Resolving political grievances

Resolving “political” grievances.

Historic grievances should not control future policy.

We appear to be in a period of political negativity. All the media is focused on protests about historical grievances, supposed wrongs when judged by modern moral view points. These historical wrongs range from, events and decision made hundreds of years ago, to miscalculations and wrong decisions made during the early stages of the present world wide coronavirus epidemic.

Grievances, both real and “imaginary” are the staple foods of the media, lawyers and opponents to any government. They are the weapons of attack. The actual people, the victims who have been; or can be claimed to have been, wronged, get lost in the process of using their grievance as a weapon against the prevailing authority.

Definition of grievance-- a real or imaginary wrong causing resentment and regarded as grounds for complaint-- a feeling of resentment or injustice at having been unfairly treated.

The most powerful grievance is an imagined one. It is so hard to resolve a grievance that has no factual basis . Every attempt to solve it results in a shifting of goal posts, Politicians use these and the people who feel aggrieved, since they are immune from rational resolution. No matter what the alleged “responsible authority” says or does, it can never resolve a grievance over a non existent error. This is the same in domestic disputes, if the grievance is exaggerated or wrongly held, it is almost impossible to alleviate. Since no evidence can be produced to support it, no explanation that dissolves the evidence, can be offered. Fake news is not a new thing, but it can be the biggest supplier of imaginary grievances. From the days of Ancient Rome, which controlled the written records of its time, claiming non Roman pagans committed atrocities against Roman soldiers; and so ensured the Roman soldiers would be grieved and unmerciful towards the enemies of Rome.

In modern political activity, activists use grievances based on events that occurred long ago. These are similar to imagined events, since they can not be resolved. No one can alter history, whether the grievance is genuine or not, does not enter into it, you can not undo the wrong and so the political activists can keep shouting about the injustice and pain, knowing there is no chance of this being resolved because the event has occurred and can not be undone. What could be done is preventing a re-occurrence but the organised political protesters are careful not to focus on the future they keep the attention on the past, since that can not be changed.

What can be done about this political opposition tactic? The government of the day has to shift the focus to the future, the mantra has to be; accept and move on, the past is over, the future is what matters. The opposition will natural try to keep the focus on grievance and not on any changes to prevent further resentment. They will claim some recompense has to be made. It does not matter to them what recompense or who made by, the whole point is to keep the media focused on the grievance. The government has to try to keep the media proclaiming the future. One of the odd effects of this use of ancient events, is that the protestors who join the activists are generally young people with no interest in history yet they march about demanding action over a historical event. The skilled activists know that it is easier to get people to join a protest over something which did happen, rather than a protest about what might happen. Many grievances are genuine and real but others are exaggerated and slightly obscure, some times deliberately obscured by politicians who want everyone angry at the existing government, without giving that authority any real chance of resolution. Climate change can be put in this category. Yes climate change is happening, it has always been happening but by inciting people to see this as a grievance against governments, by claiming the changes can be reversed by adopting different political policies. The opposition political forces know they can use it without anyone being able to actually prove they are wrong. They can not prove they are right but by stressing the grievance, they ensure they do not have to offer such proof. Since it is most likely that climate change will continue, may be at a reduced rate of change, whatever laws are enacted, the oppositions can keep stressing the need for the adoption of the most extreme policies. They know that the majority of any electorate will not vote for sudden and drastic changes to their own life styles and so this opposition can keep using this grievance to keep demanding changes without these being mandated by the voters. They use the grievance to keep diminishing the power of the electorate to control their own lives. It is possible for the manipulators to feed the media with stories of protest, to keep the discontent over the grievance churning and so influence government action towards an objective that is known only to those controlling the manipulation. The headlong rush towards dependency on lithium is such a case. Other alternatives could be developed but the manipulation is to rush towards dependency while suppressing interest in such alternatives. The grievance about climate changes is a main weapon in this.

How can political grievances be resolved? Like all resolutions the first step is to understand the origins of the grievance, to expose this origin to world wide surveillance. If it is historical, accept and move on, get the media to focus on the future. If it is a grievance about what might be one possible future, such as climate change, then make a real and genuine effort to establish fact from assumption, work on evidence not opinion, and publish this. Ensure the media tell the populations that there are many possible futures and that there are many opinions as to which is most likely. Shift the emphasis from grievance to a search for truth. This approach requires a honesty that some politicians may distrust, it requires that everybody, from political leaders to administrators at every level, setting aside their preconceived ideas and finding scientists with “open minds.” Then ensuring these scientists can research without any pressure or preset objectives,

Truth is the only real way to settle grievances. Political skill is needed to get people to accept truth, even when that does not match their wishes.