On a recent prime time radio talk show I heard a rather prominent Irish politician declare that “the main objective of politics is to win seats”, initiating a rather ungentlemanly type reaction from me.
I’ll admit that regardless of recent political shit storms that seem to continuously poison our country’s policy makers and influencers, I have the romantic and idealistic approach that the vast majority of our politicians are good people that attempt to do good things but are consistently hamstrung, manipulated and suppressed by a ‘system’ that celebrates power far above decent human values and good ethics.
Of course there is evidence of unforgivable collusion and corruption historically throughout our, and the majority of the world’s, political systems but I do feel that many people get into politics with a dream of doing something good and driving positive change only to realise that the structures, systems, bureaucracies, inertia, red tape and egos they must negotiate often suck the fight out of them therefore sacrificing their own values and morals for the 22 pieces of silver, which in this case is power or “towing the party line”, as so many of us refer to it as.
Fuse this with a post truth environment of pick ’n’mix democracy, lack of leadership and an even greater lack of accountability and it’s easy to see why politics in its present guise is crumbling. Why has it become about capturing power at all costs? How has it become less about looking after the welfare and needs of the people that vote them into the power they so aggressively chase?
What this has done is create a jenga like instability among political powers, where they forfeit the beliefs and moral ideologies that their parties have been built upon in order to chameleon like themselves into the current trends that influence the voters of any given electorate, and therefore increase their chances of maintaining or getting power for short-term life cycles, generally 5 years of office, sometimes less.
Look at our current situation in Ireland, where none of us would be that surprised if a general election gets called after the next hot issue erupts. In this environment it is easy to be in opposition, especially when backing up claims and manifestos seeming to lack validation and accountability. It illustrates a deep irresponsibility as to how it all collectively functions as a whole and can be infuriating to watch because I know there are very good people working in these parties, intelligent, empathetic and socially and economically conscious (yes you can be both at the same time) but they have been swallowed up by a system that defines and sculpts their every action.
But who made, controls and maintains the system? People. People with power, who perhaps don’t always have the welfare of the general public in mind. It is obviously also people, us the public, who are responsible for electing and re-electing politicians who don’t always act on behalf of the general welfare of our society, but sometimes for more narrow, local interests. We all play our part.
For me, all of the above is undermining effective mental health strategies being meaningfully implemented. This current mode of operations hinders any real tangible action, because the reality is if we want to effect real social change it is clear that the types of strategies needed are long term. They require long term vision and hard graft dedication to do what needs to be done, to implement well thought out long term strategies. Unfortunately this long term vision is not something we see enough of as in the current system ‘short term wins’ are apparently required to get into power.
Deep systemic change demands visionary politics and revolutionary leadership that at its core is focussed on the wellbeing of the people above all else. This has to be a cross political agreement that all parties agree on, regardless of who is or isn’t in power.
During the last election campaign many of our politicians side stepped questions on mental health, our leaders’ debates were shockingly absent of any real discussion on the subject, the manifestoes of some of the parties were just re-worded regurgitations of The Vision for Change. After the elections were over, and we finally formed a government and all political parties witnessed the mood and exploding dialogue surrounding mental health, I witnessed many politicians suddenly become all about it.
Where was this desire pre-election? This can’t be about the issue du jour every time we have an election. Our politicians have to truly want to change how mental health and the wellbeing of the people of Ireland are taken care of. Politicians have to drive progressive policies through, it’s their job and it’s clear it’s the will of the people who both pay their wages and voted them into power. But it has to become a long term prioritised strategy that can’t be pulled apart and changed every time power changes hands, because in our current climate this will be far too often and if we are to observe a real culture shift in how the welfare of those in distress are supported, treated and guided, we must recognise that our current political systems don’t cater for this.
The Vision for Change, an immensely dynamic, ambitious and hugely encouraging policy on mental health was published over ten years ago and in the interim, power has shifted hands many times while much of what was promised in terms of supports, access and structures fell between the cracks. This is a prime example of how politics and power at times fail to correlate effectively with strategies such as these. Our current government, to be fair must be given some more time to see if they can add some much needed momentum to catch up with the national conversation around mental health. However, I do feel our current mental health budgets need to be dramatically increased to drive the core principles of The Vision for Change and accelerate them to where they need to be if we are going to have a system that can cater for the demand currently placed upon it.
Apart from budgets, I also feel we need to join the dots and develop collective cohesive action not just among the political powers that be, but also the organisations, individuals and charities that put their energy into creating better mental health for people across Ireland and have a unique and perhaps deeper comprehension of what needs are required in order to provide better services, access to services and education. I don’t feel conflict and stone throwing will progress this in the direction it needs to go, and most politicians will accept that we have a very long journey to go on when it comes to mental health in this country.
Our existing services, many of them doing wonderful work day in and day out need to be far better resourced and some vastly improved but I feel the people of Ireland deserve a sincere and concrete promise from all our political parties, whether they are in power or not that they will honour and deliver on long term strategies until we reach a place where it’s effectively supporting the entire needs of society, instead of being let down by a political system submerged in short term vision and planning. Bravery and immense determination are needed here as those in power will have to hold strong when facing other internal and external pressures. Perhaps in addition a constitutional commitment to prioritise longer term strategy implementation when it comes to mental health could assist in the process of power shifting hands every few years.
Fuck it, I know the above is idealistic, but the alternative is no longer viable, this snakes and ladders approach to mental health strategy and implementation won’t progress society to where it needs to be when it comes to mental health.
So, perhaps as that politician pointed out on the radio, the objective of politics may be to win seats, and therefore power, but surely the ‘responsibility’ of politics is to look after the welfare of those that gave them that power, as with great power comes great responsibility, and power should never ever come at all costs.
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