Back in the early months of 2009 I had what seemed to be a eureka moment following a several year progressive slide when one day, while reading posts by some longstanding friends on social media my mind said, “Whoah…whoah…like…really??”
By the election of 2012 I found myself fully entrenched in what I thought was the opposite end of the political spectrum. After voting identically in seven four-year presidential elections cycles since turning 18, one might say I had jumped ship.
A dear friend of mine I’ve known over forty years told me in recent years that they were reading my posts around that time and kinda thought I was losing my mind (paraphrase). But eventually, they too, jumped ship as well and then it made sense to them.
Now, I find myself currently and ironically, in somewhat of the same situation with this very dear friend and others, as I seem to be once again a pendulum of sorts – swinging wide, narrow and erratically, perhaps, and saying some thoughts aloud but mostly to myself these days….“Whoah…whoah…like…really??”
Once again I am trying to find reason, balance, agreement and sense-making in what seems to be an ever-increasingly broken political system and discourse, compounded and confounded during the last twelve years by a variety of factors that seem to be mainly stemming from machinations of social media, corporate entities, politcal voices on both sides, biased and/or dishonest news reporting and, sadly, now, significant censorship of free speech.
I find myself wanting to examine things more issue by issue, policy by policy now rather than towing some line of thought. I find myself listening to broader news sources which include those from other countries as well as those generally biased toward both sides of the political spectrum. I have even found myself listening to lengthy speeches from the other side of my seeming position, in full, made on the Senate floor. I find these very valuable in helping me to see the other side of some things.
I now find myself more able to have conversations of agreement over particular issues with people who are seemingly on the other side of the political spectrum.
I also find myself to be having conversations with a few people close to me about potential for facism in the United States as I’m following several current event issues. Indeed, this is a time of watching, woe…and, whoah…
__________
We humans seem to like to have methodical and tribal ways of determining the correctness of something, or whether another is “for us (with us) or against us.” While I really dislike the unholy marriage of politics and religion – still a New Testament reference is coming to mind that it is probably worth mentioning, showing that this mentality has a long history. For those interested in this concept in a religious context, it can be found in Mark 9:38-39
As a Christian, I believe my faith should guide my political views. In whatever views I’ve held in my adult life, they have been because at that time these views or that party (oh baby…do we ever need more parties in the US!) seemed to be the imperfectly best reflection of my personal belief system.
As I’ve gone on in life, recognizing the pitfalls, conflicts and complexities of so many issues, I find that expressing my beliefs that arise from core values while recognizing the very right and essential need for separation of Church and State, and respectful disagreement in discourse and the fact that many things are ever-evolving and no one individual or group will ever achieve the entirety of what they envision and advocate for….is a difficult tightrope to walk.
For example, if I support a woman’s right to choose I will be labeled a “baby killer” by some. And, if I express that I do believe there should be limits put on some issues surrounding abortion law, I will be labeled as being part of a “war on women” by others. My thoughts on this issue are complicated as it pits the rights of one human against another and a number of other factors. I can only affirm that in my worldview, all human life is valuable and precious, at every stage, from conception to old age death.
The bottom line, for me, is that I want to live my Christian faith and life in a way that allows me to advocate for the things that follow the generally acknowledged Golden Rule that also make good and fair public policy, yet stay as far as possible from any form of Christian nationalism or establishing of laws based primarily in any one religious belief or doctrine. Yet, in some ways, an amount of our laws and justice systems simply cannot be easily severed from underpining religious morality and family/societal values. We humans cannot help but be inwardly guided by our own value system and understandings.
I think since the three major faiths of the world – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – have many similar understandings of what it means to be a decent person, that most religious and non-religious people of any sort can probably find ways to work together.
__________
I’ve been listening lately to episodes of The Tokens Show with Lee Camp and find the talks engaging. Today, I listened to one called, Why Liberalism Failed, which I will link at the end.
While a good amount of the content in this episode goes somewhat over my head and is geared to the follower of deeper political science conceptualizations, it was not lost on me that both sides of the political spectrum may in fact be two opposite sides of a single coin.
If I am following just one of the points made, it is that liberalism has failed because it has succeeded – and in that success a sort of pushback is created in the other end of the spectrum that is both a product of that success and undermines it. I would love for anyone who listens to this to let me know if I got that straight!
In other words, it is Newton’s Third Law:
“Formally stated, Newton’s third law is: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The statement means that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. The size of the forces on the first object equals the size of the force on the second object.”
There were at least two phrases that jumped out to me as I listened, the one was regarding “the disencumbered self” and later, mention of the “armored hand beneath the silk glove.” I think these two phrases and the surrounding discussion in this podcast are relevant, given a number of today’s current events.
The third thing that stood out to me near the end was the statement (as I recall, and paraphrased somewhat) that those on seeming opposite ends of the political spectrum probably agree on more that they realize.
I like to believe this is true, and that we can find a way forward.
__________
TOKENS PODCAST: S4E12
“A vast majority of modern political discourse takes place along the party lines of the Right and the Left, two seemingly opposite forces locked in a stalemate on all manner of social and economic issues. But what if there’s a deeper philosophical issue at play? In this episode, University of Notre Dame’s Political Philosopher Patrick Deneen explains why this “division that seemed to define the modern world in fact is really two sides of the same coin…” That is, the philosophy of Liberalism: the taken-for-granted pursuit of a desire-fueled, constraint-free life, which he argues is so ironically successful that it is nearing its failure.” (From Tokens Show with Lee Camp)
Thank You For Reading
Please Feel Free To Express Your Thoughts Below
Thank You For Reading
Please Feel Free To Express Your Thoughts Below
