And as long as we’re talking status quo here, there are couple of phrases uttered by those opposed to the necessary radical change we need that drive me nuts -
‘The perfect is the enemy of the good’ and ‘we need to be pragmatic in our approach’
No, jackass, there is nothing pragmatic about incremental solutions to catastrophic problems. Get off of the damn fence.
“I don’t do politics” means I support genocide. It means I support war. It means I support injustice and exploitation. It means I support ordinary people getting poorer and sicker while the biosphere dies and the billionaires turn into trillionaires. It means I support our headlong plunge into mass extinction and dystopia."
Exactly, and while they're not doing politics the politics they are doing is possibly making them poorer, live in a less livable area, thinking it's okay for the sea to rise and carve into the earth and destroy homes. Maybe that doesn't affect these non-politics people right now, but you can bet your life they will scream the loudest when it does - "why didn't anyone do anything" forgetting they weren't doing anything until it was too late.
It also means, they expect other to do the work while they wait until it's too late before even looking at what they, deliberately, allowed to go past them.
Was just having a conversation with family. Told me “Stop Worrying about things you cannot control Luke.” I get that a lot and it always pisses me off. That is the first step to a good brainwashing. If we all sit around and worry about ourselves our Govt would love it I promise.
Couldn't agree with you more, Luke! I am SO sick and tired of people telling me "Stop Worrying about things you cannot control". Like you, it pisses me off to no end!!! Fuck!
The genocide in Gaza is a black and white issue, there are no shades of grey. A soldier pointing a gun at a child and shooting the child is completely, unambiguously wrong - evil. No excuse is acceptable—no amount of brainwashing justifies it — no twisted belief in God’s dispensation nullifies it. In my opinion, a person who attempts to claim neutrality is simply a coward, worse than someone who has chosen the Zionist ideology and is upfront about it.
To be alive is to be political... You are always "of the people" even if you don't think you are. Those who refuse to take sides during a genocide aren't for the oppressed and dying. They're for the killers. It's better to take a definitive side if you don't want to be labeled a heartless monster like the Zionists are.
But I think also one pays a price unconsciously - that you may not even be aware of - when you accept evil as a norm. Your view of life and your own life becomes degraded and cheap. Your personal fate can play an important role as well.
Belief in good government, is similar to religious belief. It's all faith because there has never been good government.( Never will be) And there is no proof of an after life!. You have but one life, that is Now! So live it.. Like Rush - Free Will-" If you choose not to decide, you still have made your choice". Those who vote , who play the game have nothing to complain about. Those of us who refuse to vote or be part of the game have every right to complain and to resist by any any means.
I'm not sure about the *only* one life assumption. I think there is a good possibility consciousness does go on in some manner. I don't base my leaning toward this on any theological texts, but the last 30+ years of NDE scientific research. Which is credible and now well established worldwide.
Ruled by billionaires is even worse than ruled by government. No regulations, no laws - the criminals and the exploiters will win everytime. Sure - it's great for the super rich, but for everyone else - it stinks.
That said, try walking round Safeway (Woolies in Oz) and screaming out Hey guys, do something about Gaza! As you well know the masses walk around like zombies. The MIGO look, the fart in the lift, the shock of being confronted with something that isn't football, or Taylor Swift, or tonight's teevee special.
I write a political Substack. I always face the question: Am I preaching to the choir? If so, what is the point?
But there is always a point: To continue being beautiful and to continue speaking the Truth.
And then trust.
Keep on doing what you do, Caitlin. You are beautiful.
Exactly! My British hubby says that phrase a lot about these "I'm not political" types. I think in the US the phrase would be, "What's it got to do with ME?"
Plato famously stated, "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
That is a penalty of apathy, on which I wrote my honors thesis 64 yrrs ago, asking not what are the effects of apathy but what is the cause. I found an answe I still agree with in the wod itself...
from the Greek a (without pathy: feeling, passion, suffering.
And that is why I disagree with this assertion from Caitlin's essay: "Saying you don’t feel like paying attention to these factors is just saying you’re fine with the way they are presently happening."
I find that to be not the case; in converrstions with people who have given up on politics, the reason is they found it too confusing, too stressful and too painful....messing up their heads..and so the cure is apathy, not to care not to suffer. I do not condemn these people as promoting the status quo, because they have found it too painful to think about and just dropped out.
Without doubt, at the same time, is is apathy, or indifference, which is the bedrock of power once gained..for those have dropped out no longer are threat but form a kind of silent consent, manifested in not objecting.
That is the paradox of apathy: it is a relief from a headache that cannot be cured by finding a solution but only by refusing to think about it, to ignore it, to wall it out. It provides leave from a pain which is caused by the status quo, and which can be avoided only by refusing to paricipate.
