“The word ‘politics’ is derived from the word ‘poly’ meaning ‘many’, and the word ‘ticks’ meaning ‘blood sucking parasites’.”
— Larry Hardiman
So I’ve talked a bit about religion and a bit about sex so let’s finish the trilogy of things we aren’t supposed to talk about with politics. Where sex is about the physical relationships between two (or sometimes more) people on an intimate level and religion is about the spiritual relationship between us and the universe, one of the definitions of politics according to Merriam-Webster is ” the total complex of relations between people living in society”. In other words all these beings are here with me, how are we going to deal with each other? Everybody has different ideas on how to answer this question and everybody is sure they are right and equally sure everyone else is wrong. We elect the people whose answers we are convinced are the closest to ours to govern us and then deride them when we find out that they lied. We have office politics, relationship politics, family politics and even personal politics. Believe me quite often the decision to not tear someone apart either verbally or physically is based totally on political considerations.
If something is this important than why shouldn’t people discuss it in polite conversation? Partly as with sex and religion, it involves the fear of the different. If someone has a different idea about how to relate to people than I do than his might be better and I might have to rethink things. I would show myself to be wrong in front of other people and be embarrassed. To avoid this, I either need to not talk about it or be able to make my opponent look bad. This normally ends up with someone feeling bad or foolish and again it comes from fear.
Why can’t people admit that when it comes to Sex, Politics and Religion, no one has the perfect way of doing things? We can all learn from each other and come up with an integrated approach that incorporates all views. Barring that we can stick to our guns and say “Maybe this doesn’t work for everyone but it works for us. Learn from us or leave us alone.” Yet it seems we can’t be left alone. Too many people need to impose their views on everyone in order to feel that their way is the right way. In S P & R fear makes us either Tyrants, Slaves or Isolated. Following our own paths and decisions, learning from others as we choose makes us happy. This might not be politically correct to say, but for me it feels like a truth.
Blessings, G
Click on images to see full-sized:
Forest Queen by G A Rosenberg
Distortions by G A Rosenberg
