MAN IS A POLITICAL HYPOCRITE!-Abah Joseph Idenyi

Politics is too serious a business to be left to the politicians alone, we are familiar with the fact that Aristotle has already stated that man is a political animal; this political animal called man can be in a rather precise and direct manner classified as a political hypocrite “no offence”.

Politics could be seen as all those activities that have to do with the acquisition and exercise of power regardless of where it is been done, so in one way or the other, man is involved in the game of politics; it is a game because someone at all times must emerge a victor, either as an emotional victor, a physical victor or even a psychological victor… a hypocrite from the Encarta dictionary can be seen as somebody who pretends to have admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings but behaves otherwise… who then is politically hypocritical in nature but man.

“The woes of the Mahatmas are known only to the Mahatmas.”- Ghandi

There are many reasons why man chooses to be hypocritical in his art of politicking, it could be to gain freedom, to save life, to save time, to save shame, to gain fame, to gain a political position or recognition, to let his selfish ambition rule and what have you. So classifying these reasons into two we have: reasons for good and reasons for bad or evil.

Biblically we can trace this art of hypocritical political nature of man by using some biblical political figures as an example:

The political hypocritical David: he showed his lust for the charms of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his generals. To let selfish desire at that moment rule, he sent Uriah to the heat of the war without letting him know his intentions, Uriah who had love for the service of his country, moved willingly to the heat of the war and was killed for believing in the rather humble and gentle request of the king; at the kings moment of requesting that he moves to the heat of the war, he pretended as though he had no personal reasons for his order. After ensuring Uriah's death by sending him into the front lines in a battle with the Ammonites, David married Bathsheba, who had become pregnant by the King.

That was a shear act of political hypocriticism…

The politically hypocritical Moses: a time came when Moses knew that the maltreated resident Israelites in Egypt where his biological brothers and sisters, he didn’t want to bargain with his own life and freedom so he decided to act as though he cared less whether or not they are been maltreated, he chose to act in this manner because he knew that pharaoh will definitely not tolerate his own pitying the Israelites he treated like less humans, in the presence of pharaoh, he was an adorable adopted son of his daughter, in the presence of some of the resident Israelites in Egypt, he was a two faced mask; this one reason why when he tried to separate the two Israelites engaging in a fight, one attacked him saying “…do you want to kill me as you did kill the Egyptian.” So little or none really knew Moses…

A critical review of the biblical Moses in Egypt portrays him as a man politically hypocritical, in the presence of pharaoh, he pretends as though he had qualities and beliefs admirable to pharaoh; pharaoh looked at him as one of his own but at the other hand, Moses patiently waited for the slightest chance to face pharaoh with his evils yet he played along with him…. Man is a political hypocrite!

The politically hypocritical Judas: He disclosed Jesus' whereabouts to the chief priests and elders for 30 pieces of silver. Even when he was planning his evil ordeal, he still coexisted and related with the rest of the apostles and Jesus himself as though he had no ugly intentions. The chief priests and elders provided the armed guards that he brought to the Garden of Gethsemane, near Jerusalem, where Jesus went to pray with the other 11 Apostles after the Last Supper. There he identified Jesus with a kiss (a hypocritical symbol of love), addressing him as “master.” Matt. 26:14–16 and John 12:6 designate Judas' motive as avarice.

Although his name subsequently became associated with traitor (a Judas) and treacherous kiss (a Judas kiss), not all depictions of Judas portrayed him as betraying Jesus.

In Muslim polemic literature, Judas ceases to be a traitor; instead, he supposedly lied to the Jews in order to defend Jesus (who was not crucified). The 14th-century cosmographer al-Dimashqī maintains that Judas assumed Jesus' likeness and was crucified in his place. The 2nd-century apocryphal Gospel of Judas, a Gnostic text written in Greek, depicts him as a collaborator and close confidant of Jesus. According to the gospel—a Coptic translation from c. 300 was discovered in the 1970s and published in 2006—Judas was the only apostle who understood Jesus' message. In the account of the gospel, during the celebration of Passover, Jesus takes Judas aside and reveals secret knowledge about God and creation to him, declaring that Judas is greater than the other apostles. Jesus seems to instruct Judas to report him to the authorities, so that Jesus' spiritual self may escape from the material body in which it is trapped… whichever is true, the fact still remains that Judas was a Political Hypocrite.

Trying to bring up every example in history is like trying to write a second edition of the encyclopedia… however the successes of many in history would have not been possible without an atom of hypocritical politicking at some points in their life; the successes of Casanova,  Gbriele D’Annunzio, Jeanne Poisson,

As a baby we all cried to get our mother’s attention even when we are not hurt, we do this because we believe it is the shortest distance to getting her attention… it is a culture in an African setting to be on black after a close relation passes on; we were black to show that we are in moments of mourning, but in the real sense; “how many persons are truly mourning the dead”

Every man is a political hypocrite, the difference between you and the few mentioned above is that fate has provided an opportunity for them to be unmasked and you are yet to be…

    

References

Judas Iscariot. (2010). Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.

biblical literature. (2010). Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.