Giving money and power to the government is like giving car keys and whisky to teenage boys. And once politics are exploited to allocate resources, the resources will all end up being allocated to politics.
A man recently had a dream that he was in an overcrowded restaurant having dinner and to his surprise, there were people that he knew at the other tables. But these were all persons from his past. They were people whom he had lost touch with or whom he had broken off his friendships, or whom he once loved. It was as if everyone that he loved and lost were in that room. He went up to each table to speak with each person and He suppose it was his way of correcting the loss between them. Some persons were good with it and happy to see him. Others seemed to be unmoved and superficial. They did not want him to try to repair their relationships.
He woke up with sadness because it was a reminder of all the failed relationships in his life. In his dream, he had gathered them all in one room. These were his ghosts. People he had not thought about in a long time, but who lived in his subconscious reminding him of his failures.
Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit. A politician is anyone who asks individuals to surrender part of their liberty -- their power and privilege -- to State, Masses, Mankind, Planet Earth, or whatever. This state, those masses, that mankind, and the planet will then be run by ... politicians.
One thing we all have is a past. In our struggle to figure out our lives here on earth, so many of us are quietly haunted by the people and the events that went wrong in our lifetimes.
Those people whom we had unresolved issues. Those friendships lost. Those loves those were incomplete. Those problems never fixed. People who hurt us and the people whom we hurt. What could have been? What never should have been. What used to be, but is no longer. These feelings may never stop haunting us.
Many of us do not acknowledge our ghosts in public because of the power some of them have on us. It may seem embarrassing to us that we have not moved on. But in our hearts live the ghosts of our past.
God has no role to play in politics except to make sure politicians go where they belong. To hell! Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue, but just like fleas are interested in dogs. Each of us has different ways in which we deal with our ghosts. Some of us are able to let them go and put them where they belong. But some of us do not have such an easy time.
Many of us escape from our ghosts through substance abuse or activities that take us away from our pain and loss. Others just become workaholics; throw ourselves into something to keep our minds busy. Some of us just ignore our ghosts, hoping that one day they will just go away. And some of us live and relive the scenarios with our ghosts, quietly sinking deeper into a dark hole.
Politicians normally forget that whatever statement made today will either do or undo him/her tomorrow.
You see it is not so easy to forget a parent who abused us. Also, it is not easy to forget a child who with your toil nurture to curse you in the face, even wishes you are dead. It is not so easy to forget someone whom we loved who is no longer there. It is not so easy to forget someone who was evil to us or betrayed our trust. It is not so easy to forget someone whom we cherished, but did not appreciate our friendship.
And just when we think we have let go of our pains and losses, a thought enters our mind, a song pops up, a stranger triggers a memory, or a dream awakens us to relive our lives all over again.
The ghosts that haunt the NDC will continue to linger on, as long as its communicators dwell on propaganda and illogic and provoking submissions.
No matter what we try to do, our past follows us. It is awful hard to get people interested in speaking against corruption unless they can get some of it.
The problem is, even as religious people, we cannot wish these ghosts away. They hide beneath our subconscious. They lurk to pounce on us, just when things seem to be getting better. They remind us of our unfinished business. They remind us of our losses. They remind us of our failures. They remind us of how painful life can be. This is the cycle of partisan politics. Politicians are naïve of the past and the future.
So many of us bring our ghosts to God and we hope He can help remove our pains, thoughts and struggles with them. But many of our ghosts loiter around. Some ghosts we actually want to keep around because along with the pain are happy memories that we do not want to let go of.
I stated earlier and wish to reiterate that God has no role to play in politics except to make sure politicians go where they belong. To hell!
There are no easy ways to release them. No easy ways to give them to God. But we have to. So many of us can fall into a deep depression if we allow our ghosts to hang around too long. And too many of us give up on our lives, fearing the creation of more bad situations, engaging less with new people for fear of repeating ourselves. Some of us choose to never love again because future love may result in further hurt and disappointment.
Many of us subconsciously do not want to give up our ghosts. Though they can bring us down, sometimes they are all we have of the people we once loved, even though our love had flaws.
The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that is out always looks the best. This was the problem as a nation we were confronted with, in 2008 and 2012. Now our ghosts have surfaced and many of us are haunted by this phenomenon known as our ghosts (embezzlement and bad governance).
If ghosts linger, perhaps it is because we want them around. They were a part of our lives and to let them go is to let go of who we are. But there is a point where, we cannot live for our ghosts. The past is past. We can never relive what once was and to live with them prevents us from moving ahead and living today. To live in the past is to have no future.
The reality is that most politicians are just like a pickpocket; it is almost impossible to get him to reform. There is a point when we need to forgive the ones who hurt us and ask those whom we hurt to forgive us. There is a point when we have to let go. There is a point when we have to give everything to God, trust in Him and live each day at a time. Therefore, the politicians and the people must learn to avoid Dishonesty in Politics.
Going further, most "Politicians" are notorious for never giving a direct answer to anything. Why do we let them get away with this? I imagine they only do it because it works for them -- maybe they can't risk providing their opponents with a juicy quote to exploit, so as an alternative they merely talk about nothing in particular. But this cannot be good for democracy. We should be looking for ways to develop our political culture so that sincerity is rewarded and dishonesty discouraged. We need to get the incentives right.
This means that journalists need to be willing to ask the hard questions. And if the politicians start to give misleading or hollow answers, there is a need to be called on this, interrupted, and told to state their position clearly or else shut up. If politicians are obviously being dishonest, then analysts should not show reluctance to point this out, loud and clear, shaming the liars and forcing them to own their words.
Furthermore, the politician should be exposed not just for dishonesty, but also illogic. Until that is done ghosts will continue to haunt us.
For our ghosts they may never completely go away, because we give the government money and power and also surrender our liberty. In view of this our past issues may never see a resolution, but we have to learn to appreciate ourselves and be with ourselves through our tough times, holding ourselves close to each other. Then we will be in position to fight the ghost.