Having Faith in our Leaders.

The main party conference season is now in its final phase. We’ve had three weeks of posturing politicians peddling half truths, manipulating the simple minded, and engaging shamelessly in cheap rhetoric. We’ve had the spectacle of supposedly mature people standing on platforms spouting sad little sound bites in the manner of tabloid journalists. And we’ve been constantly amazed – at least I have – by the fact that the audience has stayed in its seats when they should have been groaning and going home. But, of course, the audience is composed of the party faithful, and the party faithful are, by definition, largely just another flock of sheep. People with the capacity to think deeply for themselves rarely join parties.

My concern about politicians goes deeper than that, though. It’s the senior ones that steer the ship, and it’s the senior ones that give me cause for misgiving.

Politics is like any other career that involves the acquisition of wealth or power. People don’t get to the top of the ladder through decency, compassion, creativity, or even wisdom. They get there by being prepared to do more or less whatever it takes to achieve the next rung. I think it would be a rare top politician indeed who has not cheated, lied to and manipulated in order to gain another step. And maybe they have gone rather further than that. They are driven people, and such people usually carry a sizeable chunk of ruthlessness in their kit bag. I see no statesmen in the ranks of top politicians, only those who have been successful in terms defined by a greedy, ego-obsessed society.

Frankly, I don’t want people like that running my culture. Such people are anathema to everything I hold dear. And I’m glad I’m fast coming to the view that this life is only a virtual reality game anyway.