How does politics affect my life, and why should I be interested?
It is discernible that ever since the Arab Spring ignited in 2011, the Arab World, and especially Tunisia have been living in political turmoil. Given that we benefited from our shift to a democratic system, a system where the ballot box decides who sits at the top of the governing body, the instability was no secret to the people. 11 years long march of time was treacherous with the deterioration of living conditions, notably among the impoverished social classes. The little to no change in the status-quo evoked the concerns on whether this democratic system has been any good to us, inevitably pointing fingers at the individuals whom we trusted with the holy oath of redeeming the country from unraveling, sort-of-speaking, with our voting ballots. We collectively grew contemptuous of politicians, political debates, and everything related to politics, switching TV channels whenever politicians’ juvenile wit triggers our frustration. This reflects on the participation rate on parliamentary and presidential elections, leaving the majority of Tunisians with voting power, unrepresented.
However, we tend to throw our fingers without grasping some of the key elements to get a view on the bigger picture. We say things like “All politicians are thieves”, and speak in the name of democracy while uttering emotionally charged words. In contemplation of how do politics affect our daily life, we have to take a step back and dive deeper into the subject.
“Politics, A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles”
Since the dawn of time, we have not been astray from politics. Exercised from traditional societies composed of tribes and clans to modern governments, from institutions to sovereign states, and from the local level to the international level. Notwithstanding the fact that politics has different meanings to different thinkers and philosophers, we can say that politics is the process linked with making collective decisions, balancing power relations between entities and individuals, and allocating wealth and resources. This definition, broad and immeasurable, suggests that politics exceeds being a deemed member of some higher authority.
Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.
Paulo Coelho
Politics is the conciliation of diverse interests in society. It’s a mean of reconciling differences in a civilized society. Although we might see politics with derision, its ultimate goal is achieving common good. It enables different people to be governed by a common policy. When interests are uniform, there are no politics. Thereby, politics presupposes an established order in which there’s common ground for social groups with different principles and ways of living, politicians included.
Trying to project what has been previously established on our reality would prove difficult at first glance. The gullible masses are duped by politicians. They are taken in by their hollow promises. They are masters in concocting stories to play with the sentiments of masses. The people promised certain amenities which are denied to them after the elections are over.
However, we might be surprised that our example does not defy nor neglect our definition. It does amplify it matter-of-factly.
Previously, we have established that politics is not having a political status, it’s more of a social human activity which can be observed through our daily life. We also inferred that it’s the conciliation of diverse interests of different social groups in a society. We also mentioned that the ultimate purpose of politics could imply its evil repercussions. How exactly so? Well, it is complicated.
Politicians and Megalomania
Verily, one can not make change without possessing power. Although power is a broad and cumbersome term, we will simplify it, in our context, by saying it’s the capacity to direct the course of events. A powerful leader is an individual who can use his abilities to impose a direction for his social group. The entity that decides for our future possesses that power, politicians if we translate it into individuals. We might be asking ourselves “Are these most powerful individuals unaware of how to solve our country’s problems?”
To put it into simple words, no individual can rule alone. The power to rule the country is divided into different groups of actors in the political scene. The capacity to make change looks omnipotent from afar, but it’s not what it seems. One major role for politicians in a democracy is balancing existing power between different groups: Military power, money power, administrative power, and so on and so forth. The path to be “good” politicians is mined with obstacles which deviates them to a whole new objective: Climb through the power ladder and keep your power. If they don’t do the “bad” things, others will simply do them instead.
On top of that, the constant aggrandizement of political figures, shown in the media and in the streets, is another factor which politicians do not draw feelings of power from. Studies from the political psychology field show that it can potentially lead them to a state of megalomania. A person who has discovered god and thinks it’s them. Stressed and less introspective people, when in their aura, agree with their god-like assessment of themselves. Entitled to be the people’s superheroes, they disregard “normal” laws and boundaries for “normal” people.
We have now created a new line of interest, the line for the rules. We mentioned early on that politics is the conciliation of diverse interests in society. Thus, we remain true to our definition still, given the crystal clear contrast between the interests for rulers; gaining more power and influence and the the interests of the people; living in better conditions.
Politics and the Status-Quo, how can politics affect individual life?
To answer this question, we must remind ourselves with the first item of our Politics’ definition: politics is the process linked with making collective decisions. The decisions that politicians make come in the forms of policies and laws that directly affect our lives.
Politics affect our rights. For example, laws that protect us against violence and assure our safety. Politics also affect our economic welfare, having control over salary distribution and tax laws. Additionally, politics affect our health care. The Government makes lots of decisions about which medicines are available through the health service. It can influence how long we have to wait for a hospital appointment. On top of that, politics have influence over our education, price-levels, our jobs, and so on and so forth.
In a democracy, we elect politicians who make decisions about laws and rules which affect nearly every area of our lives.
Everyone is a politician - Opinion Part
We have now, whether we like it or not, politics is integral to our lives. It is the conciliation of diverse interests in a society. Interests that we shed the light on their difference for distinct groups. The common individual wants better living conditions, the politician wants more power, the rich wants less taxes, and so on and so forth. Politics is about finding the most points of intersections between the lines of interests. In the game of politics, every group have a multitude of pressure cards in their decks. However, the people possess the strongest cards: voting power and productivity.
To many, joining politics means that you have to join a political party and push for the party’s agenda. This is very simplistic and narrow definition of politics. By simply voting in the presidential, parliamentary, or municipality’s elections, we are in the game. Voting for the right candidate, even if it’s not applicable, requires minimum updates on the country’s political situation. We don’t have to be Aristotle’s political animals to have that profile. We have to know for where does our tax money go and what could the government actually do to improve our economic and social well-being. To systematically influence our lives from the outside, we have to influence people at the levers. Politicians need to feel strongly that their own success depends on tackling critical issues. Even if large in number, as long as we don’t vote, we are irrelevant in gaining power. Thereby, we often hear the sentence “Every vote counts”.
Besides, the more the wealth of a nation comes from the productive citizens of the nation, the more power gets decentralized and the more politicians need to maintain the quality of life for those citizens. The things that make citizens productive, happen to be also the things make their lives better: transportation, education, healthcare system, freedom of speech, and so on and so forth.