“What you tell yourself matters” -Anonymous
“To be human is to engage in politics…it’s in everything, language and actions from the ideal to the habitual, from the empassioned to the monotonous” -Me
“Just because you don’t take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.” -Pericles
The term “united” in the name of the self-titled “greatest nation of all time” is purely a reference to the governmental structure: the various states commitment to the greater system through a federal/national superstructure. It is a completely meaningless term with regard to the people. Although the people give the government its power through their submission or compliance (and during good times, their worship), the people need not be united in their existential meaning or purpose. They are in no way supposed to be tied through their personal identities either, nor are they. In reality, the people who are subjects or citizens of the nation have never been anywhere close to substantially uniform ideologically. Instead, they are born into a system presumed valid.
Unity? What is unity in a world where nobody wants to discuss politics…treating it as though its noisy interference to the soul. The absurdity of avoiding having to engage in a dialogue about issues that affect us all is displayed by American’s who fear experiencing sadness, grief, emotional pain, anger, anxiety, tension, is illustrative of their lack of depth and intellect. When political topics render life so miserable for a people that it is not worth living or utter demoralizing, will they speak up then?
There is something utterly wrong with having to share a government, a currency, a highly entangled social system, with people utterly opposed to ideals for which I stand and simultaneously opposed to learning about them? Would it matter if those ideals were things they might consider great if they truly understood them? How, then, does anyone even know what anyone else thinks? Are we not supposed to help each other grow and see the prism of philosophical angles to the point of acknowledging our inferiority to something, to everything? Does having to engage in a dialogue about issues that affect us all render life so miserable that it is not worth living for some people? Yeah, I know its not a good time…it’s never a good time.
Meanwhile, doesn’t the media and political system maintain themselves by polarizing the nation who give them authority? We can say with absolute certainty that any time the government appears to be losing its power over or spotlight from the citizens, a crises rises and the nation nears some catastrophe or another, accompanied by, hmm, let me guess (1) abortion in the supreme court, (2) a race case where police abused a minority person, or (3) concern over high interest rates or the national debt. How much longer are the same recurring themes going to dominate our political discussion? Is everyone actually this stupid that they think those are the only issues that affect their lives and they have such pressing significance?
The mental place that Americans go to when the word “politics” gets mentions is ridiculous and underdeveloped. Politics is everywhere, in everything, and its fair and reasonable that people learn to view it as a civic duty to be knowledgeable in ways to communicate reasonably with others on topics we have literally left for people unknown to us to decide for us thousands of miles away from us and using our money to do it.
Anyone who uses the phrase “never discuss politics or religion” is someone trying to “get an edge” in the world. Through my entire earthly existence, all Americans I’ve come into contact with seem this way. They all desire for earthly things…wealth, careers, their love lives, pets, lots of clothing and living spaces with carpeting and marble tiles, appliances, and America’s favorite toy—automobiles. But none of them seem to want to discuss how to make our world a different and better place, socio-politically. Interestingly, the most powerful culture-shaping city in America’s history, New York, was replete with people doing precisely that. I don’t know about in modern times, but in its diversely immigrant past, I’m certain of it. They absolutely had to engage with one another to manufacture a social reality they could call tolerable or home.
Are not every one of the individuals in this “nation” citizens of the same government? Why does it seem reasonable to avoid discussing political issues with fellow citizens? It is the citizens that give the government credibility. It is the people that ultimately decide whether to adopt any system. It is the people who decide whether or not they will be citizens. In modern america, the overwhelming majority of people are simply indoctrinated into it, with little understanding of its true propriety, at least from a true historic and existential level. Sure, they know the history of the formation of the nation as it is written, but few people consider the depth of the full narrative of the many people’s and their experiences based on their varying ontological makeups. Plainly, they are conditioned, non-autonomous drones in their adoration for the principles upon which they proclaim their belief. “DEMOCRACY” they proclaim, without having ever heard of Pericles. They take photographs of themselves in front of large marble buildings without knowing the original forum atop the acropolis.
Aside from this, few people really understand what democracy even means, nor do they have a clue how voting works and doesn’t work in this land. They don’t understand that America is actually a republic, whereby people vote for representatives…who oftentimes they have no real idea of their personal agenda nor how influential they may or may not be when getting to washington. In fact, the constant “changing of the guard” as the american system promotes so strongly arguably does more harm than good for the nation as a whole. Politicians learn from their failures, understand the country, the methods, get into a groove, a routine, form a relationship with the people, build their character, and their gone before we know it. The worst politicians are the ones who are there forever because they jockey around the electorate system and find various roles…”lifelong / career politicians” who aren’t even real people from their constituency at all. They can be great people who effectuate greatness, but I’m pretty sure its rare as their focus has to be on staying clean and staying in position.
