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I guess most of us have some political interests. I do, too. Be Involved!Power exists in the sheer numbers of people. Like energy, it cannot be created or destroyed. Better systems seek to divide that power down into the hands closest to those affected, where possible. And if you don't get control of your piece of it, others will take it and use it for their own purposes. The power doesn't just vaporize into thin air, so if you don't do your part to manage political power yourself, you'll probably get what you deserve -- powerful people who will ignore your interests and watch out for their own. The price of a healthy government is individual vigilance and involvement by each of us. When we fail to find the time to get involved and to stir things up, others find a way to use our names for their own purposes. What makes our system healthier is when each of us finds a little time to push and cajole our government. It's not that much to do, given that many of us spend the first five or six months of each year making money that only goes to one of the governing agencies around us -- you'll hardly notice one more lost week when you get in there and try to influence what happens to all that money you gave up in the first six months. Heck, it's only common sense that you see what's happening to your money, firsthand, and have a little effect on how it gets used! I've a little rule I've learned to apply, when making charitable contributions. I only contribute to those groups I also spend time as a volunteer. That way, I get to see how my money is used and get to be a small part of helping stretch its impact. There is no better way, I think, to be really sure that your money isn't being squandered. The same should be true for your government. The only difference being that we are all forced to contribute to our governance, with the threat of jail (or worse, should we dare to resist or fail to completely cooperate with our arrest.) But no matter. Since we have to contribute our money, we should darned well contribute our time and personally oversee what's going on. There's a phrase I remember from a movie, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, that runs: "...for all the good or evil, creation or destruction, your living might have accomplished, you might just as well never have lived at all." Don't let that be your epithet. Get in there and kick some butt. Shake some people up. And don't worry about not being an expert... How do you imagine the experts became experts? -- by getting involved. So just do it and don't let anyone tell you to mind your own business. This IS your business. Think!Be wary of catch phrases and -isms. Anyone ascribing to an -ism or pushing an -ism, whether it is communism or capitalism or conservatism or any other -ism, is just accepting (or giving away their acceptance of) the authority of those who control the meaning of those -isms without having to discuss the exhausting details as they apply in real situations, on the ground, in your life. A healthy and functioning civic reality is far, far too complex to be held to some -ism or other. Everything is in the details. Blindly applying general abstractions to specific situations is just asking for trouble. Catch phrases like "free trade," for example, need to be examined closely. There is no useful free trade without substantial civil freedoms -- without that, free trade is just a myth. So keep your eye on the things that count and don't let yourself get distracted to look at those things which don't. Get the details. Think about them. Being meticulous and obstinate is all the more important when phrases you are fed include special words that sound positive, such as free, freedom, strong, strength, economic recovery, and so on, but don't really say anything definite. It's like showing you a pleasant time at McDonald's restaurant, all the smiling faces and bright colors, without telling you the details about the food they are eating and what it does to their bodies. You get a nice, attractive image and absolutely no details about what is being sold to you. So don't let it work on you. Hold them to the fire. Ask the questions, look deep, and spend some time thinking for yourself about what was said and what wasn't said. Politicians will tell you, "I feel strongly about that issue!" But what does that tell you? Nothing at all. It's a rhetorical vacuum. Ignore them as soon as you hear them. Use such attempts to curry your favor as a spur for you to look deeper and see what they really mean. Look at actions, not words. What you should want to hear are the exact details for which they want to work and apply themselves. Yes, it's a pain to ferret out the details, to think about them and consider and weigh them. Yes, it eats up your time and perhaps even your emotions. But if you don't do your diligence and others don't do theirs either, what are all of us together left with? Just accepting the words of this authority or that authority, arguing with each other about "who's right" and "who's wrong" without really having a clue ourselves. And you might as well not exist as a functioning political mind, if that's all you're going to do. Might as well sign away your vote right now and just forget about it. Improve our democracy. Make it work better. Take the time to think and participate!
Feel free to email me. Last updated: Friday, June 24, 2005 14:26 |