Posh Games

I’ve sat and thought about what I learned at last night’s gig “What just happened”, in Kilkeconomics .

Particularly, a theory David McWilliams put forward about our politicians. Let me relate it to you, in my words.

Those of us who are old enough will remember when our Granny’s had the “good sitting room”, or as David put it, the “posh room”. This room was only used when there was an “important” guest visiting, like the parish priest, doctor, teacher, local politician or indeed a returned family member from abroad. When they called to the house they were ushered into the good sitting room and the best china was taken out. Everyone sat around “pretending to be posh”, in essence, they played a game that upheld the illusion that they were posh and superior beings. No one dared say, the king has no clothes or what a load of crap! It would have been too dangerous to state the obvious. Dangerous, because they would have been, annihilated or cast out of the post circle of pretence.

David actually put this in simpler words last night, but I didn’t really get it then. I needed to sit with this and relate it to my way of being in the world.

So take this theory from the posh sitting room and now imagine our politicians going to the EEC many moons ago. They would have been in awe of the posh-ness of Brussels and meeting with the sophisticated French, who didn’t think “bog Paddy”, was posh at all! So to up-hold the illusion of posh-ness, they made an unspoken agreement, that they would both be posh. So no matter what happened, this illusion of posh-ness would always be upheld within the EU.

This morning, I was telling a friend of mine about this and explained I didn’t really get this. I need to remember it is only when I speak or write what I am thinking and feeling will my penny drop!

I then went on to talk with him about a union I was involved in where I sat on the Branch section and had voted for stuff, I knew very little about. I was new to the branch and I did a lot of listening, because I was new. However, because I felt insecure within myself, I did not question what I did not understand. The main individual, I knew, didn’t like me, which increased my own insecurity. Also, I was too lazy to go and do all the reading, I needed to have done, but didn’t. My friend said, it wasn’t laziness........so I mulled this over, he was right, I was, in fact, being irresponsible in not educating myself about the issues that I needed to clearly know, before I voted on them.

Then I remembered watching Dana being interviewed by Gay Byrne on “The meaning of life”. I wasn’t a fan of Dana while she was in the EU, I felt she was too conservative. However, listening to her, I ended up admiring her, because she learned the Irish Constitution and guarded it, in relation to Pro Life. She wasn’t a popular EU member..............................Why?

Then I got what David McWilliams was saying..........Dana didn’t play the posh game. Hence she was voted out after five years! What I admired in Dana, while watching this show was how solid she is in herself. She didn’t care about the game, she had a job to do and she learned all she needed to know to do the job, she was elected to do, by the Irish people.

Here are two things I have had difficulty with in relation to our politicians behaviour in our current economic climate. I know that no human being is stupid, (it’s a word I have not ever liked, because as a child in school, I was often referred to as stupid and that word terrified me and for a long time, I internalised it. As we do when we are children, we believe what the adults around us say about us! Until I learned a great secret, the fact is, everyone is a genius). Then I realised that our current politicians are not stupid, even if they are behaving stupidly, because, they are afraid of being seen as stupid. So they pretend to know what they are doing, without actually learning everything they need to know about the Department they run and thereby, by not knowing all the need to know, they negate their responsibility. (BTW, I may behave stupidly, but I am not my behaviour, as our politicians are not their behaviour either, however, they, as I am, are responsible for their/my behaviour).

The second thing I kept saying was.........There has to be a gain for our politicians in all of this economic mess, what is their gain, because there is always a gain and all behaviour is wise.

Their gain, is their pseudo sense of worth, posh-ness if you like, they have false status, position, authority, power and financial wealth.

Now to the wisdom of their behaviour and please believe me when I say, ALL BEHAVIOUR IS WISE.

I now believe that their behaviour is saying to them, to be solid in who they are, so that they stop being lead like unconscious sheep. Their behaviour (and indeed mine), is giving them an opportunity to wake up to consciousness and to be responsible to themselves and us, in the job they are paid to do and to be responsible for the mistakes they are making. To be responsible and stand up to the bullying bondholders and say to them............as Iceland did, get in the queue, we will pay you whenever or if ever we can. BUT our main priority will be to our own people, we need to look after them first. Then they need to bring those, who brought about the boom bubble to accountability, in loving compassionate kindness. If not, their defences will grow bigger, as our defences act to protect us. If they go into greater defence, then conflict emerges from the fear they’ll feel. That is why loving compassionate kindness is so vital in our growth as individuals, the society we live in and to the world as a whole.

So I now invite you to write to our politicians and state the King has no clothes and to say I see the posh game of illusion you are playing. My need is that you stop playing games and realise that I am a REAL HUMAN BEING.

I also think our politicians need to realise that with the power they have been given, brings with it, great responsibility.

Kileconomics 12/11/10