Mugwump- is a term which stands out because of its peculiar sound, if you do not know the meaning, and stands out for the liberating meaning, if you understand the meaning of it. I came across this term while reading the The Autobiography of Mark Twain , wherein he wanted to petition the government and hesitated on account of being a Mugwump.
The term finds first usage in the English of Eighteenth Century and refers to one who is free of political inclination and derives its origin from the reference made to the Republican who refused to support his own party nominee in 1884, US elections, James Blaine. By the team, Mark Twain used it in his autobiography, it referred to someone independent of political leanings.
The term is confusing in pronunciation and meaning, though in today's time of political turmoil and quicksand ideology, to be a mugwump seems to be only reasonable political affiliation. Which party would you stand with when you do not know what ideology they stand for. The party in power resembles so much those out of it, that it is only minor difference in the level of arrogance which differentiates.
In times of turmoil, it is always better to build your own cocoon and stay in that, with a hope that some day the grey will melt into black and white on the either side and you will know which side to stand on. These are times of shifting loyalties and unclear convictions. To be stupid is alleviating and to be intellectual is a recipe for mental trauma. The world around us has lost balance, and its no wonder we don't know which way to head.
We are brought up to believe in a world in which the right and wrong, the just and the unjust, co-exist and the world stabilizes and prospers in the middle of these forces and counter-forces, which strike an equilibrium. The citizen today is at loss because there is no positive to counter-balance the negatives any longer. The negatives are responded to with negatives. The riots at the behest of one side of the political world, is responded by belligerent posturing by the other side. One man's inflation is other man's theatre.
How many times do we find, opposition parties travel to riot hit areas and set up camps to ensure restoration and rehabilitation? Inflation hits the poor, and the food on the plate goes scarce, but then on the street we find the theatre of absurd, with opposition leaders dancing with garland of tomatoes, highlighting scarce vegetables. Citizen is at loss, unable to understand who is being mocked, the party in power or the poverty of people. Are they blind to understand that the world needs balance and negative can not be countered with negative? When will we find them setting up food camps, emptying their ill-gotten election funds, thus creating a force of positive.
The light has to come in to fight darkness, you can not counter dark with more dark or funny dark. The world seeks the light and the political class is failing it. Violence needs to be answered with sanity and huger with prosperity. It is a difficult task, but is only hope that we as a nation have. Till then, I proudly continue to be a mugwump and the disease is spreading. You can not shame people into participating in the political process, you need to give them hope that things can change. We need to grow from the politics of protest to the politics of persuasion and progress.
I, being a mugwump, do not usually write on politics, not that anybody cares, but sometimes it gets too much and has to come out. Writing about desperate situations do not make them better, but it gives a moral satisfaction of blurting out my mind, with a hope that may be someone will listen. Your views??
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