I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more…This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself.
Jose Mujica, the Marxist President of Uruguay
We are ready for a new political paradigm. Not defined by left or right wing, by liberal or conservative. Our politicians are technocrats. Managers and not leaders. So there is no grand vision, no romance left in politics. Ideology leads to entrenchment. To close mindedness.
The gradual movement towards political pragmatism is being stalled by traditional party political systems. The very existence of political parties is defined by the need for policy differentiation. If we all agree why should you vote for me and not him? In practice, it appears that the thinking of political parties is now closer than ever. However, the truth is that the political establishment in each country have now so much control of the mechanisms of media key information output is within carefully defined parameters. Lively debate exists, but only within those parameters. When emerging non-ideologically driven political parties, like UKIP in Great Britain dare to break this consensus the people respond positively. The people want and are ready for real change. But intrinsically the political elite and political media share the same social backgrounds and have common vested interests. Consequently, the people are diverted away from the pulse of change by the spectre of uncharted waters. In time, the machinery of media chips away, undermines and tries to marginalise the purveyors of change.
The political establishment tells us what the middle ground is or should be. And all acceptable policy is presumed to radiate from this core of political correctness. Traditional party political systems serve the same plutocracy. The same vested interests, Politicians are more concerned with political correctness, rather than moral correctness.
Truly as Heraclitus said “All is in flux”. Circumstances, in fact life itself are ever changing, organic. Our minds need to be in a constant state of openness. A day is definitely a long time in politics. The inevitability of change should not supersede the majesty of truth. Politics should be the pursuit of right over wrong. Right conceived not by point of view but the simple precept of utilitarianism – of helping as many people as possible. Mahatma Gandhi said “the truth is the truth, even if I am in a minority of one”.
The world needs the romance and the hope of a new Renaissance. Politics not only on the pulse of public sentiment but which knows hope.
To transcend political divisions to seek genuine consensus we must first loosen the shackles of party discipline. I remember as a Conservative Parliamentary Candidate how I raised eyebrows within my party when I stated publicly in a leaflet that I would continue to fight for the Accident and Emergency Department at Chase Farm Hospital to remain open even in opposition to my own party.
Politics needs more independent minded characters. Dare I say more Nigel Farages who are willing to break the mold. And like the Marxist President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica who gives away ninety per cent of his pay to the poor, and lives on a frugal ramshackle farm. I am certain of one thing that across all continents, and across all backgrounds we are waiting to be liberated from the ideological cage which has served the few more than the many.
