Opinion / Columnist
Politics 101
3 hrs ago | Views
The thing about politics is that while its study is scientific - which explains why political science is the original science found in such early iconic sources as Plato's Dialogues - its practice is not and cannot be scientific not least because politics is innate human interaction, which makes it existential and intrinsically substantive.
This explains why politics is the art of the possible. As such, politics is not about what is right or what is best; rather, it is about what can be done or what can actually get done or what is doable.
It is in this context that the notion, which is popular in some loquacious quarters of Zimbabwe's public discourse that 'if the politics is wrong, nothing happens'; is an astonishing sophomoric take on what politics is.
Again, politics is not about what is right or what is best; it is the art of the possible, meaning it is about what actually can actually get done.
Therefore, it is ideologically bankrupt and intellectually lazy to continue ad infinitum to churn out empty slogans like, 'the new is coming' or 'we need new leaders'; as if by definition there's something inherently right or best about 'the new' or 'new leaders' per se.
It is a sociological fact that, 'the new' or 'new leaders' can be - as they have been throughout history around the world - manifestations of the latest morbid ideas or morbid things in society that are crass, most decadent or the worst to be experienced at given times.
The point is that there's no necessary virtue in 'the new' or 'new leaders'.
Actually, in the analysis of the great Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, found in his critically acclaimed trilogy (Prison Notebooks) time of 'the new' or 'new leaders' can be “the time of monsters” where “the old is dying and the new cannot be born," whose crisis is defined by an interregnum characterised by the emergence of “a great variety of morbid symptoms” like 'the new' or 'new leaders' and so on.
What is important to understand is that politics is not about what is right or what is best; it is about what is possible, namely, what can actually get done.
In this sense, it is moronic to say that nothing can be done if the politics is wrong or is not right: there's no such a thing as the right politics or the wrong politics or the best politics.
That is why the most important question in politics is the Lenin Question: what hat is to be done?
This explains why politics is the art of the possible. As such, politics is not about what is right or what is best; rather, it is about what can be done or what can actually get done or what is doable.
It is in this context that the notion, which is popular in some loquacious quarters of Zimbabwe's public discourse that 'if the politics is wrong, nothing happens'; is an astonishing sophomoric take on what politics is.
Again, politics is not about what is right or what is best; it is the art of the possible, meaning it is about what actually can actually get done.
Therefore, it is ideologically bankrupt and intellectually lazy to continue ad infinitum to churn out empty slogans like, 'the new is coming' or 'we need new leaders'; as if by definition there's something inherently right or best about 'the new' or 'new leaders' per se.
It is a sociological fact that, 'the new' or 'new leaders' can be - as they have been throughout history around the world - manifestations of the latest morbid ideas or morbid things in society that are crass, most decadent or the worst to be experienced at given times.
The point is that there's no necessary virtue in 'the new' or 'new leaders'.
Actually, in the analysis of the great Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, found in his critically acclaimed trilogy (Prison Notebooks) time of 'the new' or 'new leaders' can be “the time of monsters” where “the old is dying and the new cannot be born," whose crisis is defined by an interregnum characterised by the emergence of “a great variety of morbid symptoms” like 'the new' or 'new leaders' and so on.
What is important to understand is that politics is not about what is right or what is best; it is about what is possible, namely, what can actually get done.
In this sense, it is moronic to say that nothing can be done if the politics is wrong or is not right: there's no such a thing as the right politics or the wrong politics or the best politics.
That is why the most important question in politics is the Lenin Question: what hat is to be done?
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