eThoughts : Politics

It’s time for another election in California, and a time of being pushed and pulled at. Yes, I’m glad I live in a society where having a voice can count. But I also wonder about how that voice is formed. Do we know what the issues really are or do we know what someone or some group has presented to us? It is one thing to make decisions based on an unbiased and complete presentation of the facts, but it is a bit dizzying to try and make decisions in the midst of so much political spin.

And it’s not just elections, it is politics at work. And the politics of personal relationships. And so on. Politics—the art of influence.

Ugh! I’m tired of it. When our agenda is influence, our agenda is sales. In my tiredness, I think we’ve lost our way.

I’ll vote, but however the election goes, influence will remain as a compass heading. And I think that compass heading makes for a lousy mission statement. We might want to install another heading and let the art of influence—politics—leave the podium and go back to its seat where it belongs—as a contributor, but not as headmaster.

Present the facts, the arguments, the logic, the reasons. Make the predictions. That’s not about influence, it’s about discussion. The agenda should not be getting others to buy what we’re selling, the agenda should be to become aware of the distinctions, the nuances, and the contrasts of a given issue. Instead we get the subtle and not-so-subtle idea that there’s good guys and bad guys and we don’t want to align ourselves with the bad. Pack your bags, you’re going on a guilt trip.

In the meantime, maybe selling and influence-peddling wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have such an investment in the influence-equals-self worth template. Then we’ll feel okay if someone didn’t buy what we’re selling. We could make our best pitch and let it be what it will.

Okay, I’m tired and I’ll vote and I’ll go to more meetings and I’ll ask questions about policies and I’ll still get out and find and question human connections. But my affiliations are not with gangs, they’re with the interaction of ideas and realities. I’m not always so good at it, sometimes becoming kind of testy about pressure or being ignored. During those times I have to remind myself about my own dictum that we don’t have to have the same ideas or be on the same page to cultivate a sense of belonging or a sense of self-esteem. So for right now, it’s kind of rocky ground to be growing things, but it seems to be the basic reality of it at the moment.