Politics, Universality and Heart

Nathaniel Tan, October 24, 2007

English, Nat, Columns |

by Nathaniel Tan

Politics is full of greed and evil – I’ll admit it.

But that’s not the entirety of politics, not by a long shot.

I’ve found myself thinking about this a little bit.

People are by nature social animals. And by and large, they socialise with those most like them.

I pondered on how someone who was, say, a fairly well-off, Christian, English speaking, Chinese doctor could probably spend their entire lives mixing mostly with people who were say, middle class, Christian, English speaking, Chinese or doctors.

Nothing wrong with this (and I mean it when I say that).

It’s true of most people in most professions.

It’s not true of full-blooded politicians though – especially those not in government.

They (disparagingly) say that politicians see everyone only as voters.

Examined in another light, that also means that politicians see *everyone* as voters.

They generally can’t afford to mix only within certain groups, or speak only to certain crowds.

A politician must be willing to step outside his or her circle of social comfort and strike out into communities that could be entirely alien.

In the political industry, every single human being counts and must be cared about precisely because every human being can be a voter.

I’ve noticed that having to think like this makes me view the world in a somewhat different light.

The offshoot of this of course, is that this is generally not easy. It’s not called the comfort zone for nothing.

To be willing to reach out and make the effort to understand and relate to communities significantly different from the ones one grew up with takes quite a bit of heart.

It takes heart to put yourself out there, and keep coming back from rejection, ridicule and cynicism. And from people who think that politics is nothing but greed and evil.

I have to say, that kind of heart is not something I’m fully confident I have.

That said, this universal nature that is required of the politician does have an appeal.

Whether I or anyone else has what it takes to really live the ideal is of course another question and a work in progress, but so is everything in life I suppose.

I’ve been in a reflective mood of late. Many reflections, few conclusions. But all in good time. Or so I hope, anyway.. :P :)

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