Yellow Brick Road

"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 the negatives, 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, 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."

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 it's 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 baleful array of attack dogs, slavering for the scent. The media is preconditioned for blood lust. Indeed, some reporters keep their own record of notches on their belts, for politicians brought down. Is it any wonder that the system attracts manipulators, charlatans and self servers? Would you play in this League if you had an alternative?

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 to the top.

-30-
(540 words)

Joseph Xavier Martin