I’ve been having difficulty selecting topics for my blog posts lately.
I’ve been having difficulty not because I don’t have ideas. I have plenty. My problem is, the topics that have been consuming me of late have been political, and I really really try to avoid partisan politics on this blog.
Why avoid politics?
First off, I avoid the topic because other authors have made asses of themselves when they get embroiled by Things Political. It doesn’t matter how flawless my reasoning might be, someone from the other side of the spectrum might easily view me as a tin-foil-hat-wearing conspiracy nut and click “unfollow.” When I look at it dispassionately, it’s a ridiculous reason—I don’t have anything close to the readership of those other authors, so pissing off a chunk of my readers won’t affect me materially—but still, my initial reaction is to be circumspect.
I also avoid the topic because it is so polarizing. We (as a society, as neighbors, as friends) used to be able to discuss the state of our political affairs with civility, but now, it’s a minefield that can destroy relationships in the blink of an eye. This reason doesn’t make much more sense than the first one, though. I don’t have a personal relationship with most of you readers and, if you and I do have a personal friendship, you already know my political stance, so anything I say probably won’t surprise you.
A third reason is that I have explicitly stated in the policies on my About page that I avoid politics, but this, too, is silly, as I include (on that page) the caveat: “No promises.”
Yet, despite the weakness of these reasons, I remain loath to post about politics. This election cycle encompasses the widest ideological divide seen in more than a generation. We have candidates on the far left and right, some closer to the center, and one or two that can’t be pinned down at all. The electorate is angry, passionately so, and seems ready to burn down the house rather than try to repair it, which only deepens the divide.
And thus, my final reason for avoiding the topic: It’s futile.
I have no illusions on this score. Regardless of how impassioned my prose is or how glittering my logic might be, I’m unlikely to change your mind. People generally don’t want to discuss, analyze, evaluate, reconsider, or compromise. They want quick, simple answers, and seem willing to swallow a lot of unpleasant side dishes as long as they get the entrée they want.
But this is serious. It’s serious, it’s complicated, it has far-reaching implications, and what we do will make a difference in the years to come.
I just don’t know how we go about getting ourselves out of our separate trenches and back to our seats across the table from one another.
How do we return to civility and discourse?
Suggestions are welcome.
k
“There you go, bringing class into it again!”
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Yip.
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Thank you for posting the sort of post I have been thinking about posting.
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De nada.
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Oh, please, keep blogging because I think your blog is wonderful! Please keep writing about writing, spelling and quirks of usage. Favorite words and ways to use them (cramp??? clamp???) Books and book reviews, What you see from the window of the bus. Festivals and seasons (Spring is about to sproink!) Gardening. Recipes. Fun family stories. Favorite sports teams or favorite TV shows or movies. Keep it fun so we can have a break from the other stuff!
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Well, that’s a great reason to keep going, just to counter all the bloviating nabobs on the 24-hr “news” channels. Thanks!
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Being Canadian, and living in Mexico, I watch with dismay what is happening to your country. It really comes as no surprise that peaceful, intelligent people should be agonizing impotently over this obscenity that is the GOP race and the way it is sidelining any hope of a civil debate. The world is watching with bated breath.
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A Canadian in Mexico…Then you’re about to be walled off from America. From all reports, while D is building the southern one, smart Canadians will be building one on our north. 😉
And there are internecine battles on the left, too. The tenor is less grammar-school-playground, but it’s there, all the same.
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I think there’s a fallacy in believing a return to general civility is an achievable goal. You and I don’t have to be impolite, but we exert little control over the general gracelessness of those outside our own family and friends.
Historically, these national bouts of bad behavior are cyclical, perhaps even biological. Animals bluff-fight all the time, defending territory, jockeying for position in a hierarchy. But as individuals, we have the capacity to choose to share and to be nice, helpful, encouraging. It doesn’t matter if others notice. Acting ethically shapes us, even in the absence of witnesses.
If nothing else, we can always wait, and refuse to make things worse. All empires decline.
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Thanks for the thoughtful response, but while civility may indeed be unachievable in this cycle/decade/lifetime, I sure hope we can eventually return there.
In my opinion, the polarization we see–and the incivility it engenders–are symptoms of a dying order. We’re approaching a social seismic shift in America, where the predominant zeitgeist is beginning to crumble under its own weight. And you are correct: it is cyclical, as new generations predictably react to the precepts and patterns of those who came before.
Weathering this storm may indeed be the best we can hope for. I, for one, will not move to Canada, regardless of who wins this election, but I may retire somewhere else, if certain trends continue.
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I’m not going anywhere myself. We did move from a big city to a small town back in 2010, and being more easily able to have face-to-face relationships with our neighbors was part of that choice.
Perhaps we’ll meet and smile on some path in future 🙂
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