Politics are so divisive today that I hesitate to ever say anything about them. But I’m specifically here to share things on my heart which I generally hesitate to share. So here goes…
I feel that our modern day politics– and indeed historical politics– are extremely exploitative, using very real life concerns to try to gain power and control. Indeed, I can’t help but feel that politics absolutely exploits legitimate grievances and even trauma. Further, my studies into cultism, mind control, manipulation, and narcissistic abuse, which I actually undertook to challenge my Christian faith, inadvertently led me to think that beyond politics being merely exploitative, they are also highly manipulative, propaganda driven, and even emotionally abusive. A lot of politics manipulates our sense of compassion, our sense of powerlessness, and exploits the already exploited for political gain. That’s how I truly feel.
So yeah. I’m not a fan. Therefore, while I have studied and thought about political ideologies fairly in depth and indeed have many of my own political opinions, I have never been much of a political person. And instead of pushing politics, I am much more a proponent of de-politicization. Especially as I have never felt that politics are the answer to the world’s woes in the way in which they are painted to be. Indeed, I feel that love and kindness and friendship and family and community and ingenuity and generosity and resourcefulness do far, far more to make the world a better place than politics or any ideology ever has or will– and yet, all these things are sacrificed on the altar of politics today. Because politics are treated as the answer to all that is wrong with the world, so if someone stands against our politics… then they stand against finally being able to fix the world.
But I truly believe there is a hunger in our souls which the political can never fill. And there is a loneliness in our hearts which politics can never meet. And the trauma and woundedness which imperfect people inflict upon each other is not fixed in the ballot box. But our ability to speak of and to these truths has eroded along with compassion and open-mindedness as our alienation from each other has grown. Yet politics can never fix what forgiveness will. Politics will never fix what true human connection can. And politics cannot change the hearts and minds of man the same way as Jesus can… or even just the way love and truth can (Please read: I am not calling for the imposition of Jesus into people’s lives in any way in saying this. I’m just trying to express part of the source of my personal lack of investment into politics, which is that I value Jesus more than politics in part because I feel Jesus is far more relevant to life and helping people.).
That’s about as political as I want to be here today. Or any day really. As I don’t really like to discuss politics in general because I feel there are far too many layers to unfold and presuppositions to address to have the type of discussion I would want to have. But, as much as I want to avoid politics, since I am sharing what is on my heart I have to address just one more thing: my heart is so heavy with the dissolution of friendships and family over politics.
I have to stand up for the lovely people I know and say that, in my experience of closely knowing both many progressives and many conservatives and libertarians too, almost everyone I’ve known is a proponent of their form of politics because they believe it is most beneficial to people and the world. Indeed, the people I personally know across varied political camps actually all care about people. They just have drastically different (Some might even say diametrically opposed) presuppositions about what works in the world and what doesn’t, and what benefits people and what doesn’t. And maybe I just know nice people. But too, sometimes people have just had different life experiences and have gotten their information from different sources… and their different politics are actually a reflection of that diversity and not of the dark cruelty of their hearts and souls or their sense of entitlement.
I know this issue is a trigger for many people, so please just hear my heart behind saying all that. Because I understand there is so much anger and frustration and even hopelessness and hurt and trauma that actually underlies political divisions… so please don’t feel I am dismissing those things or judging anyone for the way they deal with people politically opposed to them in trying to stand up for all the good people I know. Also, I say this as an intrinsically curious person and as a philosophy student with a bent for intellectual thought who has specifically sought out various ideologies and world views and sought to deeply understand them from the inside out… and have welcomed people of literally all religious and political persuasions into my space of friendship (from Pagans and Shaman to Sikhs and Atheists to Anarcho-communists to Marxists and ultra-conservatives Christians.).
Indeed, I studied philosophy in order to deeply understand thoughts outside my own. As I am just the type of Jesus-follower who used to hang out with my university’s president of the atheist club… sitting under stars and tripping over the troubles of restorative justice. And I am the type of existential idealist radical individualist who would sit in a tree debating philosophy with my Marxist communitarian friend. Both with a deep respect for each other and using our disagreements to re-examine our own beliefs and grow as people. And I understand that some people think even trying to understand another person is complicity with any “wrong” views they may hold– but I simply don’t think that.
Trying to understand and have compassion for others challenges me and adds such a richness to life. And we all have our own journeys and subsequently our own convictions. And we all have to work our own selves out. No one can do that for us. I will certainly call out injustice when I see it and stand up for people being wronged… but I simply will not shut people out. And I’m not judging people who do… it’s just not who I am. I guess having grown up as an earnest and authentic follower of Jesus when so much of “christianity” is either misunderstood and judged or runs counter to my actual beliefs, I’m just trying to be as curious and open to others as I wish people always were to me. And all that being said, I absolutely do hold my own thoughts and opinions and quite passionately so. I just understand that the rightness I feel in my opinions are just not as self-evident to other people as they are to me. And the same goes for their opinions.