Speaking of Politics

People have asked me why I don't talk about politics in this blog. For me, there is nothing about politics [Philippine or otherwise] I can talk about that hasn't been discussed or debated by luminaries or by simple folk whether in the distant or recent past. Why? The truth of the matter is, our political system and our political psyche as a nation has never developed enough for there to be a meaningful political exchange reminiscent of that of Plato's The Republic. The Philippine political scene has remained constant, er, stagnant, to use the more appropriate term--so stagnant that it has bred one breed of politicians and political leaders--those who put their self-interest over and above the interest of the nation, and that of their countrymen. And so, time and again, in whatever age or era, we are given the same type of politicians who do the same kind of damnable things.

We are all bios politikos, i.e., political creatures, to borrow the term of philosopher Hannah Arendt. And to be bios politiki presupposes a certain kind of maturity in a person, a level of maturity that can enable one to intelligently discuss and debate about the ways and means to achieve the good life for everyone. While I do not doubt that we are all capable of being political, from what I've been seeing, there is an apparent lack of bios politiki in this country, and for this, our country is certainly doomed to failure. Apathy is the nemesis of politics, and up to this point in our country's socio-political history, our psyche as a nation is slave to apathy. There can be no healthy political exchange if people do not choose to develop and mature politically. They shall forever be, the prisoners described in Plato's Allegory of the Cave-- people who, kept in the darkness, will never know anything beyond what is presented/told them. It cannot be over-emphasized that a citizenry in darkness breeds a propagandist state. And a propagandist state means the death of politics.

So why don't I talk about politics? I guess I consider it in bad taste to talk about things that have long since died.