What "I'm not into Politics" Really Says
Do you actually believe in Democracy?
I have all too many friends, family members and peers for whom American Politics is a sort of hobby which some men are simply “more inclined to”. These people dismiss all political discussions as “not for them” and they call them “unproductive” “divisive” and “cringe.”
For the longest time I couldn’t understand what infuriated me so much by this position of indifference. Am I simply obsessive, have I been gotten by the algorithm, am I just mad they wouldn’t have an argument with me? (The answer is undoubtedly yes). Nonetheless, my improper zeal does not vindicate their indifference.
All throughout history there have been people who held their position, in fact, the majority of great philosophers and theologians held this position. Yes, most great minds throughout history have likewise opposed the idea of democracy. Of course when you confront the politically indifferent with the repercussions of their position they will stutter and stumble over their words-a conscious neglection of duty or an unconscious opposition to the responsibility of democracy are the only options. And while I have great theoretical sympathy (and practical jealousy) for monarchy (see my thoughts on this elsewhere) or medieval feudalism or really anything but democracy—as an American Patriot I am bound by duty to be disgusted by it in my country!
To withdraw from or minimize one’s role in our democratic political process is to not only oppose democracy itself but also to oppose the theological and moral framework which our founders claim insists upon this democratic mechanism of government. Furthermore, to “not care about politics” is to neglect your inherent duty and responsibility as the moral agents democratic citizens necessarily are.
Granted, we are born into this responsibility and may not even want it. To use a stirring image; we turn 18 and find ourselves as Roman governors being handed a Galilean troublemaker with his life in our hands.
Of course, in these trying and disgusting political times we may wish we did not have to vote or fight or care about politics at all–but as an American citizen you have no choice. Or as I once heard:
Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
More and more I understand there is a practical reason our founders left the burden and responsibility of the ballot to only an educated and leisured land owning class. It is actually hard and unending work to be politically educated, but it is our solemn and sacred duty to ensure our liberty by such laborious democratic means.
Nobody is born with a knowledge of foreign affairs, monetary policy, and political theory and only few are born with the requisite desire to learn them (Lucky me I guess). So if you are not so knowledgeable a voter as you know you should be and you do not plan or want to become one you are left with three options:
1. Continue voting unthoughtfully and without taking enough time and study to have opinions outside of propaganda and watch as your country crumbles and succumbs to whoever or whatever can make the best propaganda
2. Relinquish the right to vote to only a select class of the populous who will vote as you ought dedicating their lives and time to appropriate participation
3. Ditch democracy back to the enlightenment and try some other form of government where we don’t have to work so hard for so little
Sadly it is obvious that option 1 is the only likely path. Like so many other things we have taken the “gift” of our inheritance and neglected the responsibility. Such offspring have only to wait and watch as the inheritance dwindles to nothing… or crashes into rubble.
And yet, there was a dream that was America. Of men so free they needed no king, and of men so wise they could vote for themselves, and of men so free they would die opposing anything else— and it was beautiful