The Price of Silence
Recently I got into a political argument with a friend, which, rather predictably, ended with us retreating to our respective corners to nurse our wounds. After tempers had cooled, I mulled over the incident. Perhaps my vehemence had been inappropriate, but was I right to engage?
They say you should never discuss religion or politics in public, and I can aver from personal experience that my forays into political debates with friends and family have, almost always, been met with yawns, eye-rolls, and barely disguised disinterest or discomfort. That is understandable. People lead busy lives. The combative nature of modern politics is dispiriting and a media environment that relishes contests and ignores substance is unhelpful. Then there is the information overload, which makes us retreat into cocoons, hoping that our circle of friends will act as trusted filters. It hasn’t helped that a myth of individualistic success and obstructionist and ineffective government has been perpetuated so successfully as to become pervasive. Yes, it is understandable.
But it is not acceptable.
Because we are inundated with a never-ending tirade of demagoguery, and because affairs of state are reported irresponsibly in a he-said, she-said template, we forget that, underneath it all, decisions that affect our lives are taken each day by people who we have had the opportunity to elect or reject. Minor bills are passed that can have major impacts in our lives. No amount of wealth or influence can protect us from the e-coli in our spinach, nor can a fancy car protect us if we are driving over a bridge that has not been repaired due to lack of funds. No gated community can protect us from the criminality that arises from inequity or the natural disaster that is untended because of cuts in emergency personnel.
We may elect our politicians because we like the cut of their jib or the sparkle in their smile, but behind their rhetoric is actual voting history, bills tendered and passed. We may despise a politician for not delivering on an issue we care about, or having weak negotiating stances but, once again, they have complete records in black and white for us to peruse.
And we can choose to educate ourselves and others, or we can pretend it is all happening to someone else. We can choose to let uninformed opinion stand, or we can become the trusted provider of facts. For the 99 people who cannot be moved, there will be the one who says, “Really? Tell me why you are right and I am wrong.” Or, better yet, one will say, “Let me tell you why I am right and you are wrong,” and we will learn something new.
Vidya Pradhan
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Comments
Point well taken, and like you I tend to be open and forthright about my politics.
Nothing wrong in saying why you voted for someone or why you would have, and discuss policies openly, freely and passionately. What is wrong with that?
How did the US become so closed and uptight, though political detachment and dismissiveness have been growing for the last thirty year? Now it is nice to see the youth and others on the street showing their political views, opinions and comments.
Conservatives love to pay huge amounts of money for their victory...but they don't want you to vote or have a strong government. And, I don't know what small government means! Ten people or hundred people? :))
People love to hate government in places that I travel (don't ask me where...lots of places where I roll my eyes often :)) ), but they never seem to say why beyond what is repeated over and over again on FOX or CNN.
As a Canadian noted to me in Toronto, "There is only three kind of American politics: I don't know, I don't care and don't take my gun away!" Funny, but sort of true!
In response to Dr. MS, I'd like to add that the following:
There is another kind of American politics that has become a very vocal one, a jaw-clenching mentality that makes my eyes roll: "Get the government out of my affairs, but don't touch my Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, FHA loan ... " etc.
Generally, in the 1960s, we spoke openly of politics. In the 1970s, it continued and then began to wane. In the 1980s, it waned even more as the "Me" generation emerged. In the 1990s, life was better all around, but it wasn't to continue into the next decade. In the 2000s, there was a drastic 180 in which a person was condemned unless you towed the reigning party's line. In the 2010s, we now see a division that may not have been seen as clearly since the American War Between the States, or the Uncivil War.
It is our privilege and our right to support or to criticize the actions of any or all three branches of government, legislative, judicial and executive. After all, they are our employees, no matter who they are or what party they belong to. This doesn't mean we have to argue; discussion that includes listening can build bridges.
What we Americans had lost sight of is our right to speak our minds and protest the unjust, and that means everyone. Perhaps Arab Spring had reminded us of that.
It is always the young who rise up ... with those of us older folks who were young once and lit a fire ...
Dear Jeanne,
I agree with you on some of the lack of policy diversity, discusssion and debate beyond "either or" approach. I don't think half of America knows how bad the budget issue is. Medicare is going to collapose unless the selfish and self serving adults are willing to look at the policy objectively - without destroying it, Defense Budget, etc.
Unfortunately the third voice always moves further to the Right, and gets even more conservative. There are people in politics who think independently and critically...but they don't always have the establishment parties to support them. Who outside the conservative groups do you think opposed the Jobs Bill? Conservative and so-called centrist Democrats! Think of that.
Keep reading, talking and many who are not the young are involved too. They are the intellectually protestors.
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