Saturday, December 15, 2012

Politics, It Shouldn't Be A Pejorative

Politics is good. I don't mean entertaining. It's outright good.

It gets a bad name. We too often say, "Oh, they're just doing that for political reasons." As if that were a obviously a bad thing. As if that meant it was just cynical, fake, pointless, and probably not earnest.

But think about it: why do many people avoid talking politics or religion with close friends and family?

The reason: because these are things about which people care deeply and passionately. These are things about which people can get into bitter arguments over what are technically small differences. People worry about losing friends and family to political arguments because political matters typically REALLY DO MATTER. We care deeply about the implications of those little differences.

To say that something is political is often to say that it is an issue about which people would care enough to fight, to take action. To do something for political reasons means nothing other than that you recognize society is complex and that for reasons of practicality you often need to work out a nuanced compromise in order to promote that about which you really care.

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