That this supports the status quo, I agree with and have for65 ys, but that is not WHY people become apathtic, which is not to support the status quo but to stop thinking about it to numb th pain.
So apathy, is a kind of numbing drug, which like religion or opium, can reduce the pain caused by a system that can only be changed by dealing with the pain and moving past it to opposing action.
This is the paradox of apathy, it relieves the pain of a system which by numbing it allows to continue. And so I do not judge or lecture those I meet who say, I have given up on politics, I just don't want to even think about it. I listen to them and understand why they have retreated.
I believe they will on re-engage which a person or idea or event may reveal to them that there is a way not to be part of the system without giving implicit consent, and that is to join with others, a journey most often begun as a retreat from isolatioin through another person whose hope or passion is contagious. IN other words, not thru being lectured their indifference is bad which only causes a deeper alienation but through friendship and inspiration.
I am hoping that this perspective opens up the possibiliy of change, joining with others in rebellion against the status quo, thru that "strange form of love" that those isolated and in withdrawal due to thier intense pain from the ways they know to participate, will experience if thy are heard and understood and invited to join a way of opposing the cause of the pain in soidaity with others. Is there any other way out of the hole you dig when you reject politics, unless you shift to New Age spiritualism or the life-transforming unity in hatred of fascism.
Herman Melville wrote something parallel to your observations:
“So true it is, and so terrible, too, that up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. They err who would assert that invariably this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart. It rather proceeds from a certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill. To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain. And when at last it is perceived that such pity cannot lead to effectual succor, common sense bids the soul be rid of it.”
Nevertheless, as Nader said in the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign, if you don’t turn on to politics, politics will turn on you.”
Bertolt Brecht: The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn't seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines, all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn't know, the imbecile, tht from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.
"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything".
--Malcolm X
And as long as we’re talking status quo here, there are couple of phrases uttered by those opposed to the necessary radical change we need that drive me nuts -
‘The perfect is the enemy of the good’ and ‘we need to be pragmatic in our approach’
No, jackass, there is nothing pragmatic about incremental solutions to catastrophic problems. Get off of the damn fence.
My tolerance for people who are geopolitically ignorant is microscopic and getting smaller every day. They are a large part of the problem in murica.
Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me,
I wish none of this had never happened.
.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times but
that is not for them to decide. All you have
to decide is what to do with the time given to you.
.
~Fellowship of the Ring, #Film #2001
Such an excellent post, Caitlin! Thank you.
"“I don’t do politics.”
Okay well politics is doing you.
“I don’t do politics” means I support genocide. It means I support war. It means I support injustice and exploitation. It means I support ordinary people getting poorer and sicker while the biosphere dies and the billionaires turn into trillionaires. It means I support our headlong plunge into mass extinction and dystopia."
Exactly, and while they're not doing politics the politics they are doing is possibly making them poorer, live in a less livable area, thinking it's okay for the sea to rise and carve into the earth and destroy homes. Maybe that doesn't affect these non-politics people right now, but you can bet your life they will scream the loudest when it does - "why didn't anyone do anything" forgetting they weren't doing anything until it was too late.
It also means, they expect other to do the work while they wait until it's too late before even looking at what they, deliberately, allowed to go past them.
Was just having a conversation with family. Told me “Stop Worrying about things you cannot control Luke.” I get that a lot and it always pisses me off. That is the first step to a good brainwashing. If we all sit around and worry about ourselves our Govt would love it I promise.
Couldn't agree with you more, Luke! I am SO sick and tired of people telling me "Stop Worrying about things you cannot control". Like you, it pisses me off to no end!!! Fuck!
The genocide in Gaza is a black and white issue, there are no shades of grey. A soldier pointing a gun at a child and shooting the child is completely, unambiguously wrong - evil. No excuse is acceptable—no amount of brainwashing justifies it — no twisted belief in God’s dispensation nullifies it. In my opinion, a person who attempts to claim neutrality is simply a coward, worse than someone who has chosen the Zionist ideology and is upfront about it.
"Okay well politics is doing you."
To be alive is to be political... You are always "of the people" even if you don't think you are. Those who refuse to take sides during a genocide aren't for the oppressed and dying. They're for the killers. It's better to take a definitive side if you don't want to be labeled a heartless monster like the Zionists are.
But I think also one pays a price unconsciously - that you may not even be aware of - when you accept evil as a norm. Your view of life and your own life becomes degraded and cheap. Your personal fate can play an important role as well.
