Half-Hearted Polemic

"The personal is political," as the bumper sticker saying goes, is the wrong formulation. What many people believe now is "the political is personal." They have turned to politics to fill some void. That way lies madness, sadness, emptiness. Politics provides a very convenient and intoxicating way to avoid the real questions we should be asking about our world and ourselves.

People, regardless of their beliefs or ideology, are seldom magnanimous in victory. Cruelty is easier.

When most people tell you about the sanctity of voting and urge you to vote, what they are really saying is, "Vote for the candidate I want you to vote for. If not, then stay home."

Social media, as Jerry Mander once said of television, is not neutral. It presents itself as a tool that we can use, but takes on a life of its own, and takes over us, if we are not careful. And most of us, myself included, are not careful.

Once we give up on the idea of absolute truth, we are ready to be wholly manipulated, and have no business complaining about "fake news."

The disapproval we experience when we go against prevailing opinion is a force to be reckoned with. Most of us cannot stand up against it. In the same way, the approval we experience when we join with a group of like-minded people is intoxicating, and can lead us to say and do things that we might not otherwise even consider.

There are many, many people out there who want to control not just what we do, but what we think. They are busily looking for ways to implement that power. They are real. They are the "omnipotent moral busybodies" CS Lewis spoke of.

Sometimes people reveal themselves for who they truly are. This is disappointing and discouraging and breeds cynicism. But it is clarifying. Put aside the cynicism, take whatever clarity you can get, digest it, and figure out how to use it to move forward.