Let’s face it. Most people are well-intentioned.
And many well-intentioned people ask themselves hard questions on a regular basis such as “Should I do or say something?” or “Am I being considerate enough of others?”.
Well, this ‘soul searching’ is good, and IMHO, we are wise to keep those things in mind. So, for me, the number of my opinion posts that ‘lean’ into politics made me ask myself, “Am I supposed to be ashamed of being political?”.
We know that people are ‘sensitive’ about political topics so perhaps I should keep that volume down a bit because there are obviously many other things to discuss, right?
Gardening, family, Nature, Pop culture, celebrities, sports, my future plans, etc. came to mind. What a surprise! Every one of those topics, and every other one that I ‘grabbed’ at, had a political thread if discussed to any level past ‘small talk’.
Don’t believe me?
Gardening and Nature get straight to Climate Change and the economy.
Family? Many (to most) of us have members with ‘gender issues’, have kids in *public education, have members with ‘drug’ and/or ‘medical’ concerns and have members who are experiencing a ‘financial’ pinch.
Pop culture? We know how quickly that goes political!
Sports? This too has been ‘tainted’ so much that a former football junkie like me hasn’t watched a game in 6 years.
Future plans? Don’t those things almost entirely depend on the political ‘management’ of our country?!
Are you seeing the same trend that I am?
It wasn’t me who did that.
I’ll leave the investigation of “Who did that?” for another thread.
Then I asked myself another question once I made that ‘everything’s political’ discovery. So, is keeping an ‘eye’ on politics a ‘bad thing’?
My answer is basically “No” (It can be overdone on a personal level.). It’s becoming abundantly clear that if a country doesn’t have a base-line cultural value system it’s in trouble. If many things actually have a thread of ‘politics’ (as I have revealed) then having healthy political systems are one of the MOST important things and the citizenry has to pursue a consensus for everyone’s sake.
Last question, “But what about everyone’s sensitive feelings about politics, shouldn’t I protect them?”
Brace yourself…
That’s a great big “Nope”. Staying silent (or being silenced) is not an option in a “free society” if you want to keep it.
I still don’t know if I’m supposed to be ashamed of “being political” according to some modern etiquette plan?
What I DO know is my own value system won’t let me even consider complying with that idea.
* Whether you agree with “woke” school policies or not, the point of this post is “everything is political”. Talking about schooling leads to “woke” policies quickly.
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