Almost Any Ground Is Higher Than This! 


Guiding our political thinking to a better place. 

The dreaded and avoided moment has arrived. I've been blogging three months, with only an occasional political look askance. I've promised not to rant in this blog. I've promised not to hate one party or approach and love another party or approach. I'm not an apolitical person. I feel I must begin to say some things about national and international politics. Can I do it from higher ground? I don't know, but here goes.

If there is one thing that annoys me the most about our local and national politicians today, it is their inability to truly negotiate. Certainly in Washington, D.C. today, what you see is not a forum but a battlefield. And this is scarcely surprising in view of the dominant images in our culture today. I don't watch much of it, but the media, films and TV, serve up war after war, gang fight after gang fight, horror flick after horror flick, ball game after ball game, race after race, catastrophe after catastrophe. We have headed down a very dangerous road, and we must turn back.

I think we need to spend some time talking about negotiating. My concept of negotiation grows out of a deeper spiritual awareness, stated so clearly by Ken Keyes: each of us is here as "an awakening being who is here to claim his or her birthright . . . to unconditional love." Taking a God's eye view of the situation, everyone has a claim on the material and spiritual riches of the world. A concept of negotiation that is not based on this awareness, but where negotiation is seen as a game that you play while trying to get everything you want, will get you to a bad place. That is where I see us today for the most part. We are part of a nation and a culture that either blindly or willingly accepts that it is perfectly OK for a few people to have most of the world's riches. It's even OK for people to believe that since they are rich, they deserved it, and that anyone who is poor deserved that, too.

I have to quickly accept the cries of "hypocrite" that are flowing my way right now. Do I own a house? Well, yes, that is, I'm taking the interest on the loan off of my income tax. Do some of my neighbors not own a house? Yes. Are there homeless people walking past my house with out my running out to offer to help? Yes. Have I given all my possessions away and followed Jesus Christ? Well, obviously not. But since almost everyone I know is in the same boat, this does not disqualify me from making critical observations about my country's practices.

I am very disgusted with the political process right now. But lest you think I am a liberal or a conservative, think again. What I am disgusted with is how fearful people are of loosing what little they have, and how that manipulates them into taking unprincipled and indefensible stands. We no longer admire people who stand up and say what they think. In fact, we sit in our little TV dominated living rooms and devise half-baked political strategies that will never be tested out, and criticize anyone who disagrees with us.

One example I am thinking about is Ralph Nader. Now I have never voted for Nader. Nor do I think all of his ideas are good. I certainly don't think he has spent a lot of time developing a consistent foreign policy. And yet one thing I do admire about the man is that he has the courage of his convictions. He says what he believes, he always says what he cares about, even when it is politically unpopular. In the last election, some of my friends actually had the audacity to be mad at Nader for spoiling the election, just because he didn't fold over to Gore. This even in light of all the ballot and media manipulation and stupid jerk comments by Gore, etc. etc, that Nader had nothing to do with. Worse than that, I actually felt threatened by the violence implicit in the diatribes my acquaintances launched on Nader. I suppose it was cowardly of me, but I felt very intimidated by all of this. Awh, poor Jim.

But look, these are the questions I'm raising. What kind of a country are we defending if decade after decade a small third party has to be afraid of being an election spoiler? What kind of political system are we admiring when even the simplest rules of civility and fair play are ignored as a matter of course? Many of my liberal friends profess not to even be able to comprehend how some of their apparently normal and fairly intelligent acquaintances can vote Republican. Many of my conservative friends won't enter into or even tolerate discussion of issues if they feel someone is arguing a committed liberal stance. This has got to lead to segregation of the worst kind. Not only have we completely demonized all Arabs but we demonize each other.

I know what the problem is. Of course, there are many who simply have signed off even thinking about political matters, and I can understand that point of view. In view of the way public opinion is manipulated or disregarded, it may be a somewhat rational alternative to what seems like banging one's head against a wall. But many others are arrogant in the way they hold out their political opinions, defiant and unwilling to explain themselves to those who differ from them.

Patient and caring dialog is the right answer. What we need to recognize and have patience with is that the entire world is in a dialogical process. These pendulum swings to right and left are hard to endure, but this is the way the political clock ticks. Needed change often starts as a small, unpopular and oppressed group of voices. The general tendency of widespread political practice is to resist change. But how else can it occur without dialog? After all, what we are talking about in every social and political change is to a certain extent changing or moving minds. As a lifelong educator I can tell you that dialogs aren't easy to initiate and sustain.

And one final thought. You don't demonstrate love to people by always agreeing with them. What you demonstrate is a lack of respect for your own opinions. So to demonstrate love to people, at least love that they can value, you HAVE to disagree with them. It's not THAT you disagree with them, but HOW you disagree with them that demonstrates love. We used to know, in the senate, in schools, in courts, how to disagree while smiling, and failing that, at least to disagree with tolerance and acceptance on a personal level. I don't see that so much any more. I'm even out of practice in doing it myself. Maybe we could help each other get it back. 

Posted: Fri - February 3, 2006 at 10:20 AM          

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