I mentioned in previous entries how both of my grandfathers were in politics. I have not disclosed yet that they were on opposite sides of the aisle. On my father’s side, my grandfather was a hardcore Christian conservative. He was the campaign manager of my uncle and other conservative politicians in times of social unrest in Colombia. My great uncle gave me as a birthday present a copy of “The Prince” - I was only 4 years old. On the side of my mother, my grandfather was the leader of one of the country’s coffeemaker unions and a strong liberal. My grandmother was also a vivid liberal campaigner herself.
My mother and father did not want to continue the political traditions of the family and opted for different careers. My father became an engineer, my mother a fashion designer. Quite of a Latino Romeo and Juliett story, I can picture the loud conversations, both in Bogota and in Verona. My parents were disenfranchised from politics because of the bad image they had from politicians in their families.
I wanted to study political science, but instead, my father pushed me to study law “because politics is a corrupt and dirty game”.
My family did not have cable TV until I was around 12 and most novels in my house were disappointingly of historical or romantic genres. By the time I was a teenager we got cable in the house and I remember loving the West Wing. My mother hated the idea of me watching those series because she told me I would learn only the bad side of politics I see on HBO. She was not shy to turn on the TV to broadcast CNN and the Venezuelan news channel, trust me, I did learn a lot more from the bad side of politics watching those news shows. Recently I even got to realize how much politics and activism was even in the cartoons I watched growing up (I made a Youtube series about it)
(Pic: Getty - Cast of "The West Wing" - 1999 - 2006 - NBC )
Still, after years of watching House of Cards, Scandal, or Borgen, I see what she meant. Political dramas have made the life of those working in politics way more difficult. The emphasis on manipulation, closed-door deals and blackmailing has created the image of a politician as the villain. Political dramas have dangerously distorted the reality of politics. Putting that aside, I love them! Great TV!
Because of that, I will not blame the entertainment business. I got to learn that it is up to us to work for social change to remedy that image ourselves with local actions of kindness. Instead, I will turn on the problem, on those in the field of politics who saw Frank Underwood and Olivia Carolyne Pope as an example to follow.
On the road, I have met those who believe that manipulation and blackmailing is normal behaviour in politics.
I have met many suffering from the “oppressed syndrome”. They hate the one who is now oppressing, but only because they want to become the new oppressor. Of course, many times, politics has these characters and one sees bad behaviour in real life. I have worked with some organisations, social leaders and politicians to train them on how to respond to those that behave in this way. Our role as social and political leaders is to take note of the manipulative political traditions and reject them. Our role is to commit to changing the way politics is made and to scrutinize those who are not aligned with that purpose.
When I was old enough to read the copy of “The Prince” that my great uncle gave me, it was tempting to embrace the knowledge as a masterclass of behaviour. Instead, I was lucky enough to have mentors and voices around to remind me that it is only a book that highlights how bad people were in the past, but that it does not dictate how we should behave in the future.
(Distorted portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli - the original cover of the book my granduncle gave me as a child had just the eyes of Machiavelli)
Many in politics who think of “House of Cards” as a reality, live in constant paranoia and think of criticism as attacks and conspiracies against them. My experience has allowed me to see that those people did not have the luck to have mentors and voices to remind them that their image of politics is fictional.
Because of that, I emphasize helping instead of cancelling. I trust that those who think of politics as a dirty game can change their image with the help of their organisations. Organisations can help the individual to surpass their fake realities by grounding them and assigning them fieldwork close to the communities. Fieldwork that allows them to interact with people, not fieldwork that encourages them to show up to give a speech or bring a bag of food. Organisations can also help encourage peer to peer feedback to challenge ideas of representation. Lastly, organisations should implement strong disciplinary processes for those who embrace the “Underwood” mentality.
As I said at the beginning, it is up to us to challenge the image that people might have of politics and politicians because of political dramas. It is up to us also to help those on the field not to embrace the same practices and to commit to doing daily acts of engagement to make people trust politicians again.
With this remark, I need to wrap up this text. Time for me to sit down and enjoy another episode of the Crown!
(Image of Gillian Anderson portraying Margaret Tatcher in "The Crown." - Netflix 2020, Inc)
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