dancingthroughchaos

‘Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.’ – Abraham Lincoln

I learnt a new word this month: permacrisis.  You don’t need to be a language expert to work out that this portmanteau word combines to give us a term indicating continuous emergency, or relentless disaster.  

Apparently there are experts using this word in the context of the persistent string of calamities that have been thrown at us over the past few years: the cost of living crisis, the extreme weather systems that have blasted us all, the outbreak of multiple conflicts nearer to home than ever as well as the fall out from Covid in terms of mental health, interpersonal relationships and financial challenges.  On top of that, the global political temperature has spiked with lurches to both the right and the left as electorates react to their particular circumstances.  We are, they say, in a state of permacrisis.

2024 may be the year that continue apace. Almost 50% of the world’s combined population have elections this year. No one said these elections will be ‘free and fair’, or that all residents even have the right to cast a vote. Whatever the outcomes are, they will be shaping and colouring our lived experiences for the next four or five years and beyond.

Taiwan have already elected their man – China do not approve. Elsewhere, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, is currently in jail and banned from politics for five years.  Some leaders may well revert to the old trick of changing the law to ensure they secure another term. The world is a strange place! 

Other countries gearing up for elections this year include Russia, Iran, Bangladesh, India, Mexico and Indonesia.

I’m back in South Africa where elections will be held in May.  For the first time since 1994 it looks as though the ANC will not win their majority.  Not a great surprise if you consider the achievements or otherwise of the past thirty years.  Things are unravelling fast; corruption is the order of the day and education, medical care and infrastructure have all suffered drastically as a result.  The ongoing load-shedding/power cuts are just one manifestation of the muddle and mess.

Across the pond we have the truly bizarre prospect of an elected leader who either is, or will be, an octogenarian during their term of office. Surely both can be said to have brought the office into disrepute. I am totally baffled as to why either is considered worthy to hold the post and wish to goodness that the nation would demand new, more worthy, less divisive candidates.  Apparently that’s not on the table.

Back in the UK, parties are gearing up to throw their hats in the ring, mud-slinging with increasing gusto.  Yet again, those in power seem far more interested in holding on to it than in remembering they are there to represent the people who are, almost without exception, fed up to the back teeth with the lot of them.  I don’t think revolution is the answer but then, what is?

An old friend used to say that, ‘the best of men (or women for that matter), are men at best.’  We only need to look in our own mirror to see that truth.  Ancient wisdom tells us that ‘there is nothing new under the sun’, which suggests that every generation has weathered the storms of both good and bad leaders throughout history.  

Perhaps you long for a Winston Churchill-type figure to emerge from the smog of wafer-thin promises spewing out of Westminster. Even he wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, although he was great in a crisis.  Do we really get the leaders we deserve, as some say?  I’m not sure, but my conclusion has to be that we need to look beyond politics, beyond fads and trends that inevitably rise and fall given time.

Other ancient wisdom talks about a certain hope; ‘an anchor for the soul, firm and secure’.  They are not referring to a politician, a celebrity or guru.  The person they refer to may not sort out the economy or legislate for the crisis in our social care systems.  Jesus is bigger than politics because He sees an even bigger picture yet begins with the individual.  

If we really want things to change we can’t avoid the uncomfortable truth that real change starts with us.  That doesn’t let politicians off the hook – use that vote as wisely as you possibly can – but it’s not a bad place to begin, whether in crisis or not. It will also give us the courage, strength, compassion and resolve to navigate whatever happens in government next with integrity, whether we find ourselves sitting on our blisters as Abraham Lincoln foresaw, or on a soft cushion. 

Unfortunately, I suspect the former.

[Images from Unsplash & Pixabay]