Massive debt, economy in shambles, growing dissatisfaction with the current regime (slowly but certainly), political opportunity presents itself- a matter of years. To have answers, to be helpful. Arthor Bearing’s grail is a political philosophy.
Everyone can see how strong the political currents are flowing today; our president can’t even tell kids to stay in school without a major brouhaha in the media and among the American people. But why this upsurge in political activism and outrage?
It’s easy to make ignorant speculations without really knowing anything (RACISM!), but a little bit of context makes it clear that the answer goes deeper than one president’s skin. In fact, one doesn’t have to look too far to find a president as politically contentious as our 44th president… just look at our 43rd.
Hypothetical
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Country U is politically divided, roughly 50%-50%, between two political parties, D and R. Party R is able to gets its nominated candidate for the presidency, W, elected. W has an active presidency: war is declared, government size and importance is increased, and a major shift in the government’s role occurs (W decided the government should be a transparent vehicle for cronyism, good man that he is). Party D is outraged at W’s heavy-handed, unilateral actions. W is hated, insulted, spit on, and called a traitor who should be impeached from office. W serves out two terms before party D’s candidate, O, wins the presidency and takes over.
With poetic symmetry, both presidents (W right as his term ends, and O just as his begins) pass legislation to give wealthy bankers in failing institutions billions of dollars.
O begins an active presidency: the wars continue, reforms are proposed, government size and importance are increased, and a major shift in the government’s role occurs (O decided government should be a vehicle for national property redistribution, good man that he is). Party R is outraged at O’s heavy-handed, unilateral actions. O is hated, insulted, spit upon, and called a terrorist who should be impeached from office.
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Two presidents, one from each of the two relevant political parties, are elected in succession. The American public reacts the same way to both, the only difference being the people doing the criticizing (and that’s determined largely by a simple matter of who a person chooses to identify with personally). The half of the populace which chooses to identify with the “winning” side is silent or at best dismissive of their opponents. The other side expresses persistent outrage.
With an outsider’s perspective it becomes clear that the problem is less likely to be with particular political figures and more likely to be with long-term trends in the office of the presidency and the government itself (which is why that’s the non-partisan position I’ve consistently held).
I’m pretty sure there was once a time when people didn’t have to gather in groups of thousands of people (whether war protests or “tea parties”) to impotently wave signs around in order to get the people making major decisions about their lives to stop and listen for a minute. Most of those decisions were being made at a much more local level- now the federal juggernaut makes most of the important decisions and we can merely stand by and watch it happen. No wonder people (people who don’t consider themselves “winners” in the short-term political scene) are getting outraged at the government’s actions.
Small government: don’t react ideologically. Rather, act logically.
Morning frosts start suddenly here in the New England region. Here are practical tips for keeping safe if walking over ice without boots during the cold half of the year.
Define “Abstraction” – something created which is relatively simple and not necessarily realistic.
Underneath everything is reality.
Then on top of that is the small percentage of reality we’re allowed to see, limited by space and time, as well as our limited ability to perceive it. Actually we perceive only a few narrow bands of electromagnetic radiation which stimulate nerve centers in our brain which are converted into signals which we then interpret, and call the end result “real.” So by perceiving the world around us, we’re already positing an abstract overlay between our consciousness and reality.
And then to describe what we perceive, to take our still-rich perceptions and boil them down to a series of letters, words, sentences, requires a further abstract overlay. Paintings, no matter how realistic, are not reality, and so all paintings are abstractions too. And music. And especially TV.
Well that’s abstract, what’s real? A question which goes far, far beyond the scope of this entry. All of this blog, even all of philosophy could be interpreted as an attempt at answering that question. My first hypothesis: Beauty is the measure of reality. My second: reality is that which is of God (not so quick to judge, you don’t know what I mean by the G word, or the B word earlier, for that matter).
I asked myself “What is a friend?” and was startled by the implications of the answer I gave. A friend is someone who shows that (s)he loves you (trusts you, respects you, whatever your personal criteria is).
Saying “I love you” or “you’re my friend” is easy and thus mostly unimportant. Those words are symbols for something that’s already been proven through hard-won experience and growth together. False friends are easy to pick out because they give up on the friendship at the first sign of difficulty, showing they care much more about their own comfort than the possibilities waiting behind tough circumstances.
An honest friendship will never allow temporary circumstances to interfere with it, because the bond of friendship exists outside of time, shining light on the hidden forces encircling us all and teaching us about ourselves, about life, about one another.
In order to live a rich life in the company of those whose love you share, cast aside fear and embarrassment, be true to yourself and good to those with whom you would share the path through this life. Every courageous action begets an infinity more, and every friendship echoes in eternity.
“Who can be a failure in so many ways, instead of getting fired we’ll give ourselves a raise… the government can!”
Causality is a tricky thing. Understanding why an event happens after the fact can be difficult and even impossible, given the complexity of reality, and given that any small contingency can have a massive effect upon the whole (the Butterfly Effect). This is why government solutions mostly fail: because problems are addressed without being understood. The government’s proper role is not to solve everyone’s problems, it’s to execute the general interest (e.g. military defense). When it extends itself beyond its proper bounds it balloons and then collapses, the way a star might burn brightest just as its fuel runs out and it burns out for good.
No revolution will be necessary to bring down this government. What’s scary is the question of who will be in a position to step into its shoes once the collapse happens.
One cannot accept the comforts and easy answers of the modern world and at the same time reject its vacuous meaninglessness and hopelessness. A consistent rejection of all dead ends. Time to rebel, and to do it alone, and to follow it through.
