Politics - what's the ROI of that, actually?

The question popped into my mind while commenting on Armano's latest blog post - and I just wrote it down

As it is like it is, things you focus your attention on become much sharper to see, and suddenly you spot them all over the place, and start to increasingly wonder about them

So, this post is about the P-word. As always, kudos to the magnificent wiki

As a consultant, I practically live in a few enterprises each year. I 'do' global multinationals like other people, well errr, you get my point. Ages ago, when I was young, I was a programmer who was kept well away from the bad P-word by his good project manager (with the benefit of hindsight, some of that was also with the goal of protecting the P-people from my 'frank' words)
Over the years, I have become to increasingly be bothered by the presence of the P-word. Not that it has become bigger or worse, it's just that I'm now an (enterprise) architect and in daily contact with fellow enterprise architects and CIO's. It's me who has moved up, although that usually implies progress all over - and I'm not sure me and the P-word becoming closer is a good move

Around the birth of social the usual question was asked: what's the ROI of it? Especially accountants like Dennis Howlett like to ask that question, but also professors like Andrew McAfee. And it's a good question, because I always ask my wife that when I don't understand what she wants, and vice versa. It quantifies the answer to the Why-question
Now, not all of us understand what social is, or can become, or what its uses are. Or think that it deserves a place in our lives. But most of us have an idea about it, what it is, and what it can amount to. And yet, we ask the question, because we want to be sure

We also understand what politics cause, and why certain people would practice those politics. But do we understand the goal? Do we justify its existence? Do we ask the why-question?
We just tolerate politics because we think it's beyond our reach, and that they're here to stay. We play along with that sad game that serves no one else but the people in power and their 'mates'

Social will bring forth hiveminded people. Strong branded people like Mike Arauz describes in his latest post. But also people that can hear and see everything because they're simply connected to everything. Will and can there still be hidden agenda's?

The ROI of social? It will wipe out Politics. How's that for a killer app