On Madness and Politics: A friend of mine wrote or is simply circulating (I am not sure), a post trying to demonstrate that the root of all this madness is Phillips thus, the RENEWALIST should get the blame. They claim we pushed PSM and gave way to Phillips.
There are things that only Facebook can provide. One of those was his post to be right above another written by Labourite. He didn’t title it, and I took the liberty to call it “A Madhouse Divided Cannot Stand.” It is long (it can be found below), but goes at the heart of, not only what is going on in the PNP, but also what I have been witnessing in Jamaica since my return.
Since I am back, I started to get really surprised how many people I know in Jamaica who believes they have a beef in Politics – picking sides, and all. This friend of mine is one, but they are legion. The more I think about it, the more I think this was common before I moved to Canada. However, now, such a posture seems absolutely nonsensical to me.
Madness and Politics: let me give an example really close to me. My own mother said just a couple of days ago – “I hate politics, I am a Christian !” When I said “What?!,” she replied – “I know you love politics like your father!” I won’t put aside the fact that my mom ultimately said that she is angry at me because that is a perfect example of the folly. She does not believe that, but she said it anyway.
She thinks I am a PNP because of my father, I clash against her “Democraticism.” Still, that friend of mine I mentioned above, he has a very different opinion of me, since I don’t buy everything that comes from the News and Andrew’s social media agenda. The fact, though, is that I don’t have a bias in politics at all. I am a Jamaican. It is Tallawahs against Melbourne, and I root for the excitement. I follow because I like the game, but the final score does not matter to me, as long as my country wins. Well, that’s not exactly true…I want PNP to always win
Moreover, the very point my friend was making is senseless. I told him. “He started it” is not a valid argument. We know that. We have used that, and I don’t believe that only my mother told her kids to shut their mouths up because it is irrelevant who have started it. Both are in it. Both are to be blamed for it. Still, my friend was simply emulating the argument we see in Jamaica. Who started the division?
Madness and Politics: it doesn’t matter. I just wish my mom could apply what she taught me also in politics! Did PSM help divide the party? You bet she did. But Phillips SURFED on that wave, too. He was elected precisely because of such a division. His electorate is not “angry traditionalist” (that is silly), but he was carried by cast-offs, those who were of the mind that it was his time now. They wished to be heard.
Now, here is the point where I want to hit the target: “…we have misunderstood both the diagnosis and the treatment. We want what we want, but what we want is seldom what is true, good and beautiful.” Phillips wants to give to his electorate what they asked for. That is POPULISM. The same populism of PSM They are no different! It does not matter who has started it!
“It only matters how it ends.” Motherly wise words. The lesson here is one those not include some at expense of others. That is like cleaning your bedroom by transferring the mess to another room. You are not cleaning at all!
The goal of politics is politics itself because politics is a game – and games are part of the common good. PSM and Phillips promised progress. It has been hard to deliver. Politics and progress are like oil and water. No, politics means war – total war; because there really is no friendship.
A statesman would try guiding the party out of this madness…Phillips seems to be compounding it.
“A Madhouse Divided Cannot Stand”
The people and supporters of the PNP have lost their minds
Madness and Politics: every party, every demographic, group…whatever. The educated social/cultural critic is at a loss for what he or she could even say to bring some semblance of moderation and reason to the conversation without provoking virtually anyone and everyone. In a world poisoned by identity and personality politics, the deliberation and community required for a well-ordered and unified PNP seem increasingly far-fetched.
There is nothing new under the sun. The problems we see today are problems that have repeated themselves for millennia in different guises. Every time, we seem to have slain the monster we created only to see it resurrected as if it were never defeated. Our historical amnesia is evident in every day’s headlines.
Madness and Politics: we tear down statues and walls while erecting idols in our own hearts that perpetuate the very things we think we’re destroying. We refuse to see how we are part of the problem. We attack the superficial artefacts and espoused values of our broken culture, but never look up from our phones long enough to examine the underlying assumptions exposing our insincerity. We pay lip service to diversity and inclusion but enforce a cultural and political orthodoxy that makes heretics of everyone we disagree with. We decry “fake news” and lies, but resist claims to truth on the basis of some illusory moral autonomy. We treat liberty as an end, rather than as a means to the good, the true and the beautiful. We think it’s always what we “hate” that will destroy us, but seldom consider that what we love may be a far more serious threat. We celebrate technological progress and the acquisition of more “knowledge,” while never asking what we’re moving toward or what it’s costing us.
Madness and Politics: as a nation, we have become slaves to addictions amid an epidemic of loneliness, immaturity, and anxiety. We look to politics, laws and the church to save us, but resist the very virtues and imagination which make those things work and which put them in their proper perspective.
“Moral therapeutic deism,” is our national religion. We try and find identity in demographics instead of in the One in whose image we are all made.
I do not believe that politics, law and economics are irrelevant. Far from it. But I am increasingly weary of talking about them when so much about who we are morally and spiritually as Jamaicans is so profoundly broken. We think protests, elections, boycotts, violence and new policies will fix the problem. But we have misunderstood both the diagnosis and the treatment. We want what we want, but what we want is seldom what is true, good and beautiful.
Madness and Politics: our deliverance lies not in another vote, the church decisions, protests or policies. Our hope is not in broken statues and more education. Our hope is in Unity and in unity alone.
We don’t need another political party, another mass movement, non-profit or elected official. We need prayer, spiritual discipline, humility and genuine community.
We need another Great Awakening. We need a leadership free of attachments to church, corruption or soft money. We need a leader who not only listens but does.
Contributed by Socrates at Large
