Political Sanity and Common Sense

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO (KUM)

J Kristiadi

A few weeks after celebrating the New Year of 2022, the public, being driven by new hopes, has begun to anticipate the tough challenges facing the nation in the future. The dangling threat before our eyes is the death of common sense being trampled over by the power of post-truth politics and populism. Both movements are toxins that kill rational thinking as their collaboration produces various lies, ranging from plainly to very sophisticatedly disguised sham that the people are not aware that the narrative or video they are following is a hoax.

The stratagem of the two political approaches result in the public's sanity being lost and becoming misled. In fact, the content of lies smacking of segregative nuances of ethnicity, religion, race, and sect (SARA) is proven to provide social legitimacy for intolerance movement. In turn, civil society becomes weak and loses its dignity.

The ringing of the alarm bell for the death of sanity has been echoed, among others, in several articles on Kompas daily; "Becoming Professor by Merit of Jockeying" (15/12/2021, Syamsul Rizal, professor of Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh), "Death of Scientific Society" (7/1/2022, Sulistyowati Irianto, professor of UI law school), and "BRIN Without Brain” (7/1/2022, Fidausy, BRIN Center for Economic Research). The narratives are expected to awaken those who pursue feudalism by resorting to a collection of various academic titles and ranks as symbols of modern aristocracy.

To deter the arrival of the angel of death requires an extra hard struggle because the death threat over rational thinking is not only in the form of lies and primordial identity, but also the inhibited turmoil of human soul. That is because, apart from having to satisfy their basic needs, humans also pursue to meet immaterial need for self-identity recognition in the form of dignity, self-esteem, heroism, and valor.

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Francis Fukuyama calls the characteristic need for recognition thymos, namely the phenomenon of movement of human soul, which is instinctive. He concludes that the global democratic recession that began in the mid-1970s was not driven by local nationalism and religion, but the dynamics of the human soul (Fukuyama in Identity: The Demand and the Politics of Identity and the Politics of Resentment, 2018).

Those who have excessive desires for recognition of being superhuman are referred to as being overwhelmed by megalothymia syndrome (tyrannical ambition). The symptoms include feeling capable of taking risks and an overly passionate desire in a phenomenal struggle to bring about such a dramatic effect they are considered superior. In some cases, megalothymia bore out heroic figures, such as Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela. However, megalothymia could also produce violent leaders such as Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler, and Mao Zedong.

Kompas

Didie SW

The maxim of people's sovereignty in principle is that the dignity of all people is equal (isothymia). To fight for rational thinking not to stray into the megalothymia stream, the way of thinking must be the manifestation of the radiance of common sense which is a spiritual instrument that guides into rational thinking and sense of understanding about good and bad. Intellectualism without common sense will lead humans into blackening dark jungle.

The “simultaneous” 2024 elections are scheduled to begin around June 2022. Political parties have begun to drum up internal consolidation, sort out candidates for legislative representatives and candidates for regional heads, scrutinize cadres who deserve to be candidates for president/vice president, consider coalition allies, and so on.

The political hype is perceived to be escalating, especially with the emergence of various political axes for the presidential election. Although not even one political party has a definitive candidate, on social media are already a number of pairs of prospective presidential/vice presidential candidates who are supported by respective political "tools".

Also read:

> 2022: Establishing Political Stability

> Political Harbingers of 2024 Presidential Election

The heating up of the political situation is certain to be followed by an increasingly reckless battle of tactics. It is feared that competition for power without holding on rational thinking will lead to disasters, including the polarization of society that is still simmering today.

The public hopes that the political elite will hone their common sense so that rational thinking can develop sensitivity toward the fate of the people. Virtuous political reasoning begins with the drawing of candidacy for people's representatives, regional heads, and would-be president/vice president, carried out with meritocratic principles, especially their personal integrity. Political parties should determine their ideological threshold. The criteria is candidates must be able to prove that their political behavior and daily lives reflect their obsession pinned on the ideology of political parties.

The candidates offered by political parties would carry the sovereign mandate of the people so that they should not be taken for granted or chosen because of kinship ties. Meritocratic benchmarks are important in order to avoid ignorant political opportunists. For example, even though his electability from time to time is "zero comma", an opportunist would boldly insists on going after presidential/vice presidential candidacy.

J KRISTIADI, CSIS Senior Researcher

This article was translated by Musthofid.