Politics and business. Is there a place for genuine truth, straight talk, respect?

Etymology of politics = affairs of state, the science of government. While this is the positive and needed side of politics, the side the public mostly see and experience now is the craft of being a politician. And the tragedy is that to survive as a politician, you must learn to speak with a forked tongue. In other words, what you say is not the true representation of anything that may have any truth to it at all.

Twisted, manipulated, two-faced, edited, withheld. This is the language of politics. Deception, lies, smoke and mirrors…standard practice.

Is there another way? Is there room for anyone who does not adopt this behaviour to survive as a politician? I suspect not. Although most people yearn for leaders who speak straight, speak truth, hide nothing, and do not seduce, deceive, or manipulate.

For this reason, and others, I am reinforced in my view that real change in our world will come from the fringes. A long, long way from the business of politics. Am I naive to believe this is possible?

Oh, and the bed fellow of politics is the media. These two entities co-exist in perfect symbiosis, each sucking the truth force out of the other. Their co-dependency on each other to constantly feed the dark side is increasingly sick.

Yet business owners and entrepreneurs must deal with politicians. Does that mean we have to play their game? To learn also to speak with forked tongues? Is this really the world we want to continue to perpetuate? Is there a place for truth? For straight talk? For genuine engagement where words are not twisted?

After an hour conversation with a politician last week, I was left with one very clear lesson. The purity of my intention and the ability to define it in total simplicity, plus my commitment to formidable values, is key to survival in the land of the human shark and snake charmers. To not give away my authority. That means that I do not learn to play their game. For in doing that, one word at a time, in time, I will become just like them. Without even noticing.

We have strayed so far from truth, respect, decency, straight talk, humility, care, love…is this the world we want to leave to our children?