Looking across the world the established parties in many many countries are having trouble to get something done and execute their promises from the elections. Consequence is, that change isn’t progressing and the satisfaction levels of the population are not very good. Examples are manifold…UK struggling to get anything decided for years (apart from the Brexit), Belgium not having a coalition for a decade and jumping from election to election, France now ignoring parliament and protests and just implementing massive changes, German government parties are debating for more than 3 (!) days to conclude that they are trying again to execute the coalition contract they have agreed two years ago and the famous US is getting from one election to mid-term election to election and blocking each other constantly so that the country isn’t moving a bit in reality (and gets more and more divided).
And then you have the countries & populations that have decided to go a different direction – electing populists who promise a lot but who are mainly against everything. Brasil, Turkey, Venezuela, Russia maybe a special case…
At the same time the voter turnout is constantly shrinking. People seam to be tired to go to elections. It is normal that you have a participation of 50% these days – in some cases way below. And this is in place now for decades. Talking to different age groups, it is not a particular group not voting – it is all of them. Frustration levels are different though but in essence the result is the same. Even when you talk to parents the common feedback is a shrug which means “what should I do?”.
As a matter of fact it all comes down that none of the political leaders/parties have achieved anything substantial over the last decades. I know, it sounds brutal and it is for sure an exaggeration. But think about what has fundamentally changed over the last decades (or two). The one thing that comes to mind (sadly…) is, that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. And the second thing (even more sad…) is, that we have not achieved any break thru in CO2 emissions and we are still debating the same topics (sometimes still the question, if there is a climate crises…believe it or not) over and over again. Or take the US initiative to provide health care for everybody. A so serious and important topic managed so badly from a political leadership in both parties – getting it partly in place and then take it away again – what a shame. I know that change takes time and repetition, but we can all agree that this is actually no movement at all.
Now I believe what is necessary is engagement. We need to break thru the spiral of by-standing and getting people engaged back into the game. We need them to voice their opinion, to go to elections and have leaders who have courage and are willing to fight and do not give up, even this is a hard and sometimes a life-spanning duty.
In the coming posts I am sure that I will look into many of these topics in more detail but the first question we all need to ask ourselves is how we get engaged again (or even for the first time)? What need to happen from your perspective that you make this a priority? I do not have a standard answer, I can share with you shortly how it is working with me – just as an input.
I grew up with political guidance and input from my parents (doesn’t matter which direction but with influence). This led to the point that I was engaging when I was younger. Quickly found out that getting into politics is taking time and the institutions are super slow and not very interested to work with me. Decided to go into the private industry and disappeared from politics. My priorities are my family and friends and in the past my business success. So I transformed into a bystander, just commenting and doing nothing. Then I closed my business chapter and it took me three (!!!!!) years to write down my opinions, which is a start to get re-engaged. So, it is a process to get back into the game.
Think about your status and view – maybe you are already engaged, maybe you want to consider, maybe you think it is different. But most important would be that you (continue to) engage
