Politics is a nasty business. By design, it pits opposing ideologies against each other in a duel to claim political power over their opponents. Morally, it might just be the most repugnant way to organize society.
Think about it for a second. A simple majority by using a tool called government can destroy the lives, freedoms, and property of millions of people who don’t think like them.
Can that ever be moral, virtuous, or humble?
Sadly, we seem to be trapped by our own inability to think our way out of this mess. By default, we seem to revert back to elections, candidates and inevitably the same old thing, only with different faces. And we’ve been doing it here in the U.S. for 234 and in western civilization for around 373 years since the Westphalia Treaty and the rise of the nation-state.
Why?
I think there are a couple of reasons that I want to discuss here in this article.
Most politically active people lack humility and the ability to admit they are wrong. Humility is a virtue, and not a inherent one; We all must learn to be humble. Sadly, this is not the case with most engaged in politics, so they tend to stay in their own little self-affirming communities where confirmation bias reigns and everyone agrees. The dissenter is seen with suspicion. And should the dissenter challenge the accepted group-narrative, they are rarely greeted with humility, but rather, indignation. For instance, challenge the common narrative that the Constitution is not the greatest document of all time, and rarely is the assault greeted with curiosity, but rather, it is greeted with indignation! “How dare you question the Constitution! “ FACTS be damned!
Most politically active people simply are lazy thinkers. Rigorous thinking is exchanged for the group think. When confronted with facts which might demand some research, in the conservative arena they might tune into Mark Levin for his take on the facts (as if there is a "take” on facts!). And as long as Levin doesn’t discuss it, then it doesn’t matter. For instance, when I routinely ask conservatives and politically active Christians who revere the Constitution to name the four delegates to the convention who left in protest, they never can. To the critical thinker, this should open up lines of inquiry and then perhaps a rethinking of their devotion to the document they revere. Sadly, my experience is not great in this regard as many will say: “Okay, I didn’t know that - so what! The Constitution is still the greatest document of all time and should be revered!” Well, not according to the four delegates who left in protest!
They are emotional thinkers which does them in because they suspend logic in exchange for believing. This is especially true of people within the Christian community who are very vulnerable to stories. As a Christian myself, our Bible is filled marvelous stories of God’s dealings with Israel and the like. We read of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus and hear stories of the origins of our church. Sadly, emotional thinkers have a hard time distinguishing stories from actual events, and politically active people love to believe stories about our founding that might be less than accurate, or that cite only ONE-SIDE of the story. For instance, have you ever wondered why all eight of the delegates from Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 were actually from Philadelphia? How about the rest of the state? Did their views not matter? Apparently not! And did you ever wonder why of the eight delegates from Philadelphia, five were connected to banking in some way? Almost all of you will not even know these historical facts because you have only been told one half of a story which sounded so good, and which tapped into your emotions, that you discarded even thinking about how much of it was true or fully accurate.
There are many others I could have listed, but all I’d ask is for you to digest this post and ask yourself if you see yourself in any of the three I listed above. And if you fit any of those descriptions, like I once did, can you be humble enough to admit it and improve your thinking skills? At this dark hour, your family and communities need you to be humble, admit you’re wrong on this nasty form of government we have, and then consider ways to end the reign of this nasty form of government.
Excellent article!