HEADS UP

At some point this past summer I instituted a self-imposed news blackout.  I was experiencing some awareness fatigue and knew I wouldn’t have the option of tuning out once school began so I decided not to watch the news or keep up with current events for two weeks.  What I found after those 14 days was that my head was very comfortable in the sand and my appetite for world events was lost on an uneasy stomach. 

If you haven’t noticed, I’m quite interested in politics.  Or, at least I was.  It has always frustrated me before when people said they don’t like politics and don’t keep up with what’s going on in the world.  I understand differing interests and priorities but could never accept people that didn’t seem to have a clue about things that affected their lives.  “Politics does you,” was my standard response to anyone that told me they didn’t do politics.  What has surprised me recently has not been any one story but my pattern of indifference to all of it.  Numb, I for the first time understand the aversion to politics. 

I’m sure there’s a term for this psychological phenomena but when you look at something too closely and ponder it too much you begin to hate the very acts of observance and review.  Couple that with an inclination to over emphasize the negative and you serve yourself a mind-deadening cocktail of retreat.  Soon after I discovered a parent’s crusade to purge libraries of “offensive” materials, and responded in kind, the world seemed in a state of too much orthodoxy to want to comment on it.  It seemed for a while that America was caught up in such a revival of religious frenzy and nationalist conformity that I saw no purpose in arguing an alternative.  “God and Country” was the battle cry and any questioning of the accompanying agenda was overrun by the hordes that marched behind it.   

I’ve often asked people what they mean when they say they don’t like politics.  What I find is that there are as many different definitions for the term ‘politics’ as there are reasons for wrinkling one’s nose at its mention.  Some people mean they don’t like dishonesty and pandering to the lowest common denominator.  Some mean their opinions are too complex and varied to loyally stand with one side or another.  Others see a certain energy gap to hand wringing that is better left to the less rational and less literate.  Seldom do I find that people are just too stupid or don’t care. 

So, finally I have taken an honest moment to question my own disinterest in current events.  What kept me momentarily away from my hobby of critique?  What made the coarse packing of sand around my head feel so very good?  The same answers I’d scoffed at from others became my own.  Politics sucks! 

Two recent events have yanked my head out of its hole and made me want to pay attention and speak up again.  The first is the outcome of that book burning attempt by Laurie Taylor – a concerned parent who just wanted to protect the minds of innocent children.  Her real agenda, as exposed by a who’s-who list of rightwing poli-religious groups – was to stack libraries full of books by the likes of James Dobson (a one-man nausea machine when it comes to politics) while removing books that produced a dissenting view to his heterosexist agenda. 

Apparently people in Fayetteville Arkansas did not take kindly to book banning.  In town hall and school board meetings to follow, a ratio of five to one came out and publicly flogged Ms. Taylor for her censorship and anti-pluralist efforts.  What seemed to be a saturation of religious tinged fascism was really just a small but very vocal minority that was shouted down by the general public upon the agenda’s unmasking.  Not only did the school board reject the censorship brigade’s efforts to stigmatize or remove dozens of targeted books, they rescinded previous capitulations and put other books back on the shelves. 

The second event that has caught my attention is, of course, hurricane Katrina.  What has troubled me almost as much as the obvious death and destruction is the response to the hurricane.  No, not the slow moving aid, I’m troubled by the use of a disaster to score political points by every group out there.   That same list of crazies wasted no time all over the web linking natural disasters to their favorite boogie men like liberals and abortionists.  However, selectively critical lefties took advantage of "Bush's bungle" while conveniently ignoring the sins of a Democratic governor and mayor.  Not sick enough?  The ever opportunistic, leftwing People for the American Way took advantage of Katrina to oppose school vouchers while rightwing polinista Robert Knight linked Katrina to gay marriage in California.  Much needs examination and correction but serious discussion easily gets lost in the zero-sum blame game “culture war” that understandably leaves some with a bitter view of that awful term, “politics.” 

But just like town folk rising up to quell brown shirts removing books, the dissent that makes America great has come out at a national level over disaster preparedness.  Katrina wasn’t the first thing Bush screwed up.  We have no idea where Osama is, Iraq is a mess, the Patriot Act has skewered civil liberties, there were no weapons of mass destruction, and we can’t fight wars abroad and handle domestic crises when we hand out corporate welfare and tax cuts to the rich like they’re candy.  The difference now is that reaction to Katrina forces responsibility for faults in a way previous mishandlings have not.  We got our spines back.   

Since 911 the press has been easy on Bush and failed to hold him accountable or even question his response to terrorism.  The press backed off two Rove scandals and I’ve never seen an interview yet that makes someone squirm about the imaginary weapons of mass destruction.  But, oh my goodness, the press has been vicious about Katrina.  When Rummy, Condi and co. blundered and botched Iraq they were given praise and promotions.  Why?  Because the media and, to a greater extent, the public let them.  When it was revealed a horseman crony was heading FEMA, there was a resignation to prevent a lynching.  Something here is very different.   

I am grateful to be reminded that we are not a monolithic country that lets its leaders do whatever they want and refuses to get completely carried away by a new, swift current of religious/nationalist conservatism.  I am one of many who fear trends once thought to be overpowering and don’t feel like objections are useless shouts in the wind anymore. 

If politics means dishonest leaders making bad situations worse and nauseating, deafening opinion battles then I am all for an aversion to it.  I can't stand politics when operatives won't drop their issue de jour for one second and stand in commonality after a human tragedy.  But if politics also includes accountability for those idiots we elect and resistance to any lockstep ideological conformity then I can’t help loving it.  I can only pay attention to this thing called politics if it means more of the good stuff to me.  And, thanks to recent events and some promising poll numbers, finally it does.         

Comments

[dre]

"Some people mean they don’t like dishonesty and pandering to the lowest common denominator. Some mean their opinions are too complex and varied to loyally stand with one side or another. Others see a certain energy gap to hand wringing that is better left to the less rational and less literate. Seldom do I find that people are just too stupid or don’t care."

I feel all three of these things.
-dre

[David Ely]

Politics is depressing to follow. There's no end and rarely true victors. If you follow sports, someone's gonna win, and usually because they were better. In politics, a certain thing might take 10 years to conclude, and someone might end up the winner because they bribed more people than the other side, and they might never be punished for it.