What does it matter?
I ask this question in a time where politics have lost their meaning. The only goal of any good politician is to win. What follows that day of victory, comes a plan for keeping power and shaping the nation in the image of the victor's best thoughts and ideas about what needs changing. The best solutions to contemporary problems, however, are not sought out. The actions of people in power never match the rhetoric of their stump speeches. At the end of the day, elections simply present the public with a new set of elite minds that are given free reign over the very fabric of society.
No One IS Listening
A 'metannarative' is the overarching structure of basic traits and fundamentals which bind a field of ideas together. A simple example can be found in the field of biology - where all things in the world that are living are studied together - or, in literature - where all things that are written down by people, are grouped together for study. No matter how different those living creatures, or written documents, might be, they are considered a part of the same study group. Yet the common cold virus and a blue whale have almost nothing in common. Virology and Marine Biology however, are still grouped together under the general term "biology". Biology has certain rules - evolution, entropy, etc - that are accepted as common to all things within its field of ideas. But what are the rules of "democracy"?
Pointlessness.
We vote for our leaders on paper ballots. Yet for as long as men and women have lived together under the guise of civilization, no leader has been able to succeed without the support of those around them. The Queen of England is only Queen so long as people accept it - the streets of London have many other residents that claim, with total self-confidence, that they themselves are the real Queen of England. The only difference between the mad man in the alleyway and the Queen herself, is that we have decided to grant the Queen her position; we have not dethroned her.
Nothing Will Change.
So we now vote with paper ballots, rather than with violence and due to discontent. What then is democracy? Could it be that democracy is nothing more than this? Nothing more than 'peaceful transitions' between heads of state? If the worst thing a politician can except for creating ill-constructed policy is to be rushed off to the global speaking circuit and handed a book deal instead of continuing on in their position for a few more years, then what is it that keeps those leaders in line? Why are we so confident in the trustworthiness of our governments?
We trust our government, because trust is the metanarrative. Democracy, is trust. You have to be able to trust the people around you. And trust, comes from security. It comes from the belief that the people around you will not hurt you. When people complain about their politicians, they are rarely more adamant than when they are fearful that their government is hurting them. People don't just claim 'my government is doing a bad job', they claim that the government is doing something harmful. People think their government, is going to kill them.
The only real threat to democracy then, if democracy is nothing more than a feeling of trust and some legistlation built around the assumption that such will not be wavering anytime soon, would be danger. And that is why I no longer speed.
The only way to succeed in this world is to help limit the danger out there for others. So when I am behind the wheel, I have learned to become patient and curteous. The open road is one of the only places, other than the polling station, where you come face to face with all the others out there that you have decided to trust. You have decided to trust their values and their intelligence at the ballot box, their competence with a spatchela behind the fastfood grill, and to trust in the idea that we were raised fairly well by the world out there to become adequately well-adjusted people.
So the next time someone cuts you off in traffic, and you have the opportunity to pull up beside them later on down the road, at a red light... Roll down your window and simple state aloud, "You are a threat to the very fabric from which this great nation has been woven!!!" Because, well, someone's gotta do it. Might as well be you.
I trust my Government. Completely.
We trust our government, because trust is the metanarrative. Democracy, is trust. You have to be able to trust the people around you. And trust, comes from security. It comes from the belief that the people around you will not hurt you. When people complain about their politicians, they are rarely more adamant than when they are fearful that their government is hurting them. People don't just claim 'my government is doing a bad job', they claim that the government is doing something harmful. People think their government, is going to kill them.
Fearfulness is a long word.
The only real threat to democracy then, if democracy is nothing more than a feeling of trust and some legistlation built around the assumption that such will not be wavering anytime soon, would be danger. And that is why I no longer speed.
The only way to succeed in this world is to help limit the danger out there for others. So when I am behind the wheel, I have learned to become patient and curteous. The open road is one of the only places, other than the polling station, where you come face to face with all the others out there that you have decided to trust. You have decided to trust their values and their intelligence at the ballot box, their competence with a spatchela behind the fastfood grill, and to trust in the idea that we were raised fairly well by the world out there to become adequately well-adjusted people.
So the next time someone cuts you off in traffic, and you have the opportunity to pull up beside them later on down the road, at a red light... Roll down your window and simple state aloud, "You are a threat to the very fabric from which this great nation has been woven!!!" Because, well, someone's gotta do it. Might as well be you.
No comments:
Post a Comment