*more* Politics.
Ever since the tern began for my course in Communication, I've done nothing (true in every essence) but seep my head slowly in politics.
Malaysian, American, Australian, I've done it.
This is a big feat for me because a year ago, I was one of those people off the street who would skip whole sections of the newspaper because there was just too much coverage on the Iraq war. Okay, I still do that but it's mostly out out of habit.
It was one of those nasty things I thought if I ignored enough, would ignore me back. Activism is fine, right? I just didn't like reading the gritty details about it.
The wake up call in tutorials and lectures finally descended like prodding from the Long Finger of God. People knew read politics, they discussed politics and I got the sneaking impression that they revelled in it.
That was months ago and I knew I was in deep deep trouble when I couldn't contribute towards class discussion beyond saying things like "Because it *is*", which I didn't and thus ended up saying nothing.
Now, I'm neck deep in politics and honestly, I still don't quite like it.
There will always be the thrill of understanding and having the ability to identify political manoeuvers when you see one but it is a filthy piece of reality all the more because it is necessary.
There is nothing pretty about it. Impressive, yes. Awe-inspiring? Not recently but assuredly so.
It's like learning a whole new set of laws governed by things beyond humanity and codes of conduct. Everything is possible in the realms of Big Brother politics if you bend the rules enough to rewrite them. Nothing is undoable if you can justify it.
Apart from the sense of self-achievement and the knowledge that you are in the know while everyone else isn't, politics is not something you dwell on for self-fulfillment or zen.
It has the ability to change because it makes us want to change, to compromise until we are bound up so much by the rules we forget what we are compromising for and start to wonder if compromising is such a bad thing afterall.
Maybe I'll finally get what everyone is trying to accomplish with it, but the more I know, the less I like.
Malaysian, American, Australian, I've done it.
This is a big feat for me because a year ago, I was one of those people off the street who would skip whole sections of the newspaper because there was just too much coverage on the Iraq war. Okay, I still do that but it's mostly out out of habit.
It was one of those nasty things I thought if I ignored enough, would ignore me back. Activism is fine, right? I just didn't like reading the gritty details about it.
The wake up call in tutorials and lectures finally descended like prodding from the Long Finger of God. People knew read politics, they discussed politics and I got the sneaking impression that they revelled in it.
That was months ago and I knew I was in deep deep trouble when I couldn't contribute towards class discussion beyond saying things like "Because it *is*", which I didn't and thus ended up saying nothing.
Now, I'm neck deep in politics and honestly, I still don't quite like it.
There will always be the thrill of understanding and having the ability to identify political manoeuvers when you see one but it is a filthy piece of reality all the more because it is necessary.
There is nothing pretty about it. Impressive, yes. Awe-inspiring? Not recently but assuredly so.
It's like learning a whole new set of laws governed by things beyond humanity and codes of conduct. Everything is possible in the realms of Big Brother politics if you bend the rules enough to rewrite them. Nothing is undoable if you can justify it.
Apart from the sense of self-achievement and the knowledge that you are in the know while everyone else isn't, politics is not something you dwell on for self-fulfillment or zen.
It has the ability to change because it makes us want to change, to compromise until we are bound up so much by the rules we forget what we are compromising for and start to wonder if compromising is such a bad thing afterall.
Maybe I'll finally get what everyone is trying to accomplish with it, but the more I know, the less I like.