Politics, No More

Five years ago, during a deep meditation, I had a series of realizations that led me on a five-year hiatus from a brief period of piety in Zen. One of the things that I had realized during the meditation was that piety was for practice and it was time for me to walk the middle path. I never stopped studying nor did I cease meditating. Simply, I abandoned an illusion.

Since that day, five years ago, without pious practice, I have held steadfast to Zen principles while limiting my involvement with the illusions of this world. That is, until a few months ago when I started to pay attention to U.S. politics more intently.

Before I knew it, I was roped into the political confusion. I was angered, appalled, and as 'mad as hell' over the ignorance, lies, and greed. I would throw my hands up in the air out of rage as I listened to this congressperson or that senator make their statements on CSPAN. I would get angry when I heard of how 'this policy' might be changed on this date, which in return would affect 'these people.' I couldn't take it anymore--I went to work fighting, publishing articles, and championing for the middle and lower classes.

A few articles, arguments, and months later, I was preparing for my next battle. For inspiration, I sat down on the couch and turned on the television to MSNBC. It was the same old aggravations and, of course, I was following the same old routine--I got mad, threw my hands up out of disgust, and became red in the face.

Upon observing the pattern that I had found myself in, I saw that my participation in the battle against ignorance would never end. I knew that no matter how often I screamed "truth and justice," only half of my fellow citizens would understand the message. "There must be a better way," I thought.

It was after the realization of my futile actions when I remembered something that I had learned many years ago: We are not capable of understanding anything beyond the extent of our knowledge. Part of this is because our knowledge is based on what we choose to believe and what we choose to believe is based on our knowledge. Additionally, our knowledge is sculpted by our environment and this leads to another topic about the evolution of humanity and its illusions.

As Confucius said, "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." I realized that the fight would never end as long as those of whom I was trying to convince were unaware of their own obliviousness. Let's face it, most people think they are right and will do anything to justify and validate their egos--even after being presented with insurmountable evidence that they are wrong. Upon facing the sea of unawareness... I saw the error in my approach.

Back to the observations of my anger and frustrations--I questioned the sanity of my approach until I realized that I am more upset with the lack of wisdom in our government than I am with the policies and plans that they're arguing about. It seems that the basic principles of wisdom are absent in America and I blame most of this on the corporate greed that has spilled over into our government. Regardless of where I place the blame, I know better than to let the ignorance bring me down and to participate in the madness. I know that I need to be more accepting of humanity's ignorance. Yes, I am angry about the crimes against humanity, the rape of the world, and the injustices being done to the poor, the elderly, and the sick. Nevertheless, acting in anger towards our ignorance is not the way. Peace is the way.

Divisiveness, Politics, and a Philosophy for Change!

The political climate of the United States is a reflection of the political climate changes affecting the entire world. While others point in disgust and dismay at the evolutions of the Republican nomination, as well as the enormous gaps between Republican and Democrat, our issues are not so very unique.

As a planet, we appear to have evolved socially to the point where the main arguments revolve around our sense of responsibility for each other. Who owns the responsibility to make decisions for others and to what degree?

Should we have national health care? Should we involve ourselves in the affairs of others? Are we responsible for removing dictators from power when they abuse their populations? Do we, or do we not, impose our beliefs on those who are less trained? How are we using our sophisticated weapons and who has the right and the responsibility to do what? Who is responsible for the overuse of debt as a means to finance what we cannot afford, and who will pay the debt so we can get on with our lives?

We Are All Responsible

Our issues are not about who we should blame for our potentially catastrophic choices. These choices and their consequences are natural results of how the human being reacts to stimuli. We need to make the next leap in our evolution, own the entire mess as a jointly created consequence of being imperfect, and figure out what to do about it in a much more holistic way.

Certainly we can round up and punish everyone at the top responsible for creating financial tools that were self-serving and destructive. We can identify the extremists and attempt to take them out one at a time. We can bomb others for their gall in thinking that they have the right to create weapons like our own. At the end of the day, we will have solved NOTHING and we will have created the reasons for the next big divide.

We are all a part of this shift and we are all responsible for its pain. Do you not also react in fear when you are not making your numbers, pleasing your boss, having trouble paying your bills? Do we not all hope for someone to step in and save us from the precipice? Think of the choices you make every day, that in essence, are not so different from the choices that our politicians, whom we elect, are making for us.

Politics of Coalition and Contradictions!

The ruling coalition of India led by the Congress has been moving from crisis to crisis for more than two years now. Blackmailed and stalemated at every step of its operations by the allies and the opposition parties. After Congress did poorly in three of five states where Assembly elections took place February-March, 2012 the worst was expected. Now, with the start of the Budget session of the Indian Parliament from 12th March the worst fears seemed to have been confirmed.

