The Linux Extremist

The drama that is British politics today is morbidly absorbing. It’s rather like watching a horror film that’s truly terrible to behold, but one looks through gaps between one’s fingers anyway.

I’m a patriot, I love my country. As much as I despise the Labour Party, I love Britain more; I know that their present round of in-fighting makes the country look weak and has induced a state of undesirable paralysis. If, God forbid, a crisis did come tomorrow, how would we handle it, given such enervated leadership? All they seem able to do is act like a gaggle of spoiled brats fighting over the last buttered crumpet on the plate.

There is a lesson in this episode, however. It shows the dangers when ambition becomes more important than merit, when self interest gets confused with the greater good. Truly, what we are witnessing is the limits of politics, when it tips over the line from being a necessary evil into something destructive.

Politics is not just something that happens far away in Westminster or Washington; in my experience, the machinations within companies can be just as complex and destructive. I work in management; I’ve had many times when I’ve had to pull the knife out of my back. What’s horrible is when it happens out of trying to do good: many times, I’ve had my desire to be helpful confused with a political play, and suffered the consequences for it. It’s given me stress; it’s made me ill. I’ve had periods of the dry heaves or worse and while in the throes of nausea wondered if I should simply return to coding. I’ve wanted to strike the politicians in my company with a large stick and remind them that we either will hang together, or hang separately.

It’s not like being political is the road to success: I’d like someone to point out a company that was both highly political and highly successful. I can’t think of one off of the top of my head. Rather like how politics is presently destroying the Labour Party, far too many people pursuing their own agenda weakens any organisation or business. It prevents rational decision making. It deters progress; certainly, my desire to be bold or innovative has been curtailed in political organisations because it’s simply dangerous. It’s not difficult to imagine that others have been similarly inhibited.

We can see this problem played out on a larger stage with Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. I can say with certainty that Gordon Brown should not be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. There are far more thoughtful and qualified individuals (yes, even in the Labour Party) than he. Anecdotal evidence that I have received and read suggests he is quick to take offense and never forgives. In other words, he’s something of a psycho. But better and more stable men than he won’t stand up, even if the country would benefit, because politics strangles their willingness to give it a try.

Perhaps if the fine gentlemen and ladies who lead the nations of the world actually lived up to their rhetoric about caring for the welfare of the nation first, as opposed to nursing their egos, and if the minor politicians in companies throughout the land thought about actually providing excellent service, brilliant products and creative solutions for their customers as opposed to their petty vendettas, we as a nation, and a civilisation, might get somewhere. However, it’s difficult to discern many people having this much perspicacity. It’s too bad, really. There is nothing quite like being in an atmosphere where people do truly work together, and alternatively, nothing quite as bad as living with the regret of missed opportunities.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS