RE: Politics and crap

Steve: It seems to me from some of your posts that you are probably a supporter of participatory democracy, or at least you are favorably disposed toward it. The crap variety of politics is an inevitable outcome of democracy. In fact, it could be argued that one does not exist without the other. So if you favor democracy, and obviously you are not favorably disposed toward crap politics, how do you resolve the dichotomy?

Hmm… “Participatory democracy,” as in ”everybody” rules? Uh… not really! But I’ll give your question a shot anyway…

To me, American politics (the art) engages the public in order to win support for what those in government want to do. For that reason, it’s essentially marketing. It attempts to emotionally connect the happenings in (and the decisions of) government with the general public and is often heavily influenced by BS.

There's “crap politics” in everything, though: one's country, job, family, life. Since it won’t go away, it’s best if you know how to navigate yourself through it (using it sparingly on your own behalf). And yeah, the more bodies involved, the more you’ve gotta “break it down” sometimes, or make it — whatever “it” is — mean something to everyone.

However, crap politics do make people pay attention, and I believe that it pays to pay attention; in time, it makes you smarter. It also, in time, makes you better and better at deciphering the BS. And the smarter people become, the less people need — or can utilize — the kind of crap politics we’ve been discussing around here lately.