The True Bandwagon

Interviewed in the Times today, former MLP executive member Brian Hansford states that his decision to bow out of politics and concentrate on his work in the media came at a time when he had to choose between "truth and politics". Nothing new under the sun – it is not only those who like myself endlessly complain about the value void of power-mongering politics, who are aware of this huge crater that has slowly been created. More and more politicians seem to accept the status quo of opportunistic policies, populistic (not always popular) decision making and pacts with the devil's cousin's uncle as being the best way to move. To move – not necessarily forward – but to move on in a battle to occupy the middleground that automatically promotes you as the supposed leader of the country.

"Truth in politics" has always been a euphemism for the "politics of truth", let us not kid ourselves. It was not Mintoff, Mifsud Bonnici, Fenech Adami, Sant or Gonzi who discovered it one fine summer day in Castille. The politics of truth is a game that is as old as politics itself. That is why the person running a National Statistics Office is a crucial pawn in the great battlefield of political truth. You know how it goes… Lies, Damned Lies and Political Party Propaganda… or something like that.

We just have the feeling that the changing face of society has forced the political machines to badly adapt themselves to change. They honed their propaganda machines and polished their spinning and while the new ranks were fed with the most gullible and apologetic lot ever to have mumbled the word partitarju even the old ranks began to believe their own lie. From Bush to Blair to Berlusconi to the people closer to home the new breed of politics is just a very badly recycled old system. New Labour and Surviving Nationalist is nothing more than a regurgitating of old spin channelled through monopolised media and fed to the most gullible – just the right amount to keep out the free thinking persons who want to live in the twenty-first century.

Any threat to this 'hegemony of the stupefying' is quickly countered by a block resistance that mutates in such petty exercises as toying with electoral standards. Thinking different is not an option. Those who do try will be accused of "riding on everybody's bandwagon (and) falling short of saying how (they) would implement what (they) talk about."

To the old guard talking about l-ambjent is still "riding on the bandwagon". To them raising awareness about overdevelopment and excessive building practices is "riding on the bandwagon". To them the right to choose between divorce and separation is the activity of the liberal corrupt. To them the idea of obliging parties to clearly show their sources of funding is a load of claptrap. To them these liberals are oversimplifying the complex and convoluted aspects of politics that would better be left to the experts with a pedigree… to them politics is for the chosen advocates who have a monopoly on truth, on the government and ultimately on the people themselves.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" – Terry Pratchett, The Truth