Political parties join a coalition for grabbing the dictating power and a few ministerial berths. Being responsible ministers of the government they do not still bother to work for it, but rather think of ways to destroy it from within. The opposition parties as ever look for opportunities to ally with the 'allies' to corner the government, stall its functions and even to dethrone it so that they have a chance to come to power in mid-term polls. For a weak coalition withdrawal of even a single ally with only a few seats can reduce the coalition government to minority. If an 'ally' minister indulges in horrid corruption the ruling coalition has to take the blame hounded by the opposition parties and if it punishes the errant minister the concerned 'ally' would blame it again and threaten to quit supported again by the same opposition that shouted against corruption.

The Assembly elections results thus emboldened the allies more than the opposition parties who kept on lurking round the corner for opportunities. The prospect of a mid-term poll or General Election became a distinct reality.

The Railway Budget was presented in Parliament on March 14, 2012 by Dinesh Trivedi who belonged to an ally, Trinamool (grass-root) Congress (TMC) having 18 seats. The Budget was considered to a good and bold one. For nearly a decade trains fares were never increased. So, due to the resulting resource crunch and a stagnation in improving services Trivedi proposed an across the board hike in all classes of passenger fares. Before the aam-admi or the common man could react their representatives were up in arms. What happened was unprecedented.

Mamata Bannerjee, the Chief of TMC, attacked her own party's minister Trivedi for the fare-hike. She reportedly said she was not aware of this proposal and that she could never support any proposal adverse to the interests of common people. Like an 'understanding' ally she shot off letters to the Prime Minister asking him to sack Trivedi and for a rollback of the fare hike. TMC even came up immediately with an alternative railway minister. Trivedi defended his Budget making a historic statement 'Nation first, family second and party only after' and now his inevitable sack had been the hugely debated issue till the last reports came in.

Parity in Politics - Why Women Don't Want It

Marking the 20-year anniversary of the Year of the Woman, Karen Tumulty's front-page Washington Post article details the never-ending challenges of gender parity in American politics. While an informative piece about the United States' 78th world ranking in woman's representation in national legislatures, tied with Turkmenistan for those keeping track, it reflects a flawed conventional wisdom about why more women don't run for and win elected office.

In discussing why more women are not politically engaged, many well-know facts were listed:

• Women often wait until later in their careers and lives to run for office making it a challenge to rise through the ranks to high office

• Many women wait to be asked to run, instead of initiating a political campaign, often questioning their credentials and qualifications more so than their male-counterparts

• Often women feel that the electorate is biased against women candidates, with high-profile examples of Clinton, Palin, Pelosi and Bachman as media and partisan targets fresh in their minds

The answer to these challenges as espoused by numerous women's groups is to train more women to run for office. From political "boot camps" like Rutgers Center for American Women in Politics Ready to Run program to the newly minted 50-50 in 2020 women's groups throughout the country believe that if more women are trained to run for office they will.

The problem with this strategy is that it doesn't work-just look at the last 20 years the article details as proof.

In 1992, I was a young political consultant determined to bring parity to politics having grounded my early political life working for a rising star of women leaders, Debbie Stabenow, now one of just 17 females Senators. During that election cycle and for many to come, I flew around the country training women, helping with their campaigns and hopeful that the efforts of so many women who tirelessly gave of themselves, and for a lot less money than our male counterparts, would bring us closer to parity.

Eight years later and hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles behind me, I examined the challenge of woman in politics as I created a leadership course at the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. The reason why women didn't run were clearly researched then and not significantly different that the facts presented today. The answer two decades ago was to prepare women to run for office and 20 years later it has had little impact. Why?

The truth is that preparing women for the battle of politics is not the answer. Woman are not running for office because they are choosing to spend their time and energy in ways other than engaging in the senseless, and all too often futile, act of policy making in contemporary politics. No amount of preparation is going to change the pragmatic nature of women who will choose to focus their energy and attention on real world solutions, rather than engage in politics that rarely creates meaningful change and when it does at a very high personal cost to one's quality of life.

A Political Tool

Setting aside the common notion that politics involves government and political leadership in an organization like a state or community. Politics is actually broader and more complex than that popular belief. It extends to almost every sphere of human endeavor and interaction. In its most general sense, it involves the pursuit of self-interest of individuals. In a particular system of relationships like in a society this pursuit of individuals of particular goals is translated into the competition to wield power. With power one may attain the pinnacle of their goals in relation to others. One one's interest supercedes that of another the former logically wields more power than the latter.
A less known but broader side of politics involves intrigue, schemes & plots, manipulations, deceptions, mind games and stratagem. These comprise most of the realm of politics. An advantage for individuals who are active in this field is in-depth knowledge and understanding of these various aspects of political life. More so if an individual aspires not only to be a participant but an active player. This is because in this domain of human interaction, there are only two kinds of individuals those who influence and those who are influenced. Being the latter means you are subject to the interests of the former. And the latter always aspires to be the former while the former aims to remain as he or she is as the power in the status quo.
A potent tool in conflict, particularly in the realm of politic is social engineering. This is the collection of psycho - social approaches implicitly compel individuals to perform acts, maintain thoughts and even provide information under the pretext that such is in his or her interest. In short, it is an insightful way of instigating manipulation for a particular goal. Meaning a person or persons can, through effective application of social engineering advantageously pursue political goals. The power of this methodology lies in its calculated incorporation of human nature in the techniques it offers. It provides approaches that appeal to the nuances and facets of human thought, behavior, prejudice, motivation and inclination. This implies that with this means holistic, virtually complete but subtle manipulation can be had. This is not new. In fact, for years politics has been closely related to these techniques. If politics can be taken as a form of advanced and complex chess game then this certainly will be the master's guide to the same.
The capability to move another, to fill the thoughts of others with one's ideas, to compel others that adhering to a particular view is valid and legitimate is what politics is about. With social engineering, a new level of micro - manipulation is possible. In the past threat of use of force, denial of material gain or promise of the same was the focal point of political relationships. Now politics can transpire in the human consciousness with a ripple effect towards a person's perception, ideas, and conduct in the social sphere. This makes social engineering an elegant, modern and masterful tool in politics.

