I am slowly becoming sick of all those people who complain that our Prime Minister said that and that, or that Health Ministry said something, but then something totally else was done.
Oh my, politicians are lying!
Oh my, Mrs. President said something so stupid…
Oh my, this bill proposal is so dumb, how anyone can be such an idiot….
Stop complaining, start thinking, because nothing happens without a reason.
The hammer is a blacksmiths tool
When the blacksmith is using the hammer and the anvil nobody complains. This is how he is doing his job. Those are his tools, so he has a full rights to use them.
The job of blacksmith is to bend metal.
What is the job of politician?
To bend people.
That’s right. To bend people. To make them to behave in a way the politician likes.
All right, so this is politician job. But what are his tools?
The talking is a politician tool
This may be a bit of surprise because we, at least in post-communist countries, are used to think that the proper tool for bending people are the secret police, obedient courts, prison system, government controlled media, and, as the last instance, the north Siberia.
Those are in fact very crude tools. And what is more important, they have to be driven by some means. What a simple, plain politician can do to control secret police? Use force? But how, with just two weak hands? Use money? Right…. look at the budget of national police and compare it with available resources…
No. Nothing like that.
The politician must convince the members of police, courts and etc. to do what he likes them to do. Convince. Not force. Not because forcing is ethically incorrect, but just because forcing people is expensive and must be continuously repeated, while once You convince them, they will control themselves by their own means for a long time.
People were really crying when Stalin died. Those were not tears of happiness. They really cried about the death of a person who created and managed the system which killed millions. Blah, let us put away killing, this is nothing uncommon, people were dying in civil wars since the dawn of the time. He did something even more sinister. He invented the crime of “being the wife of a civil enemy”. He was the person who made them to obey the rule, that if the civil enemy who had a child was convicted to death, then this child was automatically also convicted to death. With an exception, that they awaited with actual killing till the kid came out of age.
You can’t force people to be like that. You have to make them to honestly believe that this is right. Do it correctly and they will love You and cry after You will pass away.
How to convince people?
By communicating with them.
In simpler terms: by talking.
All right, You say, so politician needs to tell me what is he trying to achieve so I could actually be convinced to help him, right? He needs to explain what does he want and….
By God, no!
The politician must say something what will make you to behave according to his will. Nothing less and nothing more.
Lets try it by an example
Imagine that the Prime Minister said something like: “Next year we will be giving some money to small business”.
You have heard it. But what actually did he really have said?
Isn’t it obvious: he said that the government will give some money to small business.
Well… yes. That were the words.
But he did not said it to You to communicate to You that the government will actually give those money. No. He said it to You just because he wanted You to hear it.
And act on what You have heard. Act, as if You believed that You will get those money.
This is so simple.
Technical mind versus political mind
Let us try it in a tabular form. Imagine than a certain operation is to be done. How technical mind would do it? How politician would do it?
| Technical mind | Political mind |
| Planing technical details. What and how to do it? | Planing managing details. What and with whom to do it? |
| Thinking about how to explain the plan to people so that they could understand and follow it. | Thinking about what to tell people to create in them the will to follow the leader. |
| Gathering support by through understanding of the plan by people. | Gathering support by touching peoples emotions and wishes. |
| Executing plan by people. | Executing plan using people. |
The technical mind used communication to transfer information. The technical details of a communicated plan take a critical part in convincing people, but the form of communication is given a little concern. There is a belief that if they understand the plan they will accept it and follow.
The political mind used communication to motivate people to follow the plan. The form of communication takes a critical part in convincing people, but the actual detailed information which was passed to people is thought to have a very little effect. Thous the politician is not concerned with technical details. There is a belief that if people will like the plan they will follow the leader without the need of detailed understanding.
Efficiency
Both technical and political mind do sucks on efficiency.
Technical thinking do create self regulating systems which can perform the requested plan, but fail to gather support due to the high cost required from people to actually read and understand the plan. Even excellent plans may be rejected because the effort required to read them is too large.
Execution is smooth because even if top level management would fail the bottom level knows the plan well enough to act correctly. However detailed long term planning has inherent problem with adapting to changes.
Political thinking can quickly inspire people to act and gather the necessary support but the vague communication and lack of distribution of detailed plan results in crappy execution. People will act as if they, in their own understanding, do follow the plan, but due to lack of efficient communication they will actually execute a bit different plan.
Execution quickly breaks if top level management has no detailed plan and well working logistics. A tight top-down control is required to ensure the coherent execution of a plan. The information of minor execution problems and progress details must flow up to the top because only top level knows the technical details of a plan. However contrary to technical planning the small top-level management team and roughly sketched plan is flexible and easy adapts to changing situation.
This is the same clash as between rational and irrational thinking.
Ethics
Technical method is based on “common goals”. Political method is based on a “greater good”. This is up to You to answer the question which of them is more ethical and which is not.
Summary
The same way a blacksmith smashes the piece of metal with a hammer the politician throws words on people. Words are just his tools to bend people to his will. If he is saying that an apple is green it does not mean, that he believes in it. It does not even mean, that he is trying to convince You that apples are green. No. He is doing it so that You would hear it and would act as if apples were green.
So be not surprised that his words are far from truth. Those words are just tools he is using. Instead just to listen to what he have said, think about why he have said it. He is never opening his mouth without a good reason. Know it, and You won’t be made fool any more.
Old coder's ramblings about software concepts and quality. 