty to serve our sovereign nation and its legal history. They suffer from self-esteem, masking their dereliction of duty with pomp.
The media who can no longer distinguish between objectivity and subjectivity, riding the money rollercoaster, gambling truth for gain. Fooling the public into thinking they serve the public.
The clergy in their robes, defiling the words presented to them in the synoptic gospels. A clergy acquiescent to the establishment and an incompatible religion, whilst in denial of internal and external corruption.
The scientists who make the answers fit their prejudices.
They are corrupting science by chasing their personal needs and preferences. Integrity is an integral component of science. Funding and prestige appears to take centre stage.
They all play at politics.
How can trust exist? Is truth relative?
One soon runs into the slippery slope of Relativism.
Its edges will never blunt. It will cut flesh and bones, and soul and spirit, and all – Valiant-for-Truth, Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan
That leads to the main players. The public!
Politics with a small ‘p’ is ubiquitous; we are all complicit, dwelling on the psychological glitches which pepper the ‘human condition’.
It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled. –Anonymous
We have ignored those psychological glitches such as tribalism, celebrity culture, ‘group think’ and an escalation of commitment. We have mastered in self-deception, cultivating a lacuna, replacing self-awareness with mental censorship.
Greed and pride are sins of indulgences that we are all, at some time, be guilty.
Let there be no mistake the human face is not always a pretty sight.
We cannot change the human condition, any more than we can impose virtue. We need social responsibility, the courage to question, the determination to demand answers and the strength to be open and honest.
Accept the right for others to have an opinion. Make public figures accountable, and stop the corrupt lobbying that undermines democracy.
Allow all to profit from good politics.
The knot of conspiracies is not solved by denial but by debate, protecting Freedom of Speech.
As the couples step and swirl, locked into their predestined routines, the whisk, and the box step, there is a foreboding, a premonition of suffering, inevitability, fatality, and also, peculiarly, of repetition.
Do not worry tomorrow is another day.
Thank you for the beautiful pieces of music attached to this thought provoking article.
I have long believed that music soothes and gives you the opportunity of contemplation.
I have often resolved issues in my own mind whilst listening to my favourite music, Gregorian Chant, especially the Templar pieces.
Be kind. Who are those among us who would choose to blind?
The article (although written with the best of intent) has left me bereft of feeling.
An empty vessel or should that be vassal?
I am sure I will cheer up but for now……
It has to be realised that PMs are all tainted by lying to the public, and therefore the same can be said by implication, that all MPs who want to be a PM, are stuck with the same demerit of lies ! ….. The pound in your pocket is not devalued (Wilson) – The Common Market is just a trading arrangement (Heath). ….. So when a PM gives out the request for the public to do something against an invisible enemy, such as Coronavirus, it is taken on board by the public, as they mutter ”What’s he trying to pull” ? – As self isolation goes on and on, those with little self discipline will break ranks with the Nation. – They alone have their own theory that they know what is being pulled !
Now it has to be said that when a Nation’s finance gets hammered, there are those who will find it possible to make money. – (It’s helpful if you have the money in the first place in order to play the game) ! – Markets will rise or fall, and with a little easy thought it is possible to make profit by backing the right market moves, (so I am told) ! – Take notice of what hardened traders are saying, but make your own mind up in playing this game, as too much loss happens by simply following a trend. – Always beware of politics getting involved in money matters, as their input can be the joker in the pack, and breaks up known patterns of movement ! ….. Remember, if the virus doesn’t get you, the Banks will !
The United Nations supports Communism.
“The United Nations Backs Communist China”
https://youtu.be/JM2926pbbN8
To be quite honest I loved the Waltz Kim and yes it is as familiar and loved as much classical music that I treasure and cannot bring to mind the name or composer.
But the article, I must confess, I did’t know where it was meant to lead me other than to say it is a wicked world we live in, to beware of every nuance and hidden motive in every action and word any individual or group takes; cost has more identities than just coinage.
So it’s a wonderful far reaching analysis, but I don’t think it offers any solutions and to me I often feel that identification of a problem should be followed by a constructive alternative answer, otherwise leave the problem alone, maybe?
Roger – I don’t agree. So many people still refuse to wake up that we need to keep forcing them to face the truth, when enough people wake up, then we can talk about solutions. Some of these solutions I would imagine will be quite unpalatable to many, until they wake up that is.
But isn`t that the trouble it`s also those that should have the solutions also refuse or cannot wake up.
For instance Nigel`s mob should be kicking up a shindy and leading the way into the new post Brexit el dorado I can`t imagine what is stopping him, is he too hand in glove with the Tories? did he sell out to Boris?, he certainly burned his boats by standing down half his troops at the GE.
or
are we so far down the line that it is impossible to fix?
We need to become a nation of gadflies if we are to change the face of politics. They won’t reform themselves.
Thank you for unravelling my knots.
You have put the thoughts and feelings swirling around my head earlier this morning into (better) words. And you’re also a fellow Shostakovich fan! The 7th Symphony springs to mind as our own establishment put us under siege in our own little castles.
Shrewdest thing ever said about politics. “As soon as they get elected (appointed) they become corrupt”.
Fish n chips shop owner in Crewe as I ate me chips.
The moment someone joins any of the liblabcon parties they are complicit. The system attracts the duplicious and sooner or later spits out those with self integrity. Voting them out when an election eventually comes round is no good. Let voters recall and sack those that put themselves and their crooked parties first.