Politicking...

Politician bashing is a favoured form of recreation for people.  It is part of many conversations and the collective ills of the land are blamed on the politicians and I have also been a willing participant. Politicians are evil, let us hold that thought for a moment and introspect to see if we are all not politicians every day?

There is a phrase that has amused me ever since I started debating politics in my mind- “playing petty politics”. We often say that they were playing petty politics to describe certain situations, two important words merit further thought the first is playing and the second is petty. A professional politician “plays” politics for money and in doing so he is not very different from any of the mercenary sportsmen who play for the highest paying team. After all for him it is a question of livelihood and survival. When the others play politics not always for money but always for an end it is termed petty because it is smaller in scale and it is different.

Do we not play politics with family, friends, colleagues and many others when we manipulate people to achieve our ends? Have we never indulged in coteries, factionalisms, pulling the carpet under the feet of others, some gossip, maybe a back stabbing and many other tactics that we usually attribute to the professional politicians? And having gained such valuable experience over the years is it not unfair that we judge those people who move on to become professional politicians?

So do I support politicians? I do not but next time I get an opportunity I must pause and reflect on John 8:7, maybe I may not cast the stone.

This post was spurred by a personal incident that happened recently.

 

(Image courtesy Google images)