Tag: world

“Talking Politics”

I am growing weary of people saying that they “don’t care”, “don’t talk about”, or “don’t want to know” about Politics. I have two problems with this. First, do they understand that what they are calling “Politics” is actually current events, what is happening in the world, and second, how are they OK with not knowing what is going on around them?

Politics is the word that people lump discussion of the operations of Government, current events, and news of the day. This is too broad of a classification. The actual definition:
pol·i·tics
[ˈpäləˌtiks]

NOUN

  1. the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power:“the president’s relationship with Congress is vital to American politics” · “thereafter he dropped out of active politics”

To dig further down on this, politics is the process that strategists use to manage politicians and campaigns, maneuvering behind the scenes to get bills passed, manipulating storylines, sound bites, and news cycles, and controlling the narrative. It is a game within a system.

Following the news stories, having a rudimentary understanding of the process of government, possessing a working knowledge of our relationship with other countries, and (perhaps this is ambitious on my part to hope for this) the dynamics of foreign policy as well as the ability to critically think and assess what is happening…well that is not “talking politics”. That is knowing what is going on and where you fit into things. To be firmer and emphatic…it is not “talking politics” to know how the events of the day affect YOU.

I understand that I am more interested in what is going on around me than most. I am a News junkie. As a citizen of the world, what happens around me is worth taking notice of. As a citizen of a once great country that I now consider in decline, I have a close eye on everything that I possibly can. I try to look through a trained and cynical eye at the political and cultural landscape. Not as a conspiracy theorist, but as a person open to any possibility, always prepared to learn that while something may appear to be one thing it could be another thing entirely. As podcasters, my Co-host Steve and I look at every story from all angles because we believe that every story has more to it, and often the additional, possible suppressed dynamics of a story contain nefarious and harmful elements designed to deceive and mislead us.

I understand that some people, regardless of whether they lump everything outside of their interests and general circle as “politics”, choose not to be engaged because it is hard for them. The world is a overwhelming, even depressing place. I’m sure that some can’t handle the onslaught of bad news. We are bombarded by the minute with stories of people being bad to each other. The ugly side of human nature is on constant display. If not for the occasional positive Human Interest story, which does not sell near the copies that the trash does, we would think that the world is going entirely to shit.
I get it.
But what is worse? Knowing what is going on and feeling some angst, or choosing the bliss of ignorance by not keeping up with the events of the day? And for that matter, is it possible to be somewhere in between? I fear there is an additional dynamic at play, that Americans are so comfortable, so sure that they are safe, so delusional as to believe that by virtue of wanting to be peaceful, and that the world would somehow fall in line with that.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The World is in fact on fire, and closer to home the United States is under attack from without and within. Our enemies are acting out at unseen levels, and internally we are being invaded by hordes of foreign invaders and being eroded by progressive and unrealistic policies that make all of us unsafe.

Knowing what is going on in the world is not “talking Politics”. Inst

A Scared New World

The world around us has changed in so many ways. Some good. Mostly bad. I’m not being negative, just realistic.

The air is cleaner. If we dare go outside.
Rivers in major industrial areas around the world are suddenly blue again. If you dare to go swimming for fear of someone being within six feet of you.
Gas is really cheap. If you have somewhere to go or can leave the house.
People are being kind to each other. A little too late, and only by phone and FB.

I had cats for the longest time. They are wonderful animals for so many reasons, but one thing I always admired about them was their ability to accept their surroundings (house cats, I never let mine go outside), no matter how small and they’d be cool with it. Even rule it in their own way. I would marvel at how they would sit in the window and stare at the outside world as if it were a movie. With the exception of a bird that came too close to the window they didn’t recognize that there was a great big world out there.
They were content to be spectators.

I feel like a spectator watching a game that I can’t follow. A movie goer at a bad movie. It’s just not real. It can’t be. But it is.

We’ve never lived in times like this. The lack of precedent is alarming and confusing.
People are dying while others are making jokes and making it political. I know that sometimes levity relieves stress but again, people are dying. Put the damn politics aside. Love them or hate them, they are the people that we the people voted in and we are stuck with them yet wise to support them.

People are not only risking their own lives but those of others despite teams of experts telling them of the dangers. The Spring Breakers come to mind. Arrogance and hubris have caused a lot of unnecessary death.

Those who dare venture out are as timid, as my grandfather used to say, as “A long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.” I was in a small supermarket yesterday and as I ventured down the dairy aisle a lone woman who was intently studying what was left of the egg selection didn’t notice my approach. Despite my attempt at “Social Distancing” I apparently startled her and she actually jumped back. I was taken back and immediately apologized and made my way by her. I wasn’t offended.
It’s a sign of the times. And unfortunate timing at that. At a time when our humanity )for the most part at least, is peaking we are so limited in the ways in which we can express it.
I say hi to everyone. Always have. At times to throw people off because they’re not expecting it in our increasingly antisocial times, most of the time because I firmly believe that a simple hello might be just what someone needed at that particular moment of their life. Now I have to do it at a distance, through a mask. But I have escalated my check ins with as many people as I can because the times demand it.

At least we have a common topic to discuss. The unrecognizable and uncertain world that we now live in.