"A furious Party Spirit, when it rages in its full Violence, exerts itself in Civil War and Blood-shed; and when it is under its greatest Restraints naturally breaks out in Falshood, Detraction, Calumny, and a partial Administration of Justice. In a word, It fills a Nation with Spleen and Rancour, and extinguishes all the Seeds of Good-nature, Compassion, and Humanity."
-Joseph Addison, Spectator No. 125
My grandmother, a woman wise beyond her (considerable) years, once told me the story of the first time she registered to vote in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Mamie seemed to me a pretty staunch Republican, and loves that Sean Hannity almost as much as her favorite, most intelligent grandchild (cough cough), and so I was roundly surprised when she told me she registered as an independent. The more surprising part, however, was that, according to county clerk's office, she was the first and only person who'd attempted to do so, and they couldn't quite understand why she couldn't pick a side.
I pride myself (rather haughtily) on my general indifference to the tomfoolery of politics, but sometimes you read or hear something and it just smacks of the plain old truth (with the kind of weight only a meaty, ink-stained, 18th Century palm can deliver), even after 300 years. Now, I've definitely been listening to too much Joe Rogan Experience--that guy's got me hating the Man (and believing in Bigfoot) everywhere I turn. As if that weren't bad enough, my brother's turned me on to Bill Burr and his weekly podcast, and that guy never runs out of topics on which to call bullshit. It's exhausting just listening to him rant about one thing or another, but at this point I'd rather listen to comedians rant and rave about solar roads or Egyptology or Testosterone Replacement Therapy than watch the news. One gets me laughing, and also thinking critically about the craziness that is our culture; the other just gets me depressed about it.
What's my point? Well I haven't really made one, but lets try it. When your a kid, you feel enormous social pressures to pick sides, whether it be for in-class debates or kickball teams, and politics is no different. Whether they're aware of it or not (and, most likely, they are), parents influence their kids heavily when it comes to choosing a political side, and too often kids and young adults approach that choice thinking it's irreversible, a family inheritance they can either accept or reject, but no take-backsies. Like they're choosing between the Light and Dark sides of the Force, and anyone who chooses other team is more despicable than a sleep-deprived, grey-fleshed Darth Sidious. You're a Republican or a Democrat. You watch Fox News or MSNBC (and either way you disparage CNN). But that all seems rather restricting, and inhumane. Doesn't it? Shouldn't we always reserve the right to make our own choices, and to change our minds when we realize no choice is perfect?
The Two-Party system is now synonymous with Democracy in America, but maybe we've taken it too far. As a country we're letting it get to us; we're all too ready to badmouth the other side, too willing to gloss over the splinters in our own eye. And it's not necessarily an issue with the system itself: people naturally align with others of a like mind, no matter the topic. I think it's a mentality problem. In my shamelessly pretentious quote of the week, Addison says it best. When we draw these uncross-able lines in the sand, we cannot help but begin to view those on the other side as something essentially opposed to our well-being, as something to be overcome, surmounted, defeated. It bereaves them of their humanity, and ourselves of our empathy. That's not progress, and it's not democracy; it's Civil War, and I find it strange that so many are will to treat it as such: a fight to the death, Thunder Dome-style.
Aight, rant over. I'll part with this thought: if there's one thing I've learned from Game of Thrones, which I've come to regard as the great, cultural allegory of our time--the Gospel by George--it's that the world is never so black and white as Right or Left. You may hate the Lannisters, but not all of them are Cersei's; there are Tryion's on both sides, if you're willing to look.
Thomas out.
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