Animble, curious mind may ponder the origin of new ideas: are they born and nourished in isolation of book learning or guidance from elsewhere? From whence spring fervent political dreamers? Is there an education threshold that leads to becoming a political fantasist, and another which moulds a political realist and worker, capable of solving problems? Should dreamers only dream or should they also work to increase national wealth?
Where does political ideology lie within the spectrum of human experience? When is it recognizable? At what point do questioning and analysis provide a compass for navigating the challenges of life? Can that compass be rebranded as ideology? Some have argued that no new idea can be born, no new ideology developed, no philosophy formulated without an inner spiritual light. The question of the origin of that light remains debatable.
The chasm between the political parties in Saint Lucia, on closer examination, may be put down to different approaches to fulfilling their respective goals. Viewed over a long period, the differences between the two parties come down to the delivery of election promises and honest dialogue with the citizenry. In times past, political dreamers, theoretical revolutionists and other pretenders had developed into hard-nosed propagandists wearing party colours only for show.
In their campaigns, the hands-on practical workers, the realists, criticized the do-nothing pretenders as socialists, and a danger to the state. But the fervent dreamers continued to dream and expected to have a larger say in the development of the country and the lives of its citizens. Those dreamers know not from where funds will come to finance their dreams. They say that the marginalized have been disadvantaged by slavery and colonialism and that someone must pay to scrub their minds of the effects of slavery and exploitation.
Upon closer examination, some new differences emerge between the workers and the fervent dreamers. The dreamers help themselves and their families instead of the poor. Then they spread crumbs around as temporary work to keep the ill-informed and plainly stupid from revolting. Adult suffrage became a tool to extract handouts from the colonial office in London.
Better that than teach the new voter how to fish. Soon those early dreamers began to mouth the jargon of communism, popular at the time. With time, new voters migrated from the “gimme-gimme” mindset into workers determined to pull themselves up through education and savings. The fervent dreamers stayed back and refined their begging techniques even as they continued to glorify words and bluff their way through life.
The workers took a more workmanlike, pragmatic approach to solving the nation’s social and economic problems, while the fervent dreamers fell deeper and deeper in love with the spoken word. Meantime, the pragmatic workers, the realists and doers prospered. It soon became an accepted truism that workers worked and fervent dreamers continued to depend on handouts regardless of source and price. As the two parties drifted apart, jealousy crept in. Soon the achievements of workers and doers were set upon by jealous eyes whose preference remains mostly to talk and to dream.
Rather than complain and wallow in self-pity, the doers continued to work and achieve. These early visionaries did not allow the past to trump their ability to accumulate wealth and build a better life for future generations. They came together and opened the Co-operative “Penny” Bank on the island. In the meantime, the fervent dreamers continued to dream. They disliked agriculture because it reminded them of slavery. The workers consolidated their conservative approach to earning and spending and soon applied these skills to growing the national economy and encouraging farmers to plant and produce.
The dreamers, on the other hand, desired to fund social programmes but they were unable to motivate production to help the poor and marginalized. Self-sacrifice and discipline are anathema to the new reckless dreamers who feel entitled to “freeness everything,” not knowing or caring about the origin of the money they crave.
The theory of wealth creation is unfortunately subsumed by political smoke screens. Some dreamers hide behind election rhetoric while avoiding questions on economic development and job creation. Public platforms are used to vent sad stories and to peddle myths. Mediocrity is a convenient road for those who bend facts. Laziness and aversion to physical work is ingrained in some, seemingly from birth. A leader who aims to better the social and economic conditions of his people must teach them the difference between mindless dreams and work toward goals.
There are realities to be faced, even as the fervent dreamers pile burdens on the backs of taxpayers and workers who grow the economy. Face it, this is our story. The saving grace is that younger Saint Lucians are now excelling in international sporting contests and academic pursuits. These young citizens need to be protected from negative dreamers, and their no-good journalist friend.
