Too many voices with little to say: Politics matters less and less to me

By David McElroy · July 27, 2012

There was a time when I wanted to change the world through politics. I grew up believing that a great, moral people elected wise leaders, who then made decisions in our best interests. If I could just become one of those leaders, I could change so much and help so many.

But I finally grew up and quit believing in fairy tales.

I’m having more and more and more trouble lately being interested in politics, even enough to write about the subject. If you’re not a partisan of the two major “teams” — and you have no illusion that enough people are going to adopt your ideas to put them into practice — it’s pretty boring to watch the political spectacle. Have you ever tried to separate yourself from the shouting participants in the political process and just observed the way they interact with each other? It’s sickening.

If you’re a part of one side or the other, you imagine that the people on your side are the kinder and more intelligent and more well-meaning. You notice the positive examples of people on your side, but you don’t notice the many angry, hateful people on your own team. On the other side, you see screaming idiots who hate you and don’t have a good bone in their bodies. When you’re caught up in that trap, you have no idea how much the two sides are mirror images of one another.

This world isn’t going to be changed through politics. I’ve made that argument many times here. You either agree with me or you don’t. But for those of us who’ve decided that politics can’t change anything, the question is why we continue to pay even as much attention to the entire slimy mess as we do.

Some people will tell us that if we don’t pay attention to politics, we’re going to be controlled by it. Frankly, you’re going to be controlled by it anyway, so you don’t have any choice in that matter. The honest person who doesn’t believe in the process will either look for a way out or simply ignore the whole thing and concentrate on the things that matter.

And that’s the really interesting question. What are the things that matter? It’s certainly not the shouting idiots on television. It’s certainly not the smooth-talking politicians. So what does matter?

For me, it’s big things and little things. It’s the excitement of joy at experiencing God sometimes. It’s one of my purring cats climbing into my lap and going to sleep. It’s the joy of reading beautifully written words. It’s the voice of a certain woman. It’s the realization of the arrival of email from someone I want to hear from. It’s the hope of maybe becoming the man I was made to be.

It’s listening to people tell me their stories and finding out the things that matter to them. It’s times when I suddenly figure out some truth that’s eluded me. It’s the joy of some piece of art that suddenly means something to me. It’s the times when I can help someone, sometimes just in very small ways. It’s the moments of satisfaction I can have every now and then to feel that someone loves me.

It’s all of those things and a million more things. They’re the things that make life worth living. The further I get from politics, the more I experience these things. The more I have my eyes on the things that matter, the happier I am. The more I have my eyes on politics, the more disgusted and angry and alienated I am.

Lately, I’m more and more interested just in paying attention to the culture around me and to the values and psychology of people. I don’t necessarily like most people most of the time, but maybe I can love them and make the world a better place in small ways even if I don’t especially like them.

You can’t make a difference in the world through politics. You can make a difference in the lives of individuals, even if the society as a whole is too sick to repair. Maybe it’s the best we can do.

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I’m seeing a lot of simplistic and dishonest explanations right now for the current rioting in France. Those on the populist far right claim it’s all about Muslim immigrants to France disrupting the culture. Their message is that this sort of thing is going to happen in the U.S. unless “we defend the border.” On the far left, socialists and their fellow travelers claim the riots are all about wealthy people in France not paying enough taxes, resulting in cuts to government services. The truth is far more complicated, but it’s rooted in the decline of population growth in Europe. There simply aren’t enough young workers paying into the tax system anymore, so cuts in social services were inevitable. There is genuine cultural tension as more and more people immigrate from other countries, but government cuts to education and other services are even more important to what’s happening. The situation is complicated, so don’t let dishonest people with U.S. political agendas tell you that it happens to support whatever they were already promoting for partisan reasons.

Here’s another reason to appreciate the cats in your life: New research involving 93 countries found that places with more cats per person also tended to have happier people. The researchers say the finding fits with previous evidence that living with pets can reduce loneliness and stress while providing companionship, emotional attachment and social support. The study doesn’t prove that cats cause greater happiness, but it certainly adds to the evidence that sharing your home — and your life — with a cat might be good for you.

The company that owns Facebook and Instagram is heavily promoting its new AI-based software assistant called Muse, but people who are using it as it was designed are incredibly foolish. An early adopter of the software discovered that a few days ago when he advertised an item for sale on Facebook Marketplace — and he inadvertently gave Muse full authority to act on his behalf. The software agreed to a lowball offer made by another Facebook user and then gave that man the home address of the man for whom he was an agent. The software told the buyer that the seller was home and waiting for him. When the buyer showed up and waited angrily, the would-be buyer left an angry review for the man. And this angry man had the seller’s home address. It was only well after that that the software reported what it had done and admitted it had made a mistake. I won’t be putting that much power into the hands of any software. I think anyone who agrees to such terms is a fool. And the software’s user agreement says you’re responsible for purchases the software makes in your name. Nope.

Meet my new girlfriend. Her name is Meg. And she’s my little sweetheart. A couple of months ago, a neighbor across the street told me about a new stray in the neighborhood that she and I were both soon feeding. The cat had been very skittish about contact and she had a lot of scabs and parasites in her fur, but a trip to the vet last week revealed that she was otherwise in good health. The vet estimates her to be 1 to 2 years old. I named her for Meg Murry, the 13-year-old protagonist of Madeleine L’Engle’s wonderful book, “A Wrinkle in Time.” (Please read the book. Don’t watch the horrible movie.) Since we lost Lucy almost a year ago, it seems appropriate that we finally have a new little girl to join the household. She’s already captured my heart, but Alex, Oliver and Sam aren’t there quite yet.

There’s nothing socially acceptable that’s as dangerous as drinking alcohol. Most people grow up being told to “drink responsibly” — and all of us see people abusing this drug in one way or another — but the truth is that drinking alcohol is always a terrible risk. The alcohol in these drinks is toxic and the human liver has to work hard to filter the toxins out. What most people don’t realize is that alcohol is classified as a known carcinogen by the World Health Organization — because of the well-established connection between imbibing and various cancers. Many people have taken refuge behind the idea that light or moderate drinking might be safe, but a new study shows that drinking even one drink a day increases the risks of 10 types of cancer. When I was a teen-ager, I looked around and saw the negative effects that this behavior had on a lot of people and decided not to start drinking, so I’ve never even tried this poison. The evidence keeps piling up that I was lucky to have come to that conclusion early.

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