How to Have a Worthwhile Discussion About Politics
Lately I’ve been working my way through a UK sitcom from the early ’80s called Yes, Minister, and its later incarnation, Yes, Prime Minister. I am enjoying it quite a bit. It is a product of its time. Characters occasionally express opinions that are no longer considered acceptable, but unfortunately that’s true in real life as well.
The sitcom is, in broad terms, about a politician and a bureaucrat fighting it out. The politician wants to create change and help people just a little bit less than he wants to pander for votes and make himself look good. The bureaucrat believes that what is best for the country and its citizens is to maintain the status quo (of which he is a part), dysfunctional as it is, because if it ever became more effective there might be chaos and change, which would destroy the status quo (and his own power).
Most episodes are one of these two getting the better of the other, but occasionally someone threatens their department, and they work together to fight off the attack so that they can remain there, fighting each other.
It's a very funny show if you enjoy dry humor, irony, and wordplay (which a lot of people don’t). Also, I find it tremendously reassuring to see evidence that politics have always been a terrible mess, no matter what country you’re in.