the nonsense of 'don't politicize...'

Pal,
I think when people don't have any meaningful thing to say they should not disturb our ears! else they should warn us they are in for only nonsensical talk. So we know.

Seriously, I'm sick and tired of hearing people say stuff like 'don't politicize education', 'don't politicize sports', 'don't politicize health', 'don't politicize farming', 'don't politicize chieftiancy', etc. Why? if politics is some leprosy then why don't we eradicate it from society? or cast it out like some beastly demon? why don't we ban politics and in it's place go on our knees and look up to God (no apology to the atheists) to drop manna directly into our mouths, build our schools, run our hospitals and build the bridges? What in God's name is wrong about politics?

I made the above point on that book that looks at the face online and I got interesting comments from a friend from the arena!

COMMENT 1: Albert said: "... To play politics means, a. to engage in political intrigue, take advantage of a political situation or issue, resort to partisan politics, etc.; exploit a political system or political relationships.
b.to deal with people in an opportunistic, manipulative, or devious way, as for jobadvancement."

--my response to that is: from his definitions, both a and b. It's clear politics can lead to both good or bad. Hence it's not politics that is the problem per say but the type of politics or to what end someone takes his/her political intrigue or manipulation.

COMMENT 2: Albert said: "so why shouldn't people tell people not to 'politicize' things, as defined above eh?"

--my response is simple. It's answered in my first response. But to buttress the point. It's just ABSURD to say a thing like 'don't politicize...' because it means there are some issues that should not be politicized and that can't be true. Every issue under the sun in society (and I mean, again, society) is a political issue by nature. People must explore and take advantage of situations to drive society to either good or bad. And it's up to each and everyone of us to either state or act out our agreements/disagreements as may be deemed fit or even decide to stay aloof and or just ponder.

COMMENT 3: Albert said: "U shouldn't also forget that in Ghana people like to follow 'mainstream thinking' and 'usage'. As in for example,'the effects of the menace cannot be underestimated' or 'it is rather unfortunate' and other hackneyed phrases from the media."

--my response to that is: exactly part of the point I'm making. People just follow stuff without checking properly. But it's no peculiar thing to Ghana. All over the world you hear people say meaningless things like 'don't politicize education'. And my point is that enough of these meaningless talk. People should learn to communicate properly and be exact!

I normally get the feeling (just feeling, nothing cognitive!) that when people say 'don't politicize...' they want to mean 'don't play party-politics with, say, education'. But again, therein lies another absurdity. Political parties are supposed to state their positions on issues and that cannot be bad in itself. Hence it's another nonsensical thing to say people should not play party politics with some things. It's simple, let people state their individual or party positions. If you agree with a position, then you say yes, else say no. Or if you want the parties to reach a consensus then say so. Say you think the parties can draw some points from each other and reach some consensus. Else if you don't know what to say, just keep quiet and don't waste our ears with meaningless stuff.

And the irony! You'd find that people who tell you 'don't politicize issues' would themselves me stating their views on the very issues and be 'arousing' you to accept their views which are nothing but political views too.

Pal, it's pretty simple, people cannot say one thing and mean another! That is absurd to say the least.

Regards from O Jebu!
catch you later.