How much longer?

I wonder whether all this time since the economic crisis was enough to make us really angry. And I mean, really angry. Not the kind of anger where one can go on social media to vent and stir controversy in cyber space. I’m talking about a deeper feeling of rage enough to insult our dignity and burden us with deep shame. An embarrassment over our political choices and the standard and depth in our political thought.

And suppose we did manage to get angry, for the sake of argument, and this anger did prompt us to make a change, in which direction did we make that move? And why is such a move not apparent anywhere? Did we manage to realise during such a move that politics is ultimately a matter of personal responsibility?

Did we not come to understand that there is no margin for putting up with broken promises and failed commitments, let alone typical rhetoric offered by our politicians? Their talk consists of carefully crafted sentences that are designed to filter out anything other than proof of a monolithic way of thinking.

Have we even attempted to look around using a wide lens which could erase those line markings that make up party lines and reveal the horrifying similarities of their stagnant way of thinking? Are we in a position to realize that those of us who did not get angry enough also played a role in causing this stagnation and bogging it down further?

Breach of contract

Have we not grasped the fact that current and past contracts between the people and those who govern have been breached to a point where only those who “have faith” can continue to honour the terms either present or future? Have we ever felt deep inside our share of responsibility for the disaster taking place around us which incidentally is the result of our disaster within? Have we taken in how much we have betrayed our dignity and culture?

Is it still not clear that we have contributed to this political fiasco either because we have been led on, fooled because we were gullible, or because we have been glued to past convictions that make no sense today?

Is it even registering with us that we have become so ugly to the point that we are accustomed to the ugliness around us? An ugliness that originates in our bankrupt ideas and spills into our bankrupt public squares. An ugliness that becomes embedded in those hollow towers and pours concrete over our empty dreams? Have we perhaps become so numb from the narrow-mindedness in our behaviour that allows dangerously-uneducated people to play the patriotic card and go against basic human rights?

Trapped inside a giant bubble

Do we even comprehend that we are trapped in outdated political attitudes that come out from a sterile, old-fashioned rhetoric that never ventured into the whole truth? Do we understand that our values and principles, our aesthetics, education, culture, and political conscience have been left to rot in a thought system that puts price over value? Can we feel in our veins this troubled political thought that dictates our lives and sets the legacy for a new and confused young generation? Youth being trapped inside a giant bubble that will cause us more trouble when it bursts, even more than now.

Have we come to realise that the possibility of restoring substance in our lives is decreasing by pointless controversies and election gimmicks?

How much longer are we going to keep our ears shut to this deafening voidness? How much longer are we going to sit in front of the television and watch the outcome of our own political choices turn into embarrassment, with the illusion that somehow we did not take part in this? How much longer?

The article was first published by Kathimerini Cyprus on 26 May 2019