The Turbulence of Politics and The Desire to Find Peace and Quiet in a Noisy Chaotic World

As of late, I have increasingly been wanting to crawl into a hole and hide... a sense of overwhelm from many directions has been "triggering" my tendency to back away from life and become an observer.

When I was a little kid, my mother-- an extreme extravert and social butterfly-- was eternally trying to "get me involved" in all sorts of things. I expect it was extraordinarily frustrating for her that I was always trying to undo her efforts, seeking instead a place where I could just sit and stare into space. Doing nothing was one of my favorite things.

Early Days... 

I was generally a very calm child-- in fact, calm to such a degree that various members of our extended family (who liked to think themselves "experts" on such matters) were seriously concerned that I was... "developmentally challenged."

"Little boys should be running around, getting into things, rough housing and making noise!" was the prevailing school of thought, and the fact that I was poster boy for the exact opposite was a cause for concern.

I have, at times, entertained the possibility that I was "wired incorrectly" from nature's side, because my inner reward system (in the neuroscientific sense) almost inevitably seems to issue "good feelings" when I am in a stationary and largely serene state, and more of an "aversion warning" for most things that involve activity, engagement and particularly strife and confrontations.

To the observer describing me in layman's terms, that pretty much adds up to "exceptionally lazy." Or possibly "avoidant." But those are hopelessly inadequate terms, generally filtered through the eyes of a world obsessed with action, movement, aggression and busy-ness. 

So where am I going with all this? 

As I said, I have lately been feeling particularly overwhelmed and inclined to crawl into a hole. It's hard for me to put my finger on anything specific-- politics, wars, death of friends, a suicide, a background sense of anger in the world, the world's lost ability to "dialogue" rather than "bicker."

A friend stopped by the gallery today and suggested that I simply lack "civic stamina." As I considered this, I've concluded that my feelings are really independent of political alignments and outcomes-- I find that the most distressing about current US and World Politics is that it seems to personify the vileness, reactivity and violence of (much of) human nature.

And so, I feel increasingly estranged from this strange species that seems to prefer violence, fighting, condemning and mudslinging to civilized discussion and connecting across common ground to find peaceful solutions and compromises all can live with. 

This whole "MY way or you are EVIL/STUPID and must DIE!" approach that seems to have become so prevalent feels like a sad and pathetic throwback to primitive feudal times. Have we learned nothing at all? 

Of course, there are those who hold that those were the "good times," and that compromise and bridge-building represent a form of weakness and cultural decay... and they hold that totalitarianism and nationalism are good things. And patriotic, to boot. 

Meanwhile, on the Way to Mars

There's something slightly ironic about the fact that while we remain embroiled in petty bickering and personal pissing matches worthy of the middle ages... we are sending rockets to Mars.

I'm slowly beginning to understand the views of those who insist we have no business exploring the Universe till we figure out how to live peacefully with each other, here on Planet Earth.

On the other hand, part of me can appreciate the frustrations of the so-called "patriots"... all the political correctness and underhanded spewage of certain political factions are quite loathsome, but I still can't get myself to a place of understanding how attempts to dial back the cultural clock 400 years is in any way useful. 

Let's face it... if a system of strong nationalism, kingdoms, strong rulers and armies and serfs and killing those who disagree with us actually had worked... wouldn't that system still be here, as the dominant form of social and political governing? Why would those who started what is now the USA have broken away from the British, in the first place? What is all this fighting good for?  

But I am digressing.... "good" is such a nebulous concept and-- at best-- a slippery slope towards contemplating how life is viewed through each individual's experiential lens of perception. Lot of potential navel gazing there.

I don't really care very much about the seemingly endless semantic and intellectual masturbation happening all around us... what concerns me is that we seem to-- here in freakin' 2018-- have returned to some version of the middle ages and a bunch of (metaphorically speaking) "villagers with pitchforks"  are rioting, albeit "2018-style."

The thing about "villagers with pitchforks" is that they seem to be driven entirely by their emotions and reactivity, not by a sense of logic, nor meaningful objectives, nor reason or desire to live peacefully. And there's an attached irony there... in that a very large percentage of the "protesting villagers" who chose a new "king" will likely be the ones most hurt and left behind by the very "king" they elected. 

Oddly enough, it is one of the things my friend-- whose political views are somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun-- and I tend to agree on. We're going to get nowhere, as long as everyone keeps reacting and spewing canned doctrines that don't involve actual critical thinking and reasoning out how things work, in the functional sense of the concept. That's why we are friends. Because even though we are polar opposites, we talk and understand, rather than react and sling mud.

Meanwhile, I watch good honest people continue to "block" or "unfriend" or "mute" those who disagree with their views, as if the time honored practice of sticking one's head in the sand somehow is the best approach to solving our collective problems.

Just saw it happen again on Farcebook, which is how this post came into being. Someone who had long been giving Donald Trump credit for the rising stock market turned right around and blamed Obama for the market's two-day drop. The faulty logic was truly breathtaking.

I popped some popcorn and watched... and then got very sad.

What do YOU think? Are we losing the ability to "dialogue" and debate issues, in favor of partisan reactivity? Regardless of your political affiliation, what about compromises? Is it a good idea to fight and try to eliminate those who "don't think like us" (whoever "us" may be, in your perception)? If you believe "dissenters should be executed," are you also OK with YOU being executed if you are perceived by others as a dissenter? Is representative government a crock because nobody can represent us except ourselves? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

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Created at 180209 00:20 PST