Election Hangover
Why do politics feel so yucky?
Name one thing that gets people so fired up, so angry, so upset, so divided as politics. What is it than can get us so emotional and distraught? So excited and fearful and even despairing? Why do you think that is the case? Some people I know pay it no attention and are the happier for it. They cannot imagine how the decisions of lawmakers and governors, presidents and judges affect their lives. They seem to be the exception. Most of us feel very strong positive or negative emotions when a new decision from a capitol is announced.
Mao Tse-Tung (chairman of the Chinese Communist Party 1949-1976) put it this way: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun". The power of the state is coercive force under threat of death. Those who find themselves on the wrong side of the law could lose their freedom, their property, their livelihood, their reputation, their children, or their lives. With so much at stake, who can blame anyone for being so emotionally invested in the outcome of political struggles?
It is easy enough to celebrate when our desired outcome wins the day. When our candidate wins the election, when a judge rules the way we hoped, or a law is passed that we think is best it gives us a rush. We won! The world is a better place! Now the wrongs will be righted and justice will prevail!
I am sure that sometime in the past few years you've been on the recieving end of some nasty gutwrenching feelings. The candidate you REALLY hate got into office. A new law or mandate forces you to do things you feel strongly against. A court decision leaves you feeling unprotected, unsafe, and unfree. It's a horrible feeling! We wish there was somewhere to run to, or something we could do to stop it. FLIGHT OR FIGHT?
What triggers our survival instinct? Why does our adrenlaline kick in? I believe John Locke said it eloquently over 2 centuries ago:
"[He who attempts to get another man into his absolute power, does thereby put himself into a state of war with him; it being to be understood as a declaration of a design upon his life: for I have reason to conclude, that he who would get me into his power without my consent, would use me as he pleased when he had got me there, and destroy me too when he had a fancy to it; for no body can desire to have me in his absolute power, unless it be to compel me by force to that which is against the right of my freedom, i.e. make me a slave. To be free from such force is the only security of my preservation; and reason bids me look on him, as an enemy to my preservation, who would take away that freedom which is the fence to it; so that he who makes an attempt to enslave me, thereby puts himself into a state of war with me. He that, in the state of nature, would take away the freedom that belongs to any one in that state, must necessarily be supposed to have a design to take away every thing else, that freedom being the foundation of all the rest; as he that, in the state of society, would take away the freedom belonging to those of that society or commonwealth, must be supposed to design to take away from them every thing else, and so be looked on as in a state of war."
John Locke "Second Treatise on Civil Government" chapter 3 section 17
When the outer layers are stripped away and we get down to the essential core of it, political struggle is a kind of ongoing civil war. That is why it is so traumatic for participants.
Now I hear you saying "Yes! I know that feeling. THEY did this to me, and I didn't like it! THEY made me do things I didn't want to do. THEY took away my property and my freedom, THEY jeopardized my well-being and made me fear. My enemies are tyrants!"
And what irrational hypocrites, too! When they lose they get all mad that their freedom is being taken away. They are crybaby snowflakes when they are forced to conform to the greater good, but when they take YOUR rights, they gloat and celebrate.
Do you gloat when they lose? Even when you know how it feels? Does the payback make it even more satisfying? "Now you know how I felt last year! Eat it!" The temptation to use the proxy power of the state against our neighbors and even our brothers and sisters to accomplish our will is intoxicating, amplified by the trauma of having been overpowered in a previous skirmish.
Why are we so incapable of applying the golden rule to this area of our lives? "Do to others as you would have them do to you". Perhaps the buffer provided by the state removes us from the suffering of our enemies. Maybe outsourcing our violence allows us to remove ourselves from owning it. It is not me hurting them, it is the law. Or perhaps we really are that cruel?
It is becoming more apparent that we are very soul sick. We are so attached to our right to take a life that we are willing to end a life to protect the right to end a life. That is a culture of death, without question. It is much easier to work against "them" to keep them from hurting others than to do the hard work of self analysis, healing, repentance, and empathy. "If it saves even one life", would you be willing to address your own involvement in death culture? Would you make yourself uncomfortable long enough to understand someone else's experience? Could you wait a lifetime to see someone else's heart change because of the relationship they had with you and the way they saw your heart change? Are you willing to have your heart broken and and to be vulnerable If it could end the civil war? Or do you just want to win at all costs, escalating the anger and alienation till it's gone too far and we all lose? What seeds we plant determine what we harvest.
photos from pixabay