June 6, 2025

Yesterday, in one of the comments to this blog I was asked for my thoughts of the world’s political situation from my view of looking from the outside in.

Here is my reply.

First, I think if you connect the dots historically you will see that political dynamics have not changed much over time. “With money we will get men, said Caesar, and with men we will get power.” Politics has always been driven by power. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” is one of the proverbial sayings that seems to be proved correct by experience of people’s actual behavior. Examples of those who corrupted their power include Roman emperors, who declared themselves gods, and Napoleon Bonaparte, who declared himself an emperor.

Second, and unfortunately, in my travels I cannot help but see where vulnerable and economically compromised people have always been exploited. My mother used to tell us, “Shoot for the stars” as a means of encouragement. It is one thing to shoot for the stars and not get them, but it is another thing not to have any stars to reach for.

Not only in America, but in the countries we have visited I see great division among people.

In Psychiatry, there is the famous prisoner’s dilemma thought experiment, two “prisoner” players — unable to communicate with each other — must decide whether to cooperate for mutual benefit or betray each other for individual gain. If neither confesses to a crime, both get light sentences. If one confesses, that prisoner goes free while the other gets a long sentence. And if both confess, then both serve mid-length sentences.

Even though cooperation with each other — silence rather than confession — leads to the greatest collective benefits, the most rational individual decision is to take the jailer’s offer and confess.

But crucially, one assumption in the prisoner’s dilemma is that the jailer is trustworthy. There is an explicit promise that confessing will allow prisoners to avoid the longest sentence.

We have become a non-trusting world. Politicians and world leaders plant seeds of distrust to booster their position and cement their authority. We never reveal ourselves as much as we do as when we describe others. I’m reminded again of the observation that, in politics, accusations are often actually confessions.

The end result is that people don’t know who or what to believe anymore. Inaccurate facts make for less informed decisions. Less informed decisions make for bad policy.

Yet the authority for government was established in Jesus’s birth announcement: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders”.

To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.

It is my observation that governments will not be the cure for the world’s ailments.

What is the solution?

“It is God’s will that by doing good you will silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.” (1 Peter 2:15)

Thanks for traveling with us.