#249 - Rock
Talk about politics
Four years ago, people told me that they voted for Bush, despite not agreeing with his policies, because it seemed like he believed in something. Because he had values. And he did. He had values that they didn't agree with and they voted for him anyway. These people will be voting.
Yesterday, people informed me (in practically the same breath) that Senator Barack Obama was a secret radical Muslim, a puppet for a supremacist Christian preacher, and intent on forcing churches to marry same-sex couples, putting abortion clinics on every street, and taking God out of the pledge of allegiance and off the coins. There was no disconnect for this man. These points did not contradict each other. Militant atheist, racist Christian and fundamentalist Muslim; that's some compartmentalisation, right there. These people will be voting.
Or if we go to the other party, you get Governor Sarah Palin (because who's really talking about McCain right now? smart choice there) who, despite the insistence of certain political spectators, was never part of the Alaskan Independence Party, has never actually banned books, nor cut funding for special needs education - spectators who are simultaneously decrying the opposition for poor research, for mistakes, for spreading and perpetuating untruths. These people will be voting.
Americans distrust intelligence and that's a problem because if you're reading this, there's a very good chance that you're white, middle-class, and socially liberal. Congratulations. You're, on average, better educated than eighty percent of the population. Eighty percent. What it comes down to is, generally speaking, people are stupid. And these people will be voting.
Politics is the art of drawing lines between Us and Them and if you can't make them people to be Us then by expletive-of-choice will you make people afraid to be Them. Nuance becomes anathema. Exposition becomes untenable. Sound-bite or get off the stage. You can look while you're leaping if you really have to, but you better leap because my shows are on on the other channel.
And people say, the three things you never talk about: religion, politics, and sex, and they chuckle like they haven't just pointed a flash-light at a dark, insidious cancer in the body social. Actually, yes, we should talk about religion. We should discuss our politics. We should push for leaders who are engaged and well-informed, who are smarter and stronger and better, leaders whose passionate intensity is tempered by reason, whose careful rationality is informed by passion.
Moreover, we should take from their example a lesson in how we, too, should encounter the world: with intelligence and reasoned passion. We should check our facts. We should not make snap judgements, but, being as informed as we can be, make our decisions if not for the greater good then at least for the least harm. We should test our assumptions, as we test ourselves, as we should test our leaders.
This is not snobbery. It is elitism, because we should be elitist. I do think I'm better than you. And do you want to know why? Because I want politicians who are better than me to lead the country. I want my level to the barest minimum qualification, not what politicians aspire to. I'm not interested in a homespun leader I could have a drink in a bar with. I'm interested in the leader who will actually lead, who will be transparent and reasoned in his actions, forthright and reasoned in his convictions, judicial and reasoned in his choices. I want a leader who will think, not so that I don't have to, but because I already have.
We should praise people who make the effort, not just to show up, but to be better than they are. We should value the people who are willing to teach. We should value the people who are willing to learn. We should value the process so that we no longer choose the lesser of two evils but the greater of two goods. We should be elitist in our choice of President; we should demand our President be elite, because if we will not let them stand for our greatest strengths, they will inevitable stand for our greatest weaknesses - and then it's wire hangers and giant genocidal robot time again.
But, just like most politicians, all I'm really doing is preaching to the choir again. And all I can hope is that these people, too, will be voting.
#
Here, have a poem by Bei Dao (translation by Finkel with Xueliang).
After
The scoundrel carries his baseness around like an ID card.
The honest man bears his honour like an epigraph.
Look--the gilded sky is swimming
with undulant reflections of the dead.
They say the ice age ended years ago.
Why are there icicles everywhere?
The Cape of Good Hope has already been found.
Why should all those sails contend on the Dead Sea?
I came into this world with nothing
but paper, rope, and shadow.
Now, I come to be judged,
and I've nothing to say but this:
Listen. I don't believe!
OK. You've trampled
a thousand enemies underfoot. Call me
a thousand and one.
I don't believe the sky is blue.
I don't believe what the thunder says.
I don't believe dreams aren't real,
that beyond death there is no reprisal.
If the sea should break through the sea-wall,
let its brackish water fill my heart.
If the land should rise from the sea again,
we'll choose again to live in the heights.
The earth revolves. A glittering constellation
pricks the vast defenceless sky.
Can you see it there? that ancient ideogram--
the eye of the future gazing back.
