I was talking to a pal the other day and he was saying things like 'all' politicians are untrustworthy crooks, 'all' public servants are lazy, good-for-nothings, intent on keeping secrets from the public and that there was no point in voting or getting involved in politics, because it's all completely hopeless. This is a fellow who is well-educated, relatively well-informed, and really quite clever. I corrected him on a few issues of course. I pointed out that he was quite a fan of Adam Bandt and Bob Brown, amongst various other Greens, and they're politicians after all.
I pointed out that there are, no doubt, some public servants who are lazy good-for-nothings, but surely this is true of any industry? Keeping certain secrets (and their personal opinions to themselves) is actually part of their job, so it's a bit rough to fault them for that. I suggested that one of the reasons why there is so much bad behaviour in political circles could well be that many people take his attitude and do their best to ignore the whole process as much as possible.
It seems, like many others, his knowledge about the entire political process is gleaned from the daily paper, nightly news and watching re-runs of Yes Minister. It's no wonder people are so jaded really when you think about it. What gets reported in the papers is not all the thousands of things that governments get right every single day, or the vast number of mind-nummingly dull, but terribly important papers, committees and meetings that politicians have to attend to.
What gets reported is the stuff ups, scandals and faux pas. If you didn't know any better, it would be easy to think that's all that goes on in the corridors of power. It got me thinking what sort of person would put themselves through it? Why do people put their hands up for public office in the first place? Sure, the pay is reasonable, but the hours are crushing. Sure, I suppose some people like the power and the attention. But the flip side is a loss of privacy and a heck of a lot of frustration and disappointment that goes with the territory when things don't go your way, which is the case more often than not. You've got to be pretty tough, pretty determined, not to mention impervious to criticism and pressure.
Maybe if more people stopped whining about how terrible our governments are and rolled up their sleeves to get involved, or at least better informed, things would improve? Perhaps if the media stopped chasing the sensational or the salacious and reported on things less colourful, but actually more intrinsic to democracy, people would have a more rounded view? Sadly this is unlikely to occur, people being people and newspapers being in the business of selling advertising, when they are not outright pushing propaganda.
The best we can probably expect is that people will continue to view politics as a spectator sport, where they can barrack for their team, shout abuse at the umpire, then forget about it for the rest of the time. Thank goodness for the Greens. It's difficult to even imagine just how awful things would be if everyone who is now, and has ever been involved in the party, had said it was all too hard and never got involved in the first place.