In reality, its all madness. That is what we adopted. Actually, its not what we adopted. Its what was adopted by a group of people a long time ago, from a very different world. Its what we are born into. Which brings to my horrible attempt at explaining a basic truth about the second amendment. It is principally for purposes of enabling a people’s rebellion in the face of a failing government, whether from oppression or any other form. “Tyranny” is the word used in the Declaration of Independence describing the kings of england, George III at the time. The long history of parliamentary fueds with the monarchy and its relationship to the papacy is the foundation of American freedom. Enlightenment thinking brought about more rational ways of views of society and the human being as well. An intelligently designed democratic republic with a union of independent states was the Government du jour in the summer of 1787. Only idiots cannot understand the wording and purpose of the right to bear arms as undoubtedly connected to the declaration of independence whereby they declared it the duty of the people to overthrow a government that has failed, not merely once or twice, not merely minor grievances, but repeated, significant, obvious abuses. The debate on guns rights it utterly stupid and endless without people understanding the context and purpose of its creation. Whats the damn difference what the “founding fathers” would say…they aren’t here and they wrote some paper in a totally different world.
Why don’t we establish the order of all of our lives based a recipe for lobster bisque from someone’s grandmother, as long as we can prove this grandmother got her bay leaves from genuine natives and was taught how to make it within 100 miles of the coast of what is now Maine? That is literally how fucking stupid this world is when it comes to interpretation of the Constitution and the absolute fucking failure of total morons like lawyers to realize the madness of using a nearly two and a half century old document to form our completely modern society out of. I mean, if you want to stick with tradition, fine, but that tradition is the stupidest fucking thing and will inevitably lead to further madness and chaos and quite possibly the downfall of us all.
Only through truly understanding the morphing and evolution of human systems, understanding linguistics, power struggles, impacts of technology, changing cultural attitudes towards various things in life, pre-conceived notions of justice, of culture, nobody can truly understand what america really is, nor what it ought to be.
Humanity is moving at a mile a minute, continually pushing forward into the future, working and striving to build upon the technological and political foundations that are already established. Historically, they did this until they failed and fell, and the systems were perennial. For the first time in all history, humanity has the potential to complete interconnect (through economics, telecom, and intricate international politics) the entirety of the human species across the globe. One of the problems is the web of problems that will ultimately get passed around like symptoms in a body being attacked by a virus…but more importantly, if we take just a brief moment to examine the past (which nobody ever seems to do) to fully appreciate what was and mark its loss for eternity. It is very difficult for a person peering into history to win a verbal, in sync with time, debate with someone who’s focused on an objective into the future. Perhaps this is part of the human condition, the experience of mind’s and their connection with time, the grand design of our ontology and the source of our wisdom seeping from our hearts up and out of mouths through the thoughts in our heads. Metaphysics of the body aside, I have to stress the severity of this issue.
Why opt to let these decisions be made with absolute discretion by the political system and not the minds and analysis of the people? This question, I ask, with particular scrutiny toward how society utilizes rationale and science to do so many other things that affect their lives far more than the mere so-called political issues that are invariably never resolved to their entirety by the political system they promote (and that subdues them) in such a manner to make it appear that they actually utilize these concepts as a means of self-perpetuation.
In other words, the government is a sham, these abortion issues and voting things are just a hoax, a reality manipulation that gives them a never-ending stranglehold on the minds of millions of people. Who or what entity, then, is really behind it all? Was it not Stephen Hawking who once said that the most important thing people could do is to “keep talking”? Was Mr. Hawking not, without much debate, significantly more intelligent of a human being than most political leaders in human history?
I mean, really…how versatile in their knowledge bases are most politicians? We know they are often incredible at playing their games: that they know how the political system is structured and where the cracks are. We also know they know how to suck the masses attention in whenever they want. But my question is, do they deserve to be considered real? Couldn’t someone who is more brilliant come along with a new host of ideas that helps modern America transition to a much better more civil and fair society and set of laws and regulatory systems based on how we really are and how we really live…today? Based on how we might dream of living in the future with how we currently understand our world? We owe it to ourselves, to our future as a nation, to humanity, and to the mystery of all things that is greater than us all.
IN SUMMATION, I must apologize if your mind or thoughts feel twisted, or if you’ve experienced fear. Perhaps some ideas are confusing, maybe enlightening. Perhaps you agree with some points, and disagree with others. Whatever you are feeling, I’d like to explain who I am…or who I am becoming, intently. I want people to see past American politics. The narratives can act like black holes that suck in our consciences and convince us of false dichotomies as well as other falsehoods or half-truths. Specifically, I want everyone to be able to understand and be able to cope with immense political change. I don’t like to see people suffer, mentally, physically, socially, environmentally, or otherwise. If some things seem subversive, its cause I have to to combat some repeated narratives that are a major part of how the government maintains its power…its power over enough of us that they can control all of us. Voting is arguably indoctrination…as getting the people to vote for one of two people they select is a bunch of madness anyways.
The nation cannot last forever as it currently sits. We need to address certain new modern middle ground mores, keeping plenty of the traditional values and allowing a new generation of Americans to flourish. Unfortunately, our identities in relationship to nationalism are diminished and it is really harming the youth of the nation, all youth from every background. I encourage you all to understand that while things are currently stable, it is the actual best time to consider the future from beyond our own personal lives, and reshape the future of the country…even as a sub-compartment of our speech and mentality. It will work if enough people are willing to try. It’s very macro level thinking, meaningful and somewhat spiritual. But it is also humanitarian and more awesome than the people of the other nations around the world are capable of. The propriety of discussing government structure from the perspective of future adjustments, in fairness, equity, justice, growth as a society and a mega-force for some shared mystical truths is hereby declared.
Rantangent.