Why politics seldom works

Reality expresses itself in polarities; birth and death, man and woman, positive and negative, etc. Politics is about governing reality through a certain method. At the basis of this method is a certain belief system; conservative beliefs, progressive beliefs, religious beliefs, etc.

A belief system is always one-sided, because a belief always excludes that which is contrary to that particular belief. Reality, however, has many different sides. Even sides that contradict each other.

These contradicting sides of reality is what causes any one political method to fail on its own. Economy versus the environment. Civil liberties versus national security. Social solidarity versus individualism. All sides have their valid place in reality and cannot be denied by a belief.

That’s why politics seldom works. Often a political party is elected into office because they have promised a lot and criticized the ruling party while standing on the sideline. But often at the end of their own term in office it turns out that they also couldn’t keep their promises and disappointed the people. And so another party can now opportunistically criticize them, make a lot of promises and get elected and so the whole game starts all over again.

When will people start to notice this dynamic and stop being naïve about politics? Naïve in the sense that they really believe, like a child, that the new government will put it all right. That won’t happen because their government is governing from a one-sided belief.

So unless we collectively get out of our egotistical one-sided beliefs about life, there is no hope for truly insightful and intelligent governing.