MY POLITICS?

I came in contact with a very smart and beloved acquaintance recently. He greeted me by saying, "It's really good to see you, but I don't know about your politics lately." My politics? I really never think of myself as having politics. I have always considered having politics on the level of having herpes or lice. You see, I have known enthusiastic politicos (the minions of politicians) in my time. I know that truly having politics leads to a certain kind of functional derangement devoid of practiced ethics.

Not I. This separated me from the in-groups of several pertinent identity movements of my life. My first experience of deeply political minds came with my involvement with the Anti-War Movement of the Vietnam War period. There was a good reason why John Kerry became a star of the latter period of that movement. The in-group politicos of that movement were not pacifists, like myself. They were ideologues of war that could be won for American interests. Vietnam was never that. 

Gay Liberation's in-crowd were also deeply political. Several of Boston's most visible became politicians or part of political retinues with secured government jobs after election cycles. I was once approached by a mayor's office for a political job, I assume it was because I was a director of a gay-lesbian agency. The interview I was subjected to by several true politicos of the gay-lesbian Democrat faction was tantamount to a Stalinist court. It was obvious from the get-go that my invitation to apply had been a favor to some unknown political contributor, but I wasn't a party loyalist. At least they sent me a kind rejection letter. 

I sat on the board of a non-profit which was offering peer support to people with HIV. I was recruited because I was working in an AIDS hospice at the time. Ideology of a political bent was held by all the other board members, it seemed. While I shared aspects of that ideology, I was not faithful to all of it. I maintained my right to skepticism. Asking skeptical questions at the meetings raised some eyebrows. It soon became evident to me that a person with medical knowledge of the epidemic was an impedance to the ideology of the non-profit. Non-profits, like governments, eventually turn from their service agendas to the agenda of their own prosperity. It was a valuable lesson. 

I could go on. I have involved myself in other so-called communities based on some ideology which had somehow replaced the seemingly better goal of getting things done well for the greater good. In my experience, ideology is the weapon of leaders of most groups. In politics, it is a weapon which brings with it the clout of being included or expelled from profitable employment at public expense. 

I have no politics. I am happily neither politician nor politico. In fact, as I grow older, I have no ideology either. I have never donned the formal mantle of the philosopher, despite doing my share of reading within that area of academic pursuit. I have taken note that many philosophers go to their deaths in miserable psychic agony. So, for health reasons, I have abstained from taking philosophy too seriously. I do come from a line of men who tried to become politicos. 

My Irish grandfather was a politico of sorts in the Democrat Party of the Great Depression. His participation in ward politics, based in his deep Roman Catholic concern for the poor of whom he was one, secured him a post as a director of the food relief pantry at city hall. He lasted three months and was fired for cause. The cause was simple: He had distributed the entire annual food budget and supply in three months to needy citizens. He shrugged and laughed as he told the story, "What was I supposed to do when a mother of five came in and I was expected to give her food for two?"

My father was once granted a political post in city hall based on his congenial relations with a new mayor. He took it because he thought it would be a break from his grueling police job in our tough city. He quit after a couple of years. Why? He couldn't stomach the corruption and bureaucratic waste of taxpayer money.

What most people in Western democracies now call politics is a shadow play in social media and mainstream media. It is like professional sports. Our team vs. their team. This is why nothing significant is done for the people by politicians, who have simply become entertainers, like professional team athletes.  The work of not getting anything done is blatantly displayed in legislative bodies. The equivalent of food fights are waged for public amusement. Ideologies are false flags, motivated in fact by securing tenured jobs for politicians, the true believers. 

When I write about migration, taxes, overpopulation or climate change, I am not casting political ideologies about those issues at all. I am writing about what I see, or I am thinking out loud about what seems the right thing to do from a larger social/ethical perspective. That is not politics. That is thoughtful opinion about practical solutions, not the hot air of political ideology. Government with any relation to a populace must endure a political class. It is the responsibility of the represented to prevent the representatives from being corrupt parasites. The current situation in most countries of The West exemplifies what happens when electorates walk away from their responsibility.