Q. Your recent posts about politics seem make things seem so hopeless. What to do?
A. You have a choice how to view the situation. In the posts The Purpose of Politics and The Attraction of Politics, politics can frequently be seen as a divisive and destructive force, albeit a compelling one. It might seem from the posts that I was implying to avoid all politics and engagement. However there is another way.
Consider this quote: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil in the world is for good men to do nothing.” (Attributed to Edmund Burke.) Some times it is necessary to participate in the body politic. Perhaps it is always necessary. But there is a big caveat.
The message in those two posts mentioned is to caution and warn about the dangerous downsides of blind political participation. As examples, consider the present trends of invented conspiracy theories that underlie and support some recent political movements. Once they have momentum, they have the thrust of extreme religious movements. As with all religions, people seem to forget all logic and reality, and so depart to the equivalent of a fantasyland.
The point of those posts, and this post, is to be aware of one’s own mind and one’s own self. While participating in the political process, I will not give up my critical faculties of thinking and logic. If I abdicate my thinking to a political party or movement, I have traded away who I am, thrown away my own true self, reject my own power, and I can no longer see the world as it is.
As in all things, maintaining one’s humanness and ability to independently think is primary.
What’s your take on all this politics? Let me know here.
The illustration of a frog is from an 1814 Japanese “Meika gafu” collection.
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