Complementing the Emperor on the New Clothes
Sometimes you hear these stories that sound so outlandish and so far out that freeze you in a temporary state in awe and disbelief.
Though you soon realize that for the people inside of that story, this must be the most normal thing in the world.
And you can’t really judge them because it’s all they know, it’s all they can relate to.
Part of you wishes that they can step out of the situation to see things from another perspective, but then again, most people in Plato’s cave probably never even knew they were in a cave to begin with.
“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?"
And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?”
― David Foster Wallace, This Is Water
A Peak Behind the Curtain
Màxim Huerta is the perfect representation of the new breed of young politicians coming up in Europe in the recent years. He is a blogger and graphic designer by trade but a torch & pitchfork crusader by vocation.
In Spain, he is mainly known for his endless twitter crusades against sports. He hates sports and he’s never tired to remind us how much he despises it.
And more importantly that he doesn’t understand sports at all.
And this is where the bizarre part to come in.
When the new president Pedro Sanchez took office, he thought of no better idea than to appoint his old friend Maxim as the minister of sports.
Yes, the guy who hates the sports the most and understands it the least.
Literally, even the most average of sports fans would be a far more knowledgeable candidate for the position… Just to illustrate how much of a joke this is.
Which makes you wonder, how did that convestation take place?
Nobody knows but if I had to guess, I’d say something like this.
“Hey Màxim, what’s up man?”
“Doing great, how about you?”
“Listen, we’re dividing the pie up here… Would you like to run the ministry of Sports?”.
“But I know nothing about sports! Hell… I even loathe sports”.
“Yes Màxim, I know. The whole country knows that you hate sports. But what do you say? Do you want to rule over that sector or not?”
“Sure, I mean… How hard can’t it be, right?”
The conversation above is fictional, but it might not be so far from the truth after all.
But do you know what’s totally outside of the realm of possibilities?
Expecting people to believe that you can take a totally ignorant person and give them a piece of paper that instantly turns them into the most capable and qualified person in the country to run a certain sector.
Hey Bobby, do you want to run the department of energy? It’s super easy, you don’t need any previous knowledge or experience in the field. Hell, you don’t even need the slight interest in the subject.
Just take this piece of paper, and when you touch it, it will inject you with all the wisdom, all the experience and all the knowledge necessary to oversee the ministry and rule over everyone.
Politics ladies and gentlemen, where crazy is the new normal.
You see, Màxim could’ve easily ruled over the entire sport sector for years, possibly despite his utter and complete lack of knowledge in the health department, sports laws and rules, economic sponsorships, Television rights… Etc.
What doesn't require skills on the other hand, is running one's mouth time and time again, attacking athletes for earning “too much” and constantly attacking them without proof with un-backed claimed of tax evasion.
And that is why the most incompetent people always make it to the top of the political food chain: Populism. Or in other words, pegging people against each other with populist and divisive ideas.
Luckily, barley a week after he was appointed top boss, karma came knocking and she was bearing gifts.
News leaked that he has been evading taxes, and before you could blink the memes started flooding the internet making fun of the ironic hypocrisy.
It’s like the witch-hunter who burns himself with his own torch. Funny how these things work out.
At the end of the day, cases like Maxim are an everyday occurrence in politics. It’s often the most incompetent and veracity-challenged individuals that make it to the top, what they lack in knowledge and experience they make up for in populism and hypocrisy.
In the real world, you would need to have an extensive and proven experience combined with unique and undisputed skills if you were to even be considered for running a multi-billion dollars company.
Unless that company in question is funded by taxpayers’ money, in that case you don’t have to worry about being qualified because let’s face it, no one actually expects politicians to be competent.
And then there’s the magic paper, the reason why emperors appear as if they’re wearing clothes.
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Great analogy. Great post. Man, my country, Venezuela has fallen to pieces because for 18 years or so we have had fictional conversations like the one you've posted materializing with horrendous consequences to our people. "People don't learn by others' mistakes," and "man is the only animal that stumbles twice with the same stone", so goes the saying, and it looks so true.
Either they have not been paying attention to the epic Venezuelan disasters or they want to try a piece of that nasty cake themselves.
Oh man, I am so sad about what's going on in Venezuela. :( And I hear you man, but I think we stumble far more than twice with the same stone :P
Some people stumble indefinitely with the same stone haha.
I don't know much about Mexico, but Brazil seems to be heading in the same direction as well. Probably many other countries as well.
All the best to you and hopefully these things change sometime soon.
Thanks, bro'. It's been a nightmare and, despite international efforts (whose transparency or true good intentions are hard to tell), there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel in the short term. Families keep splitting (more than 5 million Venezuelans gone somewhere else), people dying of starvation of lack of medicines, crime running rampage. It's end-of-the-world kind of scenario.
Mexico has just elected a man whose sympathies with Chavez and the Castros he tried to ameliorate during this campaign because it did not work in his favor last time. But, he plans to follow the same recipe that destroyed Venezuela. Hopefully it won't happen, but as you say, we seem to never learn...
Oh that I read, that the "chavismo" is so happy about the result of the Mexican elections... That can't be good :P
Sorry to hear about what's going on in your country man, in the news it's very sad, but when you talk to people it's even sadder. Hopefully something happens and changes things because it can't keep going like that forever.
Yep, that's our consolation. Even the most outrageous tragedies get to an end and people rebuild.
I don't understand how you can even combine sport and culture into one ministry! But this must have been the shortest posting of any politician anywhere: June 7. to June 13. 2018!
There is a example however from my university days in Canada that sort of worked: short of space at that time (until a new center for the arts was built) the art department shared space with the jocks in the field house. We actually got along great together. Art students even took classes (like anatomy) in PhysEd, and the jocks posed for us in figure drawing class (all of a sudden all the female students at the U wanted to take art classes, haha).
Haha yeah, not even a full week.
P.S: At least in your university it was temporary and it was for a logical reason (a new center getting built) but these guys combine culture and sport together on a permanent basis :P
it was actually a Greek ideal in antiquity, and art was part of the modern day Olympics at the beginning - Art competitions at the Olympics
I think mutual hostilities are misplaced - in sport as in art it is only a small percentage that even make money, and smaller still the millionaires among them. It should really be the aim of such a ministry to help level the playing field in either disciplines (if one thinks to combine them in one makes sense).
"...karma came knocking and she was bearing gifts."
Adil, that's a brilliant line brother!
If those words are yours, may I have your blessing for light to shine upon them in my future writing?
Fingers crossed that our paths cross at Steemfest 3!
Haha thanks. Absolutely man! They are indeed my words, and please feel free to use any words you like from my writings :)
It has been a long time Craig, hopefully I see you in steemfest 3 as well!
So I'm going to approach this from a different perspective as I speculate what the president's thought process may have been. I will also admit I know nothing about politics in Spain and only have the info I just read in your post.
My guess is the President may be a smart guy and recognized Maxim's popularity and thought he may be around for a while so he should persuade his opinions that are on the extreme ends closer to center. He had a clear disconnect with sports so what is the one way to encourage a change of opinion? By putting him as close as he can to that world so that he is forced to learn the ins and outs. This may have changed his perspective in the long run as most people are only ignorant towards something because they know nothing about it.