Belief in good government, is similar to religious belief. It's all faith because there has never been good government.( Never will be) And there is no proof of an after life!. You have but one life, that is Now! So live it.. Like Rush - Free Will-" If you choose not to decide, you still have made your choice". Those who vote , who play the game have nothing to complain about. Those of us who refuse to vote or be part of the game have every right to complain and to resist by any any means.
I'm not sure about the *only* one life assumption. I think there is a good possibility consciousness does go on in some manner. I don't base my leaning toward this on any theological texts, but the last 30+ years of NDE scientific research. Which is credible and now well established worldwide.
Ruled by billionaires is even worse than ruled by government. No regulations, no laws - the criminals and the exploiters will win everytime. Sure - it's great for the super rich, but for everyone else - it stinks.
George Orwell knew this. His well known quote:
.
In our times, everything is politics.
.
The Greeks and Romans:
Qui tacet consentire videtur.
By your silence you consent.
.
That said, try walking round Safeway (Woolies in Oz) and screaming out Hey guys, do something about Gaza! As you well know the masses walk around like zombies. The MIGO look, the fart in the lift, the shock of being confronted with something that isn't football, or Taylor Swift, or tonight's teevee special.
I write a political Substack. I always face the question: Am I preaching to the choir? If so, what is the point?
But there is always a point: To continue being beautiful and to continue speaking the Truth.
And then trust.
Keep on doing what you do, Caitlin. You are beautiful.
.
"Silence is complicity."
A French saying I heard from John Stockwell.
"Those who do not do politics will be done."
aka "I`m all right Jack"
Exactly! My British hubby says that phrase a lot about these "I'm not political" types. I think in the US the phrase would be, "What's it got to do with ME?"
Plato famously stated, "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
That is a penalty of apathy, on which I wrote my honors thesis 64 yrrs ago, asking not what are the effects of apathy but what is the cause. I found an answe I still agree with in the wod itself...
from the Greek a (without pathy: feeling, passion, suffering.
And that is why I disagree with this assertion from Caitlin's essay: "Saying you don’t feel like paying attention to these factors is just saying you’re fine with the way they are presently happening."
I find that to be not the case; in converrstions with people who have given up on politics, the reason is they found it too confusing, too stressful and too painful....messing up their heads..and so the cure is apathy, not to care not to suffer. I do not condemn these people as promoting the status quo, because they have found it too painful to think about and just dropped out.
Without doubt, at the same time, is is apathy, or indifference, which is the bedrock of power once gained..for those have dropped out no longer are threat but form a kind of silent consent, manifested in not objecting.
That is the paradox of apathy: it is a relief from a headache that cannot be cured by finding a solution but only by refusing to think about it, to ignore it, to wall it out. It provides leave from a pain which is caused by the status quo, and which can be avoided only by refusing to paricipate.
That this supports the status quo, I agree with and have for65 ys, but that is not WHY people become apathtic, which is not to support the status quo but to stop thinking about it to numb th pain.
So apathy, is a kind of numbing drug, which like religion or opium, can reduce the pain caused by a system that can only be changed by dealing with the pain and moving past it to opposing action.
This is the paradox of apathy, it relieves the pain of a system which by numbing it allows to continue. And so I do not judge or lecture those I meet who say, I have given up on politics, I just don't want to even think about it. I listen to them and understand why they have retreated.
I believe they will on re-engage which a person or idea or event may reveal to them that there is a way not to be part of the system without giving implicit consent, and that is to join with others, a journey most often begun as a retreat from isolatioin through another person whose hope or passion is contagious. IN other words, not thru being lectured their indifference is bad which only causes a deeper alienation but through friendship and inspiration.
I am hoping that this perspective opens up the possibiliy of change, joining with others in rebellion against the status quo, thru that "strange form of love" that those isolated and in withdrawal due to thier intense pain from the ways they know to participate, will experience if thy are heard and understood and invited to join a way of opposing the cause of the pain in soidaity with others. Is there any other way out of the hole you dig when you reject politics, unless you shift to New Age spiritualism or the life-transforming unity in hatred of fascism.
Herman Melville wrote something parallel to your observations:
“So true it is, and so terrible, too, that up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. They err who would assert that invariably this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart. It rather proceeds from a certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill. To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain. And when at last it is perceived that such pity cannot lead to effectual succor, common sense bids the soul be rid of it.”
Nevertheless, as Nader said in the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign, if you don’t turn on to politics, politics will turn on you.”
As John Lennon put, if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem.
I'm totally not happy about any of what's happening. The question is how to deflect it all???
Jack Daniels?
😆
tee hee
Bertolt Brecht: The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn't seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines, all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn't know, the imbecile, tht from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.