Adonis Diaries

A Few Good Politicians (February 6, 2009)

Our problems with politicians stem from three factors:

First, most of the politicians inherit their jobs, one way or another.  They realize soon that they are not up to the requirements of the arduous job, and don’t want the hassle; and thus, they delegate their responsibilities to people who were not elected in the first place. 

Second, politicians don’t work for the long-term success because they “Don’t find the time to read, reflect, and grow their inner power“.  

Third, most politicians didn’t walk the streets, and reluctantly communicate with potential voters: they are not people oriented, which should be the main job description for a politician. 

Among the very few politicians who satisfy the 4 criteria of proven records of people oriented, capable providers, continuing education, and mastery of verbal intelligence, only those who realize the need to strengthen their inner power through reading and reflection, and actually taking short “sabbatical” away from the media have the potentials to become leaders of people.

 We all want to be “providers”, the Patriarch, or the Matriarch.

Only the minority of us can be providers and are willing to take on this responsibility and dedicate their time and nerves for that constantly demanding job.

Among this minority we have people with good “verbal intelligence” or orators who can be candidates for political career.

In “Hiroshima my love” Marguerite Dora says:

“Human political intelligence is a hundred folds lower than scientific intelligence”  

On the face of it, many would be nodding their heads in consent.  We have got to analyze political intelligence from a different perspective to appreciate that the previous statement is not correct. 

When we deal with human behaviors that are extremely complex because:

First, characters are in the hundreds of varieties and ever-changing with time and conditions Second, the inability of human cognitive powers to assimilate the different interactions of even 4 factors or variables at the same time and t

Third, juggling these interactions in real-time and under pressure then, we can grasp the far complex intelligence requirements of doing and thinking politics. 

Democracy, without prior selection of politicians based on cognitive and emotional testing for mental capabilities, is tantamount to more of the same repeated errors and mistakes for the public good.  

Political intelligence would be vastly appreciated to its own merit when candidates satisfy cognitive and emotional criteria before submitting their applications to public political posts.

We all agree that doing politics is a serious profession.

And yet, candidate to “serving the public” are not taught and trained in schools like all the other professions.

Actually, most of the students in high schools and in universities, graduate with a terrible bad connotation for the term “politics”. 

People enroll in political science thinking that this field will train them for the political arena; wrong! 

The field of political science does not train people in the social and psychological behavior of people, which are the right tools for doing politics. 

Acquiring sketchy understanding of the macro politics by lumping whole nations as a single entity or entire regions as potential enemies is not the correct way for training politicians to thinking rationally and for the good of the people in the long-term.

The vote of the people would make much more sense when people are initiated and exposed to the complexities of serving the people and offering a higher value for the term “doing politics”. 

A professional politician is necessarily pragmatic because he works toward consensus as he communicates extensively with citizens and listen carefully and seriously to their demands.