Aristotle called Politics purely as things concerning the polis. When I look at politics I am often reminded of the scene when Socrates is at the centre of Athens waiting for judgement from the public about the fate of his life over the killing of a man. Of course he was convicted although it was told to us that Socrates was indeed an innocent man. I remember reading this story in one of John Locke’s collection in the school library as part of my musing about in the philosophy section, my favourite isle by far. After reading this, I always question what role does utilitarianism play in our democratic society.
I was watching my usual round of newsnight before bedtime, but frankly I couldn’t watch it anymore as world politics become more and more depressing. Well, I guess that is not news. My friend asked us in the car today at lunchtime what we thought about this whole Gordan Brown bullying incident. I do have my views on it, and although I have to say I am a conservative thinktank myself, I really don’t like David Cameron nor the way modern-Tories work in this country. Perhaps Labour politics have moved a long way since the days of the co-orperatives and unions, but I do believe the UK (without looking at British foreign policies) has progressed a lot under the labour government. The society has become more fair and accepting. Gone are the days when people are called Pakis or Chinks on the street of London, but rather the diversity is celebrated. The problem we face in this country is that we lack a charismatic leader (Brown) and those who are charismatic such as Cameron appears to me as some power-hogging Netanyahu who would deal in dark politics to get his way (e.g. smearing an opponent). This of course is a purely personal view. So, todays news of a bullying prime minister from a convervative backing charity makes me somewhat sinister about British poltics. Channel 4 tries to make it more colourful by asking women in spas down in Swindon who they would vote. I am again confronted with this ailing pain of the thought of a failed democracy. See, this is the problem I have with democracy as I’ve pointed out before in the Martin Lee’s post -> democracy is only a political model and in my opinion not a very strong one either. Also on the car we discussed how Rupert Murdoch’s influence in this supposedly deocratic western world. Here is the deal, the only way we will ever get any information about the world we live in is from the media. If you have control over the media in what we call Western civilisation you have control over people’s minds. When you have control over people’s minds, you control the political map. Once you control the political map, you control pretty much everything. Alright, I am quite a knowledge searching person when it comes to politics and I have been trained to cross examine sources before adopting any stance, so I watch BBC, Al-Jazeera, CNN, Channel 4 news and so forth to get my sources about what is going on in the world. Yet, I can’t help but conclude we live in a world where we have an illusion of choice. Where if women in spas (I’m generalising here) can have the same political say as an educated politics student from Cambridge university lets say (in terms of voting power), we are living in a fundamentally flawed system - because if newspaper starts to endorse a certain political party (e.g. Sun for the conservatives) apart from those page 3 girls, you would be subconsciously indoctrinated. What makes me laugh at the world even more today is the fact that Americans is increasing their national deficit on a trillion dollars defense budget trying to fight ideology in Afghanistan by military might when in the home ground people are indoctrinated by Hollywood everyday. I can’t help but think something is wrong…don’t you?
So lately I’ve been troubled by this apparent link between materialism (including money) and happiness. I just don’t buy it. Item number 2 on Newsnight at which I just couldn’t watch anymore was about Goldman Sachs. They talked about how they made money over the bailout of AIG, the ailing economy of Greece and so forth. I cannot understand till today, how bankers make money, drinking their champagnes and wine off people’s neccessary income. Can someone just explain that to me? There is so much moral injustice in this world I cannot bare to look at it sometimes. I guess my salvation is the fact that I believe in God and the afterlife, and that brings me peace and comfort - to think that justice will come ultimately. However, how do we tell right from wrong when an investment banker believes he is earning hard-earned money from a 7am-11pm job for his family, but he doesn’t know the full damage he creates to society? I guess with technology and different distractions its very easy to become desensitised and looses the big picture.
Finally, on religion and state. Lately there has been a row over Halal-only Quick outlets in France (6 out of 250 in the country). Its basically a French equivalent of McDonalds. Some French politicians has called it ‘a discrimiation against non-Muslims’ - that non-Muslim didn’t have choice to eat pork at their local Quick outlet. This leads me to think about the state-religion separation which is a European movement for around 200 years and is on-going (in my opinion becoming a world-wide phenomenon). Immanuel Kant is definitely one example I could think of in 1800s Germany who claimed that religion is a way to stop people from further enlightenment because it is a contract which meant that generations were not allow to think in a more progressive way. If we understand this struggle to separate Christianity from the state (hence now we have secular state) we can understand why France is so wary about this “Islamification of Europe”. After understanding this point, I finally understand what is happening in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan. Fatah is a secular government in Palestine for crying out loud. Before I thought this only contribution to this is Islamophobea but now I am starting to join the dots. Fear leads to control - as we could clearly see from the example of SARS in Hong Kong in 2003. Everyone listened to the government. Its by implanting fear in people’s mind that they get control over the population. Its also the fear of being politically incorrect that we sometimes fail to point out what is right, but instead go for what is popular. Today I’m challenging this notion of popular culture - this dumbing down of people - to make us like sheeps so we don’t think for ourselves.
Anyway, its getting late…time for bed, and by the way don’t be surprised if I get a mysterious heart attack.
Write a comment