I have begun to understand why many loathe the institutional convention of politics with such passion and convincement. It is an old and tired institution, grounded and rooted (though unwittingly so) on the asinine contracts of people who lie to its constituents on their own faces and bow down to Mammon with shameless pride. I, on the other hand, love politics: the motions, the subterfuge, the endless barrage of controversial statistics…It’s like music in my airs!
We have incessantly listened the tired promises and proposals from the candidates. We have swallowed those jagged little pills that we really don’t cater for. We have seen thetirijalas, the Facebook statuses, the tweets, and the flashy (yet hilariously funny) memes that attract such a glorious number of followers. And at the end of all this mess, we vote hard and long.
Or so I thought.
Today’s elections are so far a cry from what the Athenians envisioned over two-and-a-half millennia ago-and the hesitant wait time proves it. First results come in, and we already see an endless stream of red pavas and red palmas prancing around the streets. There’s racketeering, politicking, some weird magick going on, and Facebook explodes with the most recent attempts at political sarcasm. Those who are tired of the incessant bullfighting post by on their statuses that everyone’s a bunch of crooks who use the election to cement their positions on power. (Whoever told them, they seem to be right most of the time.)
The hours go by…and then…and then…and then…
One team wins! The other team, well, we (sarcastically) wish them good luck next time! The parties are incensed, and their parties are incensed! Oh, the guts and glory of victorious battle! Davids and Golaiths everywhere are feeling the heat through their groins!
But something worse than fate happens, as if the good Lord who gave the victory never showed up to the bar: the day after the election.
Everything’s supposed to run smoothly. Everything’s supposed to be open. Except the other team’s moods. Day-afters were made by the Lord to take care of two different things: your possible pregnancy, or your happiness. If you weren’t conceiving yesterday, or if your team lost, then you’ve surely got a problem! Now is the time to worry about those twenty dollars you lost yesterday while sipping some Medallas at your friend’s house? Or that thing you “accidentally” burned to the ground while voting?
I suppose the other team doesn’t help, either. They literally take their gloating to the next level. With their colors and their banners and their hubris unchecked, they wave their pride with pain and grace. As if they’re ready to do the incredible. As if they’re ready to fight.
As if, forgetting they are one country, started to fight.
Fanaticism has overtaken wisdom like a storm. It seems that man forgot to think with their conscience, and now their buttocks took reign. We are so compelled to look at the world as black-and-white, without forgetting about those ridiculous shades of gray that aren’t so ridiculous at all. Life has become a checkerboards game, and the queen is no longer controlled by the pawns-because the pawns are savvy enough to create some unions!
Let us pray that the world tunes in to the loser’s plight, and that the sweet victors might finally do something and work to make a better country. Let us hope that their actions (and ours) won’t make us lose our only fragile hope. Let us work hard and make something-forgetting about colors and party lines and those catchy yet vulgar jingles- out of nothing. If we do that, I’d guarantee you we would live in a totally different nation.
For the winners, watch out.
For the losers, game on.