2003-04-01 - 2:32 p.m.
A lot of politics flying around these days. Most of my life I've been the sort of person who stands back and says "I'm not political" "I don't like talking about that crap". Lately I've been pretty caught up in it though. I have some friends who are progressive activists, and a lot of what they are doing and what they stand for really appeals to me. I also have family and friends on the other side of the fence, very religious and/or conservative people. None of these people are "bad people." I think as humans we are quick to polarize and categorize ourselves, especially when the going gets rough. And the going is always, always rough in this topsy-turvy blue-green dot we call earth. We can easily lose sight of the common ground. We all value life, we all want to be loved, we all bleed red when we're stabbed. I'm not one-hundred percent sure of any of my beliefs. When I make a statement, especially a strong one, I often immediately see the cracks and flaws in it and wish I could take it back. "The truth", as I've said before, does not interest me, as I do not believe it exists. People who claim to know the truth seem to me to always have an agenda in mind or they are covering for some insecurity. Everything is a matter of perspective, and there are many. I've been posting on a message board run by someone I went to school with, and many of my old high school friends are members there and post regularly on any number of topics. Recently, things have gotten pretty hot and heavy in the political department. Once or twice I've lost my cool and snapped at someone, then had to step back and think, "Whoa, what am I saying, these are my friends." I apologized the couple of times that did happen and everything is totally cool. Other people fared much worse though, and could not seem to post anything without including a direct personal attack on someone else. Two people have left that board completely because the discussions got too personal and they got too angry and couldn't handle it any more. One was a lefty, and one a right. I've seen other people post on their webpages or diaries that they will not make any more political posts. Maybe it's just to easy to hurt or get hurt when it comes to these issues, or maybe people are just so frustrated with the current situation that they have given up. I think that's sad. We all risk looking stupid every time we open our mouth or write something. This is because people see things in different ways. This is something that scares me, because I hate looking stupid. People's strongest opinions seem to come from matters related to sex or death. When is a war necessary? What is the definition of a family? Answer either of these questions and someone out there is going to think you are wrong. It's important though, to still voice an opinion. We'll never find out how we really feel if we don't talk about it or write about it. It is so incredibly easy to make these issues personal. Look at our leaders. Everytime elections roll around, the ads without fail seeem to degenerate into mudslinging contests. Watch a session of british parliament and you'll see why they sit two swordlengths apart. Look at Bush. Don't you hate him? Don't you just despise him as a person? That's how I feel a lot of the time. Why is that? If he weren't the president, if he were just the local weatherman, would I hate him? Is he really a horrible guy? I don't know. My ideals say that if I'm against war and the anger at the root of war, my speech should not come from that anger. Yet sometimes I feel it, I get pissed off and I want to smash heads with my louisville slugger. And I wonder at myself, and I wonder if that human evolution I long for is possible. Will we ever move past the hate? Or is it a necessary, integral part of us that will always be there. Could we enjoy a world with no villains or opposition? nature isn't that way. Can I cut the thorns from every rose, declaw every kitten? That doesn't seem realistic. Life is a struggle. The important struggle is within each of us. The way things are going, I don't know if I'll ever win my internal struggle. Maybe that's okay, maybe that's beautiful. There are no answers, it's the only thing I can say for sure.
Peace.
Song o' the day: "Ace of Spades"- Motorhead
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