Send Off The Clowns.

Last week I was browsing through the usual suspect’s media releases and absorbing all they had to say about this and that regarding life in this wee place. I suddenly stopped reading and listened as my inner dialogue whispered, “They will always push their own personal agendas and interpret every story to suit their own view and model of the world and they will only change horses and opinions when a better stable offers richer rewards. They pretend to argue with each other until that better offer comes along”.

That to me was and is a simple truth that the daily landfill of newspaper articles and electronic media try to trick us out of thinking about. The career politicians of all hues and their attached, scavenging correspondents feed the media a litany of bullshit that is refined and then fed back to the public. It is designed to make them look clever and good. They pretend sometimes to verbally attack each other and have feigned disagreements in a collective attempt to keep the man and women on the street interested but, separated from each other. Politicians and all who feed and swim with them are essentially professional liars. We all know this deep down but, they continually bombard us into giving them attention.

For politicians it all begins with the need for attention. They convince themselves very early on in life that what they think is important. This then deteriorates into a belief that what they say is important also and should be listened to and believed. Finally, they push and shove themselves shamelessly into the limelight until eventually the majority of them settle into an established party of other politicians that they can get along with. During this entire process they will pronounce at every conceivable opportunity how altruistic they are and how humbled they are to serve the public. This of course is the exact opposite of the truth. The only truth about politicians is that they are all consummate liars.

The media are more than happy to play along with this facade. Sometimes it's difficult to distinguish between the politician and the reporter. They are shape-changers depending on the salary. The trough is big enough for them all to snort some swill from. They feed each other and then feed us whatever suits them each day. They all pay mortgages and depend on this process for all their needs so it is imperative that they keep us interested in these liars and their lies. They all play the game. A rough interview here and an easy ride there; a political crisis here and an historic agreement there, it keeps them in free meals and tries to keep the hamsters on the big wheel.

I’m sick of it now. It’s not even funny any more. I used to get a laugh at the lies and the acting. It doesn’t even provide that any more. They have all settled into being the establishment now and they will stick together behind the doors of Stormont to make sure that they keep all the privileges they now have. It’s pure greed and it sickens me and makes my stomach turn. The money grabbers and the self-obsessed tricksters have taken control of the madhouse and they will fight tooth and nail to stay in control of it.

The fact that this means rewarding themselves with inflated salaries to match their inflated egos is a minor detail to them. Of paramount importance is to keep the ordinary decent people confused and never too far from poverty. If people start to look too closely at them or maybe don’t intend to vote for Stormont, they can threaten to implement water charges like they did last time. Blackmailing the poor to vote for Stormont or pay cash for their water was a new low.

It’s an exclusive club and membership is offered only to those who will play the game. New Sinn Fein; DUP, SDLP, UUP, Alliance and the individual wannabes are all up to their necks in a collaborative con trick. BBC; UTV, Belfast Telegraph, Irish News, Andersonstown News and all the pseudo journalists - all liars. Some create the lies and some are cheerleaders and promoters for the liars but, they are all basically the same gang.

There is not a truthful or honest journalist in this country today that is employed by any section of the established media. Some will dig and rant about some particular story or other but, they are just pushing their own personal agendas against someone they want to either promote or destroy. If they were genuinely truthful or honest, they would be unemployed because the established media does not employ those who are honest or truthful.

So for me the circus is full of clowns that hide a deep and menacing negativity behind the painted smiles. I have never understood what kind of person would want to be a clown or what the true motivation for such a career would be. Clowns have always made me uncomfortable in a skin crawling kind of way. Politicians and clowns have a lot more in common than hiding behind grotesque greasepaint to confuse us. They are both the opposite of what they try to portray and neither of them are funny.