Four years ago, people told me that they voted for Bush, despite not agreeing with his policies, because it seemed like he believed in something. Because he had values. And he did. He had values that they didn't agree with and they voted for him anyway. These people will be voting.
Yesterday, people informed me (in practically the same breath) that Senator Barack Obama was a secret radical Muslim, a puppet for a supremacist Christian preacher, and intent on forcing churches to marry same-sex couples, putting abortion clinics on every street, and taking God out of the pledge of allegiance and off the coins. There was no disconnect for this man. These points did not contradict each other. Militant atheist, racist Christian and fundamentalist Muslim; that's some compartmentalisation, right there. These people will be voting.
Or if we go to the other party, you get Governor Sarah Palin (because who's really talking about McCain right now? smart choice there) who, despite the insistence of certain political spectators, was never part of the Alaskan Independence Party, has never actually banned books, nor cut funding for special needs education - spectators who are simultaneously decrying the opposition for poor research, for mistakes, for spreading and perpetuating untruths. These people will be voting.
Americans distrust intelligence and that's a problem because if you're reading this, there's a very good chance that you're white, middle-class, and socially liberal. Congratulations. You're, on average, better educated than eighty percent of the population. Eighty percent. What it comes down to is, generally speaking, people are stupid. And these people will be voting.
Politics is the art of drawing lines between Us and Them and if you can't make them people to be Us then by expletive-of-choice will you make people afraid to be Them. Nuance becomes anathema. Exposition becomes untenable. Sound-bite or get off the stage. You can look while you're leaping if you really have to, but you better leap because my shows are on on the other channel.
And people say, the three things you never talk about: religion, politics, and sex, and they chuckle like they haven't just pointed a flash-light at a dark, insidious cancer in the body social. Actually, yes, we should talk about religion. We should discuss our politics. We should push for leaders who are engaged and well-informed, who are smarter and stronger and better, leaders whose passionate intensity is tempered by reason, whose careful rationality is informed by passion.
Moreover, we should take from their example a lesson in how we, too, should encounter the world: with intelligence and reasoned passion. We should check our facts. We should not make snap judgements, but, being as informed as we can be, make our decisions if not for the greater good then at least for the least harm. We should test our assumptions, as we test ourselves, as we should test our leaders.
This is not snobbery. It is elitism, because we should be elitist. I do think I'm better than you. And do you want to know why? Because I want politicians who are better than me to lead the country. I want my level to the barest minimum qualification, not what politicians aspire to. I'm not interested in a homespun leader I could have a drink in a bar with. I'm interested in the leader who will actually lead, who will be transparent and reasoned in his actions, forthright and reasoned in his convictions, judicial and reasoned in his choices. I want a leader who will think, not so that I don't have to, but because I already have.
We should praise people who make the effort, not just to show up, but to be better than they are. We should value the people who are willing to teach. We should value the people who are willing to learn. We should value the process so that we no longer choose the lesser of two evils but the greater of two goods. We should be elitist in our choice of President; we should demand our President be elite, because if we will not let them stand for our greatest strengths, they will inevitable stand for our greatest weaknesses - and then it's wire hangers and giant genocidal robot time again.
But, just like most politicians, all I'm really doing is preaching to the choir again. And all I can hope is that these people, too, will be voting.
#
Here, have a poem by Bei Dao (translation by Finkel with Xueliang).
After
The scoundrel carries his baseness around like an ID card.
The honest man bears his honour like an epigraph.
Look--the gilded sky is swimming
with undulant reflections of the dead.
They say the ice age ended years ago.
Why are there icicles everywhere?
The Cape of Good Hope has already been found.
Why should all those sails contend on the Dead Sea?
I came into this world with nothing
but paper, rope, and shadow.
Now, I come to be judged,
and I've nothing to say but this:
Listen. I don't believe!
OK. You've trampled
a thousand enemies underfoot. Call me
a thousand and one.
I don't believe the sky is blue.
I don't believe what the thunder says.
I don't believe dreams aren't real,
that beyond death there is no reprisal.
If the sea should break through the sea-wall,
let its brackish water fill my heart.
If the land should rise from the sea again,
we'll choose again to live in the heights.
The earth revolves. A glittering constellation
pricks the vast defenceless sky.
Can you see it there? that ancient ideogram--
the eye of the future gazing back.