Politics, in the day to day, is pointless. Yes, there is no reason to get animated about anything that happens in Congress, or the White House, or anywhere else really, with few exceptions. So little of our day to day lives is influenced by political figures that we see, with the modern political environment being more akin to sports. This is in contrast with politics being an honest conversation about what morals a proper society should enforce. Laws today are not viewed as the codification and enforcement of morality, but as a political tool, with the moral view coming as an afterthought.
What makes politics more pointless in the day to day is that, frankly, most don’t have the proper foundation to make educated decisions about what the proper politics is. If one wants to be legitimately educated in politics, it requires study of the other philosophical categories as well. This is because for someone without a grasp of what it means to be a person, it follows that their prescriptions for society at large would be misplaced. Ultimately, most political discussion today boils down to gossip and constant fear mongering.
This situation is unlikely to change, since there is quite a lot of money keeping people perpetually uneducated and enraged at the other side of the aisle. While there are legitimate grievances that both sides have from the other, most “debate” comes from the use of slurs.
I think it is prudent to not care about the current state of political dialogue, since it is often just rehashing decades old talking points that completely avoid the problems of the present. This is especially the case with most, if not all, news coverage. Most news that we interact with has been slanted in such a way to cause the biggest emotional reaction.
In my opinion, this has had a direct impact in how our political culture has manifested. By having news become a place for individuals to become angry, and more importantly alienate the other side, extreme political positions become increasingly attractive as a “solution.”
This makes politics a pointless endeavor. There are no ‘politically engaged’ people to be swayed to a different worldview, since the well of information has been poisoned.
I think the only way that we could have a chance of returning to a healthier political life is to unplug ourselves from the national and global ‘political’ dialogue. Instead, we should strictly focus on what is within our particular locus of control. Local politics is perhaps the only place we can have a meaningful impact.
With that being said, I think that even the foray into local politics still requires the same understandings that are required for the national level, so a passing knowledge of the foundations will lead to you being more influential, as well as having the proper prescriptions for your community.
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