I know I haven't written in a long while, but I have a decent excuse. My laptop was stolen in April, and that sort of ruined my ability to put things on the internet from the comfort of my own, private haven of web access. And it sort of put me in a...less than constructively creative place. I was happy with my initial reaction to the situation, calm acceptance of the loss of something material that I didn't really need, and I hoped that whoever took it found it to be useful in achieving whatever they achieved. Then I sat and stewed on it and dealt with insurance companies and, well, I became less positive. Anyway, that's not the direction I wanted to take today.
It's election season again in the United States, and that means all of media is awash with negativity and dishonesty. This isn't something new, but I feel that despite how obviously crazy political issues make us, we've actually done nothing to alleviate the problem. I can't help but feel that politics has been constructed to do just that. There's a difference, in my opinion, between governing and politics. To govern, one attempts to make the best, most correct decision possible by considering all the facts and outcomes, short and long-term. A person who governs is going to be constantly burdened by the responsibility of managing the collective lives of so many, ensuring that all of their rights are maintained and protected from any threat. Politics seems to be a game of squabbling and bickering for trivial matters in order to control the bigger ones. It appears that the end result to someone playing politics is to continue to be relevant in the game, to maintain their political power. It's an exercise in inciting tribal mindsets and fueling unsophisticated, illogical decision making in the people you hope will lease to you their authority in decision making. Because, honestly, if you take our system to what it was meant to be, you and I simply allow someone to represent us in these policy making debates; we grant our sovereign right to choose to someone else to do it for us because we are supposed to be confident in this person's ability to choose the way we would. This is never the case, as most people in power make decisions that will allow them to stay in power. And truly, do we want someone governing us who is more concerned with keeping the job from term to term or do we want someone who will make the best decisions and try to avoid getting re-elected. Do you trust the person who wants power and is willing to do the job more than the person who is capable of doing the job but would prefer not to?
I guess where I'm going with this is...well, here: that we allow ourselves to be too easily consumed by 'the show' and don't focus on 'the substance' of the argument. It's not that I'm not in favor of passionate debate, but that I feel that in a debate, you can't allow yourself to be swept up in the mood being created. You have to stay focused and grounded in your principle beliefs and make decisions calmly. We know that people make rash decisions when placed in excited states, but we disregard this information and carry on repeating the same impassioned mistakes. With each venomous comment we spew at the perceived opposition, we continue to polarize and separate ourselves from one another. And it's here, attempting to exist in this perpetual disunity, that we cannot succeed. People see each other as this thing, or that thing, a fan of this team or a fan of that team, and somehow, in these perceptions and constant categorizing, we lose track of the 'person' that is that person. We lose track of our similarities, our unity. Once we're scattered and feeling on edge because we know there are groups of people out there just waiting to 'get' the group of people we belong to, we fall into a sort of suggestion-able mindset. Because we're so worried about not letting that group out-do our group, we give away our sovereign right to decide to people we don't truly trust because we believe these champions will protect our group from those other groups. We allow these champions to suggest things to us: how to live, what's important, what's not, where to shop, what's in, what we need, what we don't need, etc. We stop being 'me' to better fit into the image of 'we' that is provided for us, and we get so concerned with belonging with these groups we put ourselves in that we lose sight of what's actually important to us.
My hope, and not just for the election season but for...ever I suppose, is that we as a people begin to undo the subtle and insidious manipulations we've endured for our lifetimes. That people start finding the 'me' of themselves more important than the 'we' and begin to develop that identity as the most comfortable one for them. Here, in this place of quite, comfortable confidence in oneself, we can begin to look to at others, but through the paradigm switched question of "how is that person there like me?" Most of all, I'd like a society that practices awareness of its surroundings, one that's not willing to let itself be led along blindly to whatever outcome someone else has chosen for it. A society that observes and thinks critically and contemplates not just the immediate but the long-term, a society that endeavors to build and achieve collectively and individually, instead of one so intent on squandering and consuming without a notion to the consequences. We have it in us to be better, to be great as 'me' and as 'we'. Each of us just has to make that decision, 2012.
-M
