Follow The Yellow Brick Road

                                        "Follow The Yellow Brick Road"

         In Politics, as in many areas of business, the road to advancement can be a rocky one. Sometimes, double dealing, cheating, and outright prevarications are the accepted norms, honed to an art form. It usually starts out during the campaign phase when "coloring" the truth, to make a candidate more appealing, is an accepted practice. No one highlights this, because it may mean losing the  election. The mentality carries on into Public Office. The life and times of a public official are carefully airbrushed to create a "stepford son,” (or woman) without blemish. Errors and omissions in government are similarly edited, to avoid harsh criticism. The result is a surreal setting, where every day, like the TV show “Mr. Rogers,” is a "beautiful day in the neighborhood."

         Whistleblowers are usually not appreciated. Systemically, few welcome the hassle of anyone upending the apple cart. The mess created, in addressing a problem situation, if a fearful unknown in which all the King’s men might fall down the rabbit hole. And of course, the opposition waits gleefully in the background hoping that the entire system crashes down around everyone’s ears. No one wants to be the cause of that calamity. The ancient Greeks had a similar tradition that involved messengers. If the news was good, the messenger was given presents and good food. When the news was extremely bad however, the messenger would be put to death. The custom, in a much milder form, is in use today. The harbinger of bad news is not welcome. The bringer of glad tidings always is. It creates, however subtly, a skewing of the information carried to the high command. Witness Hitler, in the final stages of W.W.II, moving paper divisions around on a map and shrieking at their lack of effectiveness. Who was going to tell the madman that they didn't exist?

        Countless Mayors, Governors and Presidents have been blind-sided by financial crises, that arose "seemingly overnight.” In reality, these situations had been developing over a considerable period of time. The bureaucrats, whose first instinct is for survival, had carefully colored the information, to make it appear a less-serious  problem. You have to remember, that many of the same operatives, who created the fiction of "the candidate,” are now controlling the levers of government. Is it any great surprise that they carry their trade craft into the halls of power? What is real and what is illusion? I don't think that we know anymore. Opinion, by its very nature, is subjective. Interpretation is a function of perspective. “Welfare,” to some, is a negative concept. Yet, crop subsidies may appear an enlightened Government attempt to support a different segment of the population. Go figure.

       Interwoven within the threads of legitimate opposition, is the  fine mesh of the political agenda. The message is that if a political figure is brought down, everyone else advances. The weapon of choice is usually the media. Often manipulated, though to be fair sometimes self-directed, the press can appear as  a part of the torch bearing mob besieging the castle. Is it any wonder that the system attracts manipulators, charlatans and self-servers? And yet, somehow, we struggle on. The rigors, of political Darwinian selection, breed men and women of stature who do accomplish many things. It is a kernel of hope that keeps the process alive. If many thousands storm the citadel, some few will make it over the top of the walls.

                                          -30-

                                      (581 words)

                          Joseph Xavier Martin