Honestly, What’s the Point of Politics?
A teen’s view on the hottest topic making the headlines.
There’s no doubt that politics are a big part of our lives. I’ll go as far as to say that maybe they’ve taken up too much of our lives.
Our interest — or shall I say obsession — in politics begins innocently, like many other things.
But with time, it grows on us.
You could say it’s like cancer.
Starting out small, then taking over our lives.
With time, politics start filling up our minds like a balloon. Politics make family dinner conversations harsher than ever.
And then they start triggering emotions might have never felt before.
Like frustration. Anxiety. Jitteriness. You get the point.
Eventually, even the mere presence or thought of opposing political views or figures makes sweat cover our skin and anger boil inside us.
Friendships are slain. Families divide and fall. Our decisions are no longer ours.
Cancer has metastasized — it spreads all through our bodies and lives.
However, I’d like to present a cure for this political cancer.
But Why?
So when and where did this addiction start?
Might we be able to dive back into history to find the origins of politics?
Did our political obsession start when scholars judged ancient Chinese dynasties by whether the emperors kept divine approval?
Perhaps it began when Martin Luther’s Protestant ideas spread via the Gutenberg printing press.
Or maybe it began when the U.S. became a nation, with the tense rivalry between Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans?
To me, the answer is unclear. Politics have been around for too long.
They began at the same time civilization began. People realized that some individuals had more land, wealth, and power than others.
So those people decided to determine how others lived.
And that’s when everyone else woke up — politics started concerning their lives.
Now, politicians decide how many taxes we pay, what medications we can take, and what type of education we get.
So there’s no surprise that people want their ideas to be in government.
Because when their ideas are expressed in government, those people will get what they want.
We all want to get what we want. And that’s a problem.
The Problem
Yes, maybe the ancient Greeks created the first democracy. But I’ll argue it didn’t stay around for too long.
See, the heart and mind of virtually every human being is filled with something called ego.
When let loose, this ego can wreak havoc.
When politicians come together, they have different ideas about governing the world.
But instead of having discussions and collaboration, their egos take over. Everyone thinks their ideas are the best.
No one likes being second best.
When something doesn’t go our way, the first instinct is to raise our fists and fight. It’s as if our mind closes down and refuses to believe anything that doesn’t align with our beliefs.
And by the time that happens, cancer has already taken over.
We like being right, and we despise being wrong. Thus, we scramble to find evidence that proves we’re right.
We start listening only to what we want to hear. We ignore anything that makes us doubt the validity of our beliefs.
So when our beliefs and our reputation are questioned, we can’t help but scream out in anger. And that leads to conflict.
But you don’t like really like conflict, do you?
Do you want another Cold War?
Do you want the war in Ukraine?
Do you want to see terrorism in our hometown?
No.
“When so many voters — a majority, in fact — say that they prefer consensus to conflict, why does polarization continue to intensify?”
We say we don’t like conflict. And yet we still keep building walls between red and blue, between good and evil.
Whatever “good” and “evil” might be.
The Cure
We can make the world a better place if we stop building those walls. We need to break them down.
Because when we destroy those walls, we can see everyone else. We realize that we’re not the only person in the world.
Everyone has ideas. Yes, some ideas might be better than others.
But the point is that we listen to those ideas.
We listen to everyone, whether politically right or left, communist or capitalist, Muslim or atheist.
We start discussing ideas, collaborating on thoughts, and shaking hands.
Instead of building barriers between ourselves, we start building bridges that connect each other. We build a home for everyone.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
But a house united can.
This is inspirational and all, yes — we can change the world if we listen. It’s just that listening is hard.
If we already knew how to listen, we wouldn’t have as much conflict as we do now.
Listening requires humility. It requires that we defeat our egos and admit that other people are smart, too.
We also need patience. We must restrain the urge to yell, “But you’re so stupid!” and let the other person speak.
Being humble and patient. That’s hard, man.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
In a world that’s already crippled by so much conflict, violence, and ballooning egos, there aren’t many easy solutions.
Listening is hard.
But it’s probably the best we can do.
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This article is inspired by an article on New York Times called “How We Think About Politics Changes What We Think About Politics”
You can read the article here.
