Political animals are outside the box.

Ian Lewis FRSA FInstLM • To get inside this question a read of Jeremy Paxman's 'Political Animal' would really help as it empathises with both a distraught role (politician) and system (democratic politics) - where many well intentioned and basically good people are worn thin then out by a defunct system. It could be made to work much better, but the few rather than the many are able to create a failing system.

Clear and overt political values would be a solution where discussions, debates and decisions have to reflect the values present in the promises of aspiring politicians. Of course a 'voting-out' system, when values are not consistent, would also need to be a part of the mix.

The future requires a broader and more present value-set than current in evidence either by politicians or society. For instance (one may identify relevant values oneself in the following), a change of emphasis in our relationships and our society from ‘me’ to ‘we’ will not erode individual rights, ability, achievement, freedom of expression, or ownership in any way. Nor will it require that we relinquish our hard-earned cash or possessions, repudiate our economic system, or overturn our democratic way of life. The only practice we will give up is the need to strive for individual achievement at another person’s expense. That mindset in itself is flagrantly anti-individual and undemocratic: somebody’s individual rights always get trampled in ‘I win, you lose’ scenarios.

If we are to prosper, individually and collectively, each of us must wipe clean our mental hard drives of the sense of scarcity, lack, competition, and extreme individualism with which we are now programmed. To do this we have to challenge the very assumptions and thought processes on which those concepts and assumptions are based, moving to a collaborative politics locally and globally, with corporations, boards, conglomerates etc., removed from positions of influence into positions of servitude to democratic need.

Whilst this comment might appear to take focus away from politician in the democratic sense, it does question whether politicians reside more outside of government/s than within given the size and influence of many NGO's including corporations and industrial/labour collectives and owners.