George Orwell may have understated
the situation in the Big Brother totalitarian state of Nineteen Eighty
Four:“War is peace. Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.” He would be amused to learn that in the police state
of Two Thousand and Nine Ethiopia, Big Brother has been unceremoniously
replaced by THE P-R-O-C-E-S-S!
Jason
McClure of Bloomberg News reported last week the capo dictator in Ethiopia had
declared that “there
is ‘zero’ chance that opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa will be released from
prison in time to compete in the elections scheduled for next May. He also said
Birtukan’s jailing is not a pretext to eliminate political opposition…
The prime minister also defended local elections last year, in which
opposition candidates won just three of 3.6 million seats, saying that
‘democracy is about process, it’s not about outcome…If the process is clean and
you get zero, tough luck.’” (Italics added.)
Aha! “It’s
About Process, Not Outcome!”
It is about process, not outcome. In
other words, it is about smoke and mirrors, window dressing. It’s about putting
on a show, going through the motions. Democratic elections have nothing to do
with the outcome of legitimately elected leaders. They are about the
process of putting on a three-ring elections circus so that people can go
through the motions of voting for “leaders” who have already been pre-selected
and elected for them. By the same token, courts are not about the outcome
of impartial administration of justice. They are about manipulating the legal
process to serve Just Us. Trials have nothing to do with the outcome of
due process, which is truth-finding based on established legal principles,
vindicating the innocent and convicting the guilty, or serving the ends of
justice. They are about the process of putting on a kangaroo court show to
convict the innocent, exonerate the guilty and exalt criminals. Governance is
not about the outcome of informed decision-making, practicing the rule of
law, effective delivery of public services, accountability, transparency,
legitimacy and the rest of it. It is about the exquisite process of clinging to
power like blood-sucking ticks on a cow. A constitution is not about the
outcome of establishing and permanently securing the rule of law so that
citizens are protected from arbitrary and abusive use of government power. It is
about the process of ensuring the rule of an outlaw who trashes every known
human rights law. Parliaments are not about the outcome of formulating
sound laws and public policies in a deliberative legislative forum. They are
about the process of rubberstamping the delusions and fantasies of a dictator.
Federalism is not about the outcome of a clear division of constitutional
power between a national government and constituent political units. It is about
setting up a fictitious process called “ethnic federalism” for the purpose of
creating deep ethnic, cultural, linguistic and regional cleavages to facilitate
dictatorial rule.
It is all about The P-R-O-C-E-S-S,
stupid! If you haven’t got it by now “tough luck!”
From Doublethink, Doublespeak to
Zerothink, Zerospeak
The age of Big Brother and the dark
Orwellian future has been replaced in the brave new Ethiopia of the 21st
Century by the age of the Big Processor who communicates through zerothink and
zerospeak. It is no longer that “War
is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” For zerothinkers and
zerospeakers, the outcome of war that people die or suffer and entire
communities are laid to waste is unimportant. What is important is the process
of using war to extort economic and military aid from donors to cling to power
indefinitely (in zerothink, that would be “forever and ever”). In zerothink, it
is not about freedom or slavery. It is certainly not about the outcome of human
freedom, which is free thought, free expression, free association, free press,
free elections and so on. It is about the process of using the idea of freedom
to justify tyranny and brutality, and to hoodwink the rest of the world into
believing that dictatorship is the only path to freedom. In zerothink, it is
not that ignorance is strength; it is about the planned process of creating and
maintaining a nation of ignoramuses by denying them free expression, sound
education and a forum for a free exchange of ideas. It is about keeping the
population weak, confused, divided and domesticated. It is about the process of
locking up the population in the proverbial Tower of Babel where no one speaks
the same language or understands each other. In the brave new Ethiopia of zerothink
and zero speak, it is all about processing:
Central processing of lies; micro-processing of corruption, digital
processing of propaganda; physical processing of opponents into torture
chambers; network processing among nouveau riche supporters; co-processing of
fear and loathing and re-processing of rigged and stolen elections. It is all
about using The P-R-O-C-E-S-S to control, pacify and subjugate the population.
But one day, it will all be about
service of process!
