Fumbling forward despite ourselves
Despite some hyperbole, this psychiatrist actually talks a lot of sense. It would be nice if we could have a conversation where everyone was talking more sense.
Maybe we're not capable of mature discussion. Maybe sanctimony is all we can ever expect of ourselves. Maybe all politics will ever be is a spectator sport with tragic stakes.
If so, does it really matter what happens on this debate or any debate?
Because, really, what it means is that we gave up on what really matters long before we got what we wanted. And what a sad, unworthy example we set for anyone we would have the hubris to thus compel their will.
What a sad little species we are, much of the time. What a small and petty thing we thus aspire to be.
May we at least fumble forward.
4 comments:
It may sound funny, but I follow politics but don't watch programs like this.
You're onto something with the sanctimony thing.
I like Glenn Beck, but generally everybody on all of these programs are just freighted down with agenda, and I find that tiresome and boring.
I would love to see the public dialog go up one level to approach something Socratic, but I'm dreaming.
It would be too boring, make people think too much, and the networks couldn't make money off of it.
That's exactly how I was feeling when I wrote that, bud. I was having a conversation with someone who I thought just was not registering that his side had quite a bit to do with how much we fuck up our political conversation and how that fucks up our policy choices because we can't have as open and honest a political conversation as we need.
But as you say it, I realize that we've actually opened up an awful lot, as it is. We just need the thoughtfulness and decency of university discussions without all the stiltedness and fear that someone's going to say something stupid or politically incorrect that those conversations carry, too often.
If we could just have thoughtful conversations and let people speak their minds in those conversations - even when what they have to say is kinda dumb or not on target, by our lights - I think people would watch. And, better yet, I think would engage if folks had those kinds of discussions. Including if political leaders had those kinds of discussions. If they didn't have the threat of legislation looming over the heads, which I think has been the problem with these health care town halls. The political folks don't understand that a lot of those folks see the legislation as a threat. And a lot of the folks carrying guns don't recognize that other people inside and outside may see the guns as implicit threats.
Too much threatening in politics and in life, I think.
And it reaps to many consequences.
So people will learn to be more thoughtful in a different format. If we just insisting that they say all the things we say we want them to hear and just let them speak their minds, more. But keep working with folks to be more decent and thoughtful and civil and considerate in those conversations, generally.
Life doesn't have to be some stilted split between the sides of us we're proud of and the sides of ourselves that we're not. Neither does politics. We can learn to be honest about both and participate in a discussion that acknowledges them without pandering to and appeasing our basest impulses. The more honest we are the better we'll get, I think. The more we'll get honest about when we're not being our best selves and be better. Including in our TV viewing, our politics, our conversations with our families, whatever it is that we need to do better.
I'm pretty confident at this point that we could do this as well as we wanted, foutsc. There'll always be people who will hold out. For awhile, at least. Maybe a long while. There may and probably will be people who will hold onto their cynical and bullying ways their whole lives.
But we'll have less of those things the more we get honest about the consquences of our more aggressive ways of handling life and why a more thoughtful and honest route offers us quite a bit more opportunity to do more good in the world.
And that'll play on TV, I think, as much as the History Channel or the Discovery Channel does today. It'll play in politics as well as more thoughtful engagement plays on C-SPAN and in Congressional committees and executive briefings.
We just got to decide what kind of politics and life we want, I think. And we'll get what we choose. That's how life works for everyone, isn't it, foutsc? That's the one thing that's for sure as long as homo sapiens walk that earth, I think.
I don't like how power constantly discourages me on this point. But the senselessness of it makes clear for me how important it is that we account for all of the consequences of our foolishness as honestly as we can.
And I actually think people will be more willing to do that the more we believe in our capacity to have something more honest, foutsc. It's our obsession with power that undermines us and a more honest discussion, as it is, I think, foutsc. I just think we have to set that cynicism aside and have more faith.
That's what Christ's message was, fundamentally, I think, foutsc. I think the whole point of his life was to teach as that at just those moments when we when we feel like we're losing faith in people, if we open up our hearts and find more faith rather than closing them and resigning ourselves to the cynicism and fear, is only in faith that we will find more faith. Looking for faith in cynicism and fear is like looking for a bulldozer in a bait shop. It's just not where you're gonna find it. And, similarly, looking for a world where we can have faith in people in our more aggressive, controlling, suspicious ways is not just where we're gonna find it. Power not only doesn't offer it up. It seriously undermines the development of the thought and engagement and integrity and efforts that will offer more real faith in humanity and one another.
And you have to admit, Jesus' legacy and progress in the direction that he, among others, set out for humanity has lasted a lot longer than the Roman Empire's. And will last a lot longer than the legacies of any of the most popular television shows or pop musicians. In fact, many of them have likely been generally positively influenced by his legacy. And they all have, as a matter of fact, completely independent of whether they would recognize that or not.
The trick for all of us, me especially, I think, is realizing that all of us have been influenced by a lot of sources, great and not so great, and we still come out largely ahead of the game, even when we've followed bad leads and made bad choices, when we've finally learned the lessons. So Brittany Spears may get more attention than the History Channel, at a given point. But, over time, the really important influences do have more real influence, I think, in how we do things. And I think the same would happen with a more thoughtful, compassionate, honest political conversation. Just take time. We'd just need to be patient. But stuff that offers us real value in our lives does win hearts and minds, and probably money, too, in the end.
It's funny, foutsc. But it's my mistakes on this count that have taught me as much if not more than my unfettered faith and understanding. Interesting, huh? Bet there's a lot of people out there in the world, like that. Bet most people are like that, when we're being honest with ourselves and others.
I better finish some work, here, bud. Talk soon.
Ben
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