I heard it said that the US election this November is going to be the most crucial election of our lifetime. Will it be good that wins or will it be evil?
I told the young lad to place a Google Calendar reminder to tell me in 20 years how he would have been feeling about the election that would have been upcoming in 2040.
My apolitical stance is sometimes criticized as unreasonable. Surely, now is the time when you ought to be politically involved and to fight for the good side. How can a calculated distancing be distinguished from apathy?
Only, I think that each person should first strive to focus on themselves and develop their own character. Consider:
1. The positions of the two major parties on each issue may just as easily have been generated randomly through coin flips. What must the party of compassion say about abortion? What must the party of fairness and justice say about racial bias in policing? Here's the result of a coin flip, now use the theme of your party to justify the position that was handed to you.
2. Your politics is an incidental feature of a number of factors that you did not voluntarily choose yourself: your temperament, your background, the geographical area you live in.
3. Large well-funded organizations are incentivized and are successful at pushing their agenda down other’s throats through news media and talk shows. You would be surprised how little your reasons to fight for particular positions have in common with those up high. Just look at how quickly the hot debate topics are dropped right after the election is over and the results are in, as if those lies you believed and propagated then are not relevant as arguments anymore. From the last election, you can remember the raging videos about Hillary's health becoming a campaign issue, and about how Trump is Hitler.
Ok, so the position on any topic is chosen by your party by a coin flip. Your choice of party is determined by a second coin flip. When they want to sign you up in the name of the greater good, must you believe that this is the most urgent and uplifting cause you can fight for?
I have a friend who is offended by the concept of gender reveal parties and on the other side of the aisle, I have a friend who shudders each time his company talks about unconscious bias training. There are legitimate problems with almost every thing in the world, but must you suffer with such consistency that everyone else in the world seems to be stupid or malicious? Is it possible you could have a more generous view?
Your position might one day fall on the wrong side of history and you would have caused a good deal of damage to the world in your ill-conceived attempt to change it.
Even if your position is finally determined to have been the correct one, collateral damage is not unlikely. Good intentions after all form the pavement on the road to someplace.
What is it that protects you from yourself?
What is it that prevents you from harming the world too much as you attempt to change it?
It is depth of character. Only when I have achieved it, will I consider taking an active position in politics.