I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m trapped in the series «La casa de papel», where the goal is to save time while continuing to print bills. Our paper governments make us dizzy without compassion to continue fabricating votes.
We should mark the day when the US elected a Hollywood movie actor as president, Ronald Reagan. This inaugurated this very confusing phase in which politics, celebrity and entertainment have merged. Voting is increasingly like giving a good Netflix series likes.
Now our political leaders reason as a Ronaldo or a Kardashian would: What photo should I take with whom, and in what prefabricated instagram style to be trending topic today?
All his statements to the press are strategic exaggerations to pressure each other, or to make us believe something that makes us value each other more and less in the polls: Pablo complains that Pedro has not called him once since this summer – as if he were a lover ignored by his beloved – and Pedro has become the first to tweet the sympathy – calculatedly poetic and full of high feelings – to every disaster, tragedy or death that occurs across the globe.
Those on the other side are not doing better, with Santiago and his declarations to the cowboy of the West, or Cayetana and his airy outrages. What to say about Trump, Boris Johnson, Salvini or Macron and Trudeau with their colorful, cartoon-designed socks.
This seems more like a casting of Oscar-seeking actors than the showcase of the political leaders in the developed world. We will never forget the photos of Pedro with aviator glasses in the Falcon … I would give him the Oscar, if only because he works more than anyone, or spends more than anyone. After all, he is optically profiting from all the national resources he has access to thanks to the position of acting president.
All of this gets a lot of laughs and saturates rivers of printed and online ink. But frankly, what are we playing at? As Greta, the environmentalist girl with Aspergers said, «the house is burning and you aren’t doing anything to put out the fire!»
What exactly is burning? Well, our right to hear the truth to begin with. They are treating us like viewers lying on the couch in flat encephalogram mode with hours (or months) ahead of us with nothing to do. So much so that the economy slows down, operations remain on hold and leave us with more free time, held captive by the daily media show of our elected leaders.
The real problems of the country and the planet are without solution, without plan, without budget and without resolution. All are television declarations of measures without any anchorage in experience or practice. A wild brainstorming where punctuation points raise more headlines than they demonstrate intelligence, responsibility or maturity. To such an extent that if someone says something mature, it results in a general laugh, accompanied by more statements to the media among all the participants.
And now what? What do we do? Vote???? But we have planted a hidden camera «innocent» or what? Let’s see how many times we will vote submissively again before getting enraged? Will the Pablos, Pedros, Alberts and company then laugh and applaud our faces of disbelief at such a sinister joke, while shouting «innocent»?
Unfortunately, we don’t have the upper hand. The upper hand is the main kidnapper of these paper governments. Only they can end the movies and wear the good shake of reality.
In my business, change always begins by taking responsibility for the results: «I have realized that I have done or said, or I have been wrong …» It is called personal growth. It is hard and tastes bitter, but it is the way to become a true leader and not a liar.
We could ask each of our political leaders to write a secret letter to themselves with all the failures and mistakes they dare to possess – as we say in English, «own your mistakes.» – Then we would have to force them to repeat the letter as many times as necessary until they stopped dramatizing like Paulina Rubio and began to feel her hand shake with the uncontrollable feeling of gravity that comes with writing the truth.
Or they could hire a coach to give them a damn review – sorry. If Rivera swears in congress, then the ban opens: we can all say shocking things when we want to call attention to him and all of his minions. They could invest some time and money into hiring someone to make them face what they say with their gestures and their media meltdowns while trying to convince us that they are forming a solid government for the nation.
But no. They don’t hire coaches like that because that doesn’t get them votes and doesn’t save them time that they don’t deserve in front of cameras or help them keep accumulating votes based on manipulated perceptions. They are able to spend a million in renting a television set to practice their calculated gestures and perfect credibility performances before a debate. It’s more of the same: investing in lies and fleeing from the truth.
In order to finally get out of this eternal Latin American novel and not have to vote fifteen more times, I gladly give you the coaching of truth, responsibility and civil service – instead of yourself – for first one, call me.
Pino Bethencourt
Coach and Founder of the Club Comprometidos