The State of American Politics

It's hard to think of a more corrupting occupation than American politics. While it's by no means an illegal activity, as opposed to, say, operating a meth lab or running guns to Mexico, it nevertheless seems to systematically corrupt otherwise good men and women of stature and accomplishment.

Our system has, in the past 235 years, produced political leaders who have provided able national leadership during times of war, of economic strife, of civil unrest, and of growth and regeneration.

But something's not right in today's body politic. Its ability to produce leaders of quality has been severely diminished. Ironically, the world-class quality of our made-in-America products and services has risen steadily and inexorably over the last quarter century; ironically, too, the quality of our elected leaders had deteriorated steadily and inexorably over the same period. Or so it seems to me. We have philanderers and exhibitionists, bribe seekers and bribe takers, money launderers and sexual predators. We have a political class who has to beg for money virtually every day to keep their jobs. We have behavior from high elected officials that is routinely unethical, often immoral, and sometimes outright illegal. And then they have the nerve to complain about the political scruples of the Iraqi and Afghan pols.

We've always had our share of rascals in political life. I get that. And I realize our real-time, right-now, 24/7 news cycle exposes more of the underside of American life than ever before, to include political shenanigans. But heretofore we've always been able to produce political leaders to meet the challenges of the times. Someone has traditionally always stepped forward and led. Washington, Lincoln, TR, FDR, Truman, JFK, Reagan.

So where are they now? I can't find any already in national office, and I'm looking hard, believe me. Oh, maybe there's a leader in the military or private enterprise or state government who could provide quality leadership at the national level, but how long before they would be corrupted by special interests or re-election demands or the hyper partisanship or simply the arrogance that comes with raw power? And why would anyone in their right mind want to enter such a profession nowadays, what with the all-intrusive scrutiny and the pettiness and the begging and butt-kissing that go with it?

Bit of a conundrum, huh? Many good and talented Americans just stay away. And who can blame them? Those who do seek office seem to have to sell their souls to gain the office, only to be corrupted once there, swallowed by a relentless boa-like system. Not always, but seemingly often enough. And that is, if they weren't corrupt to begin with. Those moths have always been attracted by the bright lights.

Where's the leadership? Where's the competence? Where's the integrity?

Beats me. I wish I had a solution. But I don't. Just like you, I'll keep watching. And listening. And waiting.

How to Write Informative Political Articles Online

As an online article author, I feel it is my duty to help article authors create quality content online. Indeed, I've written over a 1000 articles on political topics, and I've learned the hard way how to do it right, and which mistakes are easily made. Writing about political topics is serious business, it's easy to make a mistake and look foolish, and you can't rely on everything you hear in the media, most of the news stations are jaded towards a conservative slant, or a more neo-liberal motif. Okay so, let's talk about this for a moment if we might.

First, I would recommend that you don't write any political articles based on what you see on TV and take their exact perspective. Sure, you might have an opinion on something, but you need to make sure it is your own opinion, and you can back it up with facts, not the sound bites that you viewed on TV the night before. Secondly, I wouldn't recommend writing an article because you saw something which you either agreed with, or disagreed with, because it emotionally sent you into a writing mode. You need to stop and think about what you're writing, and explore the different angles.

Another issue, and this is something that really burns me up when I see other authors do this - you should never take a political article that you read somewhere else, and rewrite it in your own words. A unique perspective and opinion is important. If you have one, and additional personal experience which you can relate to, share that with your reader. Another thing, if you make blanket statements make sure you back them up by citing where you got the information. Perhaps you read something in Foreign Affairs Magazine, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, a research paper, book, or watched a video from the Council on Foreign Relations, say so.

Also, you should never cite something you saw on Facebook, or a tweet that you received, and be wary of citing Wikipedia, even if you did check your facts on that site. Another thing, you must remember is who your audience is, if you're going to be preaching to the choir, you need to write a certain way for your audience. However, if you are writing to persuade people of the opposite position, or from a different political party, then you must handle yourself properly, and not hit them too hard until you've made your points. Indeed I hope you will take this information and use it to write quality content online, we need more of the good stuff, and we need less of the debris. So please consider all this and think on it.