Politics affects you whether you like it or not

[ I angrily wrote this after a conversation I had with someone, so it’s a little more fiery than how I usually present my ideas :) ]

So you might as well have an opinion

You can’t “opt out of politics” by not paying attention.

It doesn’t work that way, so you might as well give a fuck and have some opinions that you care about.

Where there are people, there are politics, whether thats at work or your group of friends or in the community live in.

But I can’t do anything anyway

This is absolute denial, and even worse, a bad excuse.

But I can understand why people think you can, and to some extent that is true.

I know that because I felt the same way earlier this year. and I’ve procrastinated problems til they kinda just “went away”, but they didn’t.

Those past problems are now permanent broken relationships, missed opportunities, and with some, I still haven’t learned my lesson.

Real cynicism is “being helpless”

To me, helplessness is the final stop on the propaganda train. Meaning, you feel helpless, propaganda did it’s job and it’s onto the next person.

While it's true that I can't just call up XYZ person to start changing today, I certainly can do at least the bare minimun, which is to voice my opinions to someone who cares and wants to listen.

That's really it.

If that's all I’ve got, at least I've done something, rather than be cynical and do nothing.

What if

A thought experiment that’s useful: if everybody thought one certain way, e.g. if I’m just a small guy with no power, then who cares, why should I do anything?

If everyone thought that, it's going to be extremely easy for someone with any sort of person to steamroll en entire population and get their way. Whether the intentions are evil or good doesn't matter - that person's opinion is going to win because everyone is apathetic.

On the flip side, if everybody at least cares a little bit, gives a little bit of a fuck, or better yet gives lots of fucks, then the opposite is gonna happen. It's going to be extremely hard to steamroll that person.

Conversations lead to unity

A common problem between the individual and the collective is wondering “what can I do as an individual”?

You might feel alone, even though 15 others have the same.

And 15 individuals are so much weaker compared to those same 15 having conversations about what’s important to them, thru which you realize any and all individuals can (and should) stand with each other, rather than trying to have their opinions alone.

Never underestimate the power of having conversations

and especially never underestimate the power of unity.

Small things are not so small

Even if something is seemingly silly, seemingly unimportant and inconsequential, like one single person’s vote in an election.. you might say “ahh whatever it doesn’t matter”

And it’s partially true; if one person doesn't vote, that's not the end of the world. When you multiply that across the entire population when it becomes powerful.

So in some ways you, the one person, can't do anything.

But that's not how societies work.

That's not how societies have been built

and that's not how societies have been destroyed

There's a reason each individual person votes, and that's because if everybody has that same attitude, then it adds up to something very meaningful.

So we should treat the rest of our lives like that: what we do at work, how we view politics at work.

Again… Politics affects you either way

Whether you think so or not, politics affects you. Whether you tune out and don't really watch the news for a week, a month, a year, you're still being affected.

So you might as well have an opinion about something that's gonna affect you either way.

Stand for something, or fall for anything

Until next time.