WHAT IS POLITICS?

Below is, bar for my petition to get JN reinstated which triggered my ban from AFF, my last blog post submitted to Adult FriendFinder (AFF). Predictably, and for some arbitrary reason. it got denied. I thought I'd re-post it here as I know it won't get denied.

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POLITICS ON A SEX SITE!

Probably most people here know that I'm a politics junkie. I was a university lecturer both teaching and researching politics. All lecturers specialise because there's no way of keeping up with all that's published in the discipline. My specialism was public policy - how governments make (or don't make) decisions - though I dabbled in political economy and comparative politics.

I realise that many people, both here on this site and elsewhere, aren't into politics. Politics, a bit like religion, can be a divisive issue. Politics tends to be divisive if politics is seen only as party politics. Party politics is politics but politics is far more than party politics. Also, I do question those who dismiss politics so readily, especially those who just say here that this is a sex-only site as if there can be no sexual politics.

My view is that we are all political animals; it goes with the territory of being human living with other humans - we can debate whether other animals are political. But politics is far more than party politics. In many ways political parties aren't the biggest source of political influence; big business, interest groups, international organisations, state bureaucrats, judicial elites and military leaders arguably exercise more political influence than political parties. It's often said that a political party in a democratic country needs to be in power for at least ten years to significantly change anything.

How do you see politics?
How interested or disinterested are you in politics?

When teaching first year university politics students, my first lecture and seminar would be defining what politics is. I would offer students three broad but related views of politics.

The first view of politics is to see politics as whatever governments (or states) do or what they don't do. This is quite a focused definition but it's a bit insular. In particular, it doesn't fully appreciate how culture and in particular the economy shape what governments do. For example, it's widely understood that when there's an economic or financial shock, like the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, it gives rise to authoritarian and populist politics. Just look at the politics that the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the consequent Great Depression during the interwar years unleashed.

Second, politics is about power and, in particular, how power is exercised to resolve conflict (and to create and manage consensus). This is a wider view of politics than the first definition but it rests on an understanding of what power means. There's no consensus of what power is. Very simply, power is exercised when one actor, an individual or an institution, makes another actor do or say what they don't want to do or say. But by that narrow definition of power, Biden and Sunak exercise no or very little power over me but they are far more powerful than me. All political leaders, even Jinping, Putin and Trump, are constrained by other actors despite the 'strong man' image they like to portray.

And third and lastly, politics is about how groups of people make decisions. Whether in a household, a neighbourhood, a locality, a country or internationally, humans get together to make collective decisions. Obviously governments are often involved and obviously power is exercised, but this very expansive view of politics is my favourite definition of politics. It covers gender politics, office politics, street politics, local politics, party politics and international politics, plus more. Politics is very much embedded within the human condition.

I am and I've always have been a political animal. I've always voted; I've read, talked, argued, lectured and researched widely about politics; I've joined pressure groups; I've joined political parties; and I've stood for elected office. But, as Enoch Powell once said, "All political lives ... end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs." That's the only time I've ever agreed with Enoch Powell!

Sorry if this feels like a TED talk but I just needed to get that off my chest! Politics is far more than party politics. Following Harold Lasswell, an American political scientist, politics is all about "who gets what, when, how."

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Looking back on the post, AFF's ban of the four exiles is an example of politics in action. Though the state/government wasn't involved directly, it still involved politics. There was an exercise of power by the site, in particular Ali R, to ban us, thus creating conflict, and the exiles collectively and consensually exercised their power to fight back.