Politicians are putting us at serious risk of trauma

Events in the past week have left us in no doubt that political silly season is back here with us. Grand launches and anniversary celebrations have brought home the fact that the political landscape is heating up in preparation for the General Election next year.

Legislation governing the elections has been refined, and the impugned electoral commission is in the process of being replaced. Parties are rebranding, manifestoes are being retrieved from the dusty closets they were languishing in, and soon we shall start hearing the same old promises repackaged as a new deal.

This is all well and good. Unfortunately, despite our posturing about morality and the kind of future we want to bequeath future generations, we still seem to be suffering from a malady that is now inextricably bound up with our national character. We have lost the ability to distinguish between what is polite and can be repeated in public, and what is profane and should never even be whispered in polite company.

Our political leaders are taking to the soapbox and haranguing their opponents with all the tools in their arsenal and, when they have difficulty making their point, they are resorting to the crudest of insults they can think of.

The political contest is being converted into a personal struggle, with the outcome being one of life and death. References are being made of peoples nether regions and activities best left unsaid. All this is happening in well-attended public rallies, often covered live by the media.

After the political season next year, one can predict the reaction of our leaders when little children become that much more vulgar, that much more violent, that much more disrespectful of the rights of others. They will feign surprise and turn to the professionals, asking what they are doing to secure the future of our republic.

They will point fingers at everyone, except themselves, as the cause of this “new phenomenon”.

ELECTORAL CONTESTS

Well, let us record it for posterity that when it happens, as it surely will, the experts will confidently point back at the politicians and remind them of the bilge they spewed during electoral contests. We shall remind them of their behaviour during television talk shows, when some of them argued childishly and came close to physical confrontation.

We shall remind them of the disrespect with which they treat their opponents. We shall remind them of the misogyny and internal xenophobia they encourage in order to secure the votes of those that speak and look like them. We shall not allow them to pretend innocence when our children start barking at each other and generally behaving like wild animals.

Many people assume that children are somehow magically shielded from the publicly displayed misbehaviour of our politicians and their acolytes.

Unfortunately, even when they seem not to be paying attention, children soak in most of what is said and done in their environment.

That is the way they learn how to interact with others in society, and how to be adults. Whatever they experience and witness shapes their future outlook for better or for worse.

While childhood adversity is an important predictor of many physical, psychological and social problems in later life, witnessing violent or potentially stressful situations can have similarly deleterious effects on adults. Research shows clearly that witnessing stressful events can lead to severe mental and physical conditions in adults as well.

The long and short of it is that we are allowing our politicians to put us at serious risk of trauma, with potential health consequences that will be expensive for our nation to handle. We are already reaping the consequences of our irresponsible politics in the recent wave of school unrest, and we can only dread what will befall us in the event that the results of the next General Election are disputed.

Atwoli is associate professor of psychiatry and dean, School of Medicine, Moi University; [email protected]