Zerothink and the Zero Sum Game Process
In the social sciences, scholars use
“game theory” to understand the behavior of individuals in strategic situations
in which one individual’s success in making choices depends on the choices and
actions of others. In a zero-sum game, one
person will lose and one person will win. The win (+1) added to the loss (-1)
equals zero.
The capo dictator’s statement on the
primacy of process over outcome provides a unique window into a particular zero
sum game player mindset. The game strategy for the dictators is to ensure that
opposition or rival elements always lose while they always win. The dictators
have been playing such a zero sum political game in Ethiopia for nearly two
decades. As the dictator glibly quipped, “democracy
is about process, it’s not about outcome…If the process is clean and you get
zero, tough luck.” For two decades, the people of Ethiopia have been forced to
play a zero sum game of “process democracy” (or make-believe democracy) and have
accumulated a grand total score of zero. The winning formula for the zero sum
“elections process” has been finely tuned: Announce a date for “elections” with
great fanfare. Set up a process for make- believe elections. Hand select and
pre-elect your candidates. Scandalize and demonize your political opponents and
rivals. Let people think their votes count. Declare victory before the votes are
counted. Announce to the world that “opposition candidates won just three
of 3.6 million seats.”
There is a better way. It is a non zero
sum game based on a “win-win” strategy in which each side can gain and minimize
losses through a process of bargaining, negotiation, compromise and
conciliation. The dictators seem to be incapable of understanding or playing a
non zero sum game. That is because they perceive the larger society as their
enemy while sitting and fretting in their echo chamber of intrigue. They see any
one else winning in any matter small or big (political or economic) as a
devastating loss to them. They have a mindset of losers. So
the real problem is the zero-sum mindset of the dictators. They must
undergo a change in mindset and overcome the belief and conviction deeply
ingrained in their collective psyche that political opponents committed to
democratic principles are not mortal enemies, merely competitors for votes.
In a real democracy, winning and losing
for political parties and candidates is the natural order of things. You win
some, you lose some. The winners and losers are determined by the people who
cast their votes freely, without intimidation, extortion, threats, vote rigging
or other fraudulent electoral practices. Losing an election the old fashioned
way (through free and fair elections) is not the end of the world in a real
democracy; it is merely the stepping stone to the next round of electoral
contests. The fact remains that as long as the dictators remain prisoners in
their echo chambers of intrigue chained to a zero sum mindset of fear and
loathing, there can be no real political change; only missed opportunities. It
is conceivable that a few in the dictator’s inner circle understand that the
only way they can find the peace of mind and accord with others that has eluded
them for nearly two decades is by embracing a multi-party democratic system
where rivals are not perceived as enemies but potential partners in a
dynamically evolving and shifting competitive political process.
On the other hand, even the most skilled
strategic zero sum game players expect perpetual losers to win one day, and win
big. What happens then? What happens when the tables are turned and the
dictators find themselves on the receiving end? (Admittedly, this question
sounds silly to anyone sitting in an invincible echo chamber fortress, but
suppose that were so, for the sake of argument.) Indeed, in a zero sum game, the
short-term loser may be the winner in the long term by learning to develop
skills useful in creating “win-win” situations where through compromise,
negotiation and conciliation higher level political and social objectives could
be attained. Real democracy is not a zero sum game process. It is a political
outcome based on a non zero sum game model. It is not necessary for all to lose
and one party to win all the time. It is possible to pursue strategies that
produce “win-win” results for everyone. But that is the strategy of the hero.
Hero vs. Zero
We are told there
is “zero” chance that our heroine, Birtukan Mideksa, “will be released from
prison in time to
compete in the elections scheduled for next May.” (Translation in zerospeak:
“Birtukan is enjoying herself at the exotic, all-inclusive vacation club known
as the Kality Resorts, and is unavailable for the mundane business of running
for office.” But the fact of the matter is that Birtukan is not interested in
participating in an election P-R-O-C-E-S-S. She is not interested in an election
process in which the outcome is predetermined now, a year before it is held. She
wants no part of an election process where 3 (three) opposition candidates win
from among 3.6 million candidates fielded by the dictator’s party. She would
rather tough it out with her “tough luck”. Our hero does not want to be part of
a zero-sum election process. Truth be told,
even in a zero sum game, zero plus zeros equal to zero, not hero!
