I'm having a politcal, existential crisis. I read Janeo's very recent post : (
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/17/9612/33440) and can sympathize with her feelings of frustration. So, here's my rant.
Flip
I have a blog called Diets Are Evil (
http://www.dietsareevil@blog-city.com), one of the "Indy 500" (woo hoo!), where I write about my history with dieting and eating disorders. Sometimes I write about political stuff and today, I got thinking how addiciton and politics are related for me. Here is my post:
Actually, I was thinking about how politics plays into our sick culture, a culture that breeds addicition and warped thinking that leads to things like eating disorders, alcohol and drug abuse, and obsessiveness in general. I'm often torn when I think about the whole political landscape of my country. There's the old saying: "If you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention." I agree that we need to be aware and get angry when there is injustice, dishonesty, murder, greed, etc... happening within our government. Getting pissed off about this is right. We need to call the people who are doing evil things on those actions and do what we can to make things right. We've certainly had plenty to be pissed off with the current adminstration in place. We should continue to fight the staggeringly horrific things that they have done. I know I could do more, but I do what I can.
On the other hand, I can't help but feel sometimes that I'm just a pawn in an enormous, freakish game. We all know that playing on people's emotions works from a marketing perspective. Politicians are masters at it and it is a primary strategy for getting elected and re-elected. There is so much theater in politics. So much of it is a game, and we personalize it. Many people are shocked when they hear certain politicians saying how great their friendships are with those on the other side. It's like we can't believe that a Republican and a Democrat can even STAND to be in the same room with each other, much less be friends with each other. But these people are business colleagues--nothing more. They work with each other every day. So, do we just project our feelings of contempt onto their relationships? Do politicans create this charade of hate among each other so that we will get fired up and vote for them? I know I'm rambling here, but I can't help feel sometimes that all of the hate that the right and the left spout against each other is created and perpetuated but those whom we elect into office. It's like a huge football game. We vote for our home team, and villify the opposer. We like to identify with a party, our "home team," so that we can achieve a sense of belonging with a group (which we are supposed to crave, no?) and have something to fight for, some sort of entertainment on a grand scale, to give us the impression that we belong and that we are part of the culture. And who doesn't like a good game? It's so much fun to cheer on your team, and so heartbreaking when your team loses. We need to feel SOMETHING at some point in our lives. And sports cause us to feel something when our feelings towards all of the other things we experience in life are dulled. It's clear how addicition can play into this situation (food, alcohol, drugs, etc...)
Unfortunately, billions of people's lives are at stake in this game. The two sides argue over the war in Iraq: the fact that people had such strong feelings before and against it made it happen. I blame GW for creating this sense of division and I think he did it on purpose. If he hadn't made so many people angry about the war, then he would not have had the rabid support on the right to counter it. I think he purposely sought to divide us on this war. I think he purposely seeks to divide this country on every issue, knowing that if he pisses enough people off, his zealous supporters will counter them and give him the "capital" to do his bidding. That's why I think he is particularly evil: he achieves what he sets out to achieve by division, fear, and hate. How can such a person claim to have been given some sort of divine calling to be President if his whole Presidency, his whole life, is built on division, fear and hate?
So, the other half of me just wants to go on living, in ignorance of what is going on, because I do not want to play into the hands of such an evil game. I want to reject the idea the I "belong" to one side of this game and that I am one of those people getting pissed off, just to face off with someone in whom my anger causes an equal amount of hate on the other side. There are some days when I just want to say "fuck it" and purposely not get angry with anything that is happening in this country because that anger is just fueling this game. But I can't feel that way for long, because then I just get angry again. It's a losing game, though, and it's unhealthy. Unhealthy for me, unhealthy for the people who I get excited about politics with, unhealthy for our culture, unhealthy for our world. But I don't see any solution. I feel I have no choice but to play the game.
Well, I'm sure these thoughts are not novel ones, and I'm sure they've already been expressed before here on Daily Kos, but for what it's worth...