Deterioration of politics due to voter apathy and media self interest

The irony of the latest internal notes released from Ed Balls by the Daily Telegraph is that they speak more about retaining power and personal grievances than actually helping the people of Britain. Policy statements are only mentioned with a view to gain power, or to convince the public of their desire to “do good”. Committees are set up to look at policies with a view to winning the election. Politicians have overridden the desire to serve their community by the need to win at all costs. They will say anything; do anything, and side with anyone to win. This is as much to do with the media and people’s changing attitudes as it is to do with politicians almost psychopathic winning agendas.

The media’s “conversations” with the public have seriously undermined our ability to focus on difficult long term objectives. We can no longer allow plans to span many election years as people want to see results now not in 5, 10 or 15 years. We see this expectation rise from our entertainment screens, we can no longer wait to watch serialised programming; and we must see the winner of talent competitions after immediate phone ins. The Chinese government has a march on modern democracy because of this need for immediate gratification. They have envisioned plans for the long term, and although they are not always fair or representative to everyone, they realise that they give everyone a better future in the long run. You can argue that democratic policies are never fair to everyone after the debate is over someone almost always loses. But crucially, the Chinese don’t waste time ensuring they are “Richard & Judy” friendly instead of actually solving the problem i.e. the nation’s energy crisis! I think Brown finds the “spin” and “media pandering” pointless as well but unfortunately when the media provide such a disfigured sense of what it is to be successful (looks and vapid one-liners at PMQs) he could never compete. It’s absolutely crazy that we would need to change our political leaders because the media have become “bored” with the current Government. If this thinking continues we will constantly have strife and failures in an effort to make news. How sad for the millions that will die or be impoverished because we want to be excited by what we watch on TV. I think Blair knew the power of media, and hated it. He used it for his own advantage as long as he could but understood the real requirement to execute change plans quickly before the media was “bored” and needed to move on (not for the people but for their own self interests). In his autobiography he notes that he was much better at being prime minister in his last term but ironically that was when the press forced him out over Iraq and “Presidential leadership”.

It is naïve to expect every working class family to aspire to better things in only one generation. It takes time and energy to understand, conceive and execute change within even one family. Even then, there is bell curve of distribution between those who listen and understand quickly and those that will never agree to change. Niche ideas take decades to become populist even when there is immediate gratification, for instance, cars, cell phones and electrified homes. Selling an agenda to the public based on values which may benefit them in the future, whilst knowing that the salesmen might not execute, or worse still not even be in power after they have won the debate almost seems like a waste of energy. Most human beings don’t seem to form their views of policy based on intellectual debate, they base them on how they will be affected in the short term. Politicians play on this innate short term view. This is why they can kick the hard decisions down the road e.g. pension reform (we definitely don’t have enough money to pay for promised pensions); decay in family and community ties; increased immigration due to lack of work ethic amongst indigenous people; our aging population and consequent health costs; and the European integration problem.

So whose fault is it? It’s ours, collectively as a democracy. Unfortunately, we give in to our base desires for instant rewards. The media and the politicians give us exactly what we want – conflict to titillate us; style over substance; arguments which attribute only blame with no valuable conclusion; and a failure to identify the themes which affect us all in the longer term. Scientifically, endorphins are released in our brains and we have satiated a small need whilst sacrificing our longer term aspirations and requirements. We reward our media (with increased sales) and our politicians for not solving problems but for looking good or communicating in a light, funny manner. They are a reflection of what we want.

Sadly, if this continues I can see this ending badly with the continued decline of the West’s influence in the real problems affecting the world or a war which aligns people’s values and concentrates them on the greater good thus enabling a new generation of leaders to get on with solving our problems rather than fixing their hair.