Politics of Hatred

You know the people of whom I speak. As you’re having a conversation about an everyday topic, they suddenly bee-line towards their own brand of crusade, elaborating on their cause with an increasingly angry tone. If you’re a normal person, or simply very inept at social connections, your initial rebuttal to this person´s tirade is a hasty retreat. But why is that? Any phobias aside, most of these cases can be traced to the fact that we’ve heard it all before, and we can’t help but add a small mustache to the image of our assailant.

Historical allegories to dictators aside, the moment we hear a politician get riled up about any issue, the more cool-headed of us start wondering what his angle is, because frankly, him being duplicitous is a more likely scenario than there being a sincere conviction behind his ranting, as, once again, previous experience tells us so.

But there are exceptions to every rule, or at least so we are led to believe. The Obama campaign, for instance, has been based on a message of hope and willingness to face evil head on, and while this message may have been perceived as a bit ill-defined, it is attaining the numbers needed to actually put the man in the leading position, at least for now. Sure, many of us, including me, sometimes feel the pangs of doubt, but at the very least we are moved by Mr. Hussein´s resolve. And that’s the entire point.

A large amount of populist parties use perceived conviction of ideals to empower their party or group. All over the world, their ilk draw power from the discontent of the masses with a set problem, be it immigration, political freedom, green living or simple lack of democracy. While very few of these hold altruistic goals behind their message of doom, there is an actual use one can derive from these sometime villains: That of figuring out the issues locked in the minds of the populace.

Besides, the Internet, much like newspapers, has made it easier to take in information about subversive or controversial parties in a more collected and mild-mannered way. Simply put, once more our political movement has detracted from the violent protest and has become skewed towards anonymous message-posting on church-doors, so to speak. It may not have the same impact initially, but our new kind of world-changing exchange of words will still echo quite powerfully, if allowed to spread. At the very least, it should let incumbent leaders figure out just what they’re doing wrong, without having to listen to the locals screaming on soapboxes.