Misconceptions

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In this digital age, with all the social media and with most people having something to say, I find that misconceptions are an every day things. Misconceptions meaning things that are not true, taken out of context or just misinterpreted through a lack of actual knowledge or with actual bad intent. This is readily seen in most media, where jokes are taken as news, gossip is taken as fact and we are just left with the task of sifting through what we read to see if we can differentiate between speculation and fact.

But right now I am just going to point out one small detail that you can find in virtually any political scene. As we all know most politicians are accused of not being exactly honest, and we see this continually being pointed out just as soon as they are out of the power structure. accusations abound and everyone has a new and probably more aggravated story about the wickedness of the people who are now in the wilderness and are most probably not affiliated with our view of politics.

But as I said I am not going into any argument about the ethical or unethical dealings of politicians instead I want to point out a misconception, or mistake if you will that many people use to accuse politicians of wrong doing. And this is, while accusing them of being thieves comparing them with Ali Baba and his 40 Thieves.

Now the truth is we are actually dealing with Ali Baba and THE 40 Thieves, Ali Baba is not a thief, he is the hero of this fable (or legend or whatever it is). As you probably know he was a poor guy who came upon the thieves' cave and heard their secret password and entered and took some of their wealth(Hey, wait a minute, he was a thief, but that is OK, he was a good thief, which is also a valid expression these days). So the fable goes on detailing his adventures outwitting the thieves.

But what I am getting at, is that when people accuse a former power wielding politician of being Ali Baba, they are in fact praising him. This comes down to just repeating what you hear and not even knowing what you are talking about. There, I said it, I have had this on my chest for over a decade since they started using that phrase here. I have tried to make people see reason, but it seems they know better than I, who happened to read the fable when I was a kid.