A Political Interlude

I'm not the activist type.  As much as I'm often told I'd have been a hippie had I been born in an earlier generation, I am not sure that I'd have been the protesting sort...

Well, sure, I'm the protesting sort... I think my stubborn streak and temper makes that inevitable...

But, I just don't have the time to get involved, and there are hundreds, if not thousands of other people who speak and write more eloquently than I, and are better suited to being the spokesperson for any political viewpoint I hold.

My imaginary historical self wouldn't have been the person planning the protest, but would have signed up in a heartbeat to be there.

Probably would be true for me today, if someone told me there was going to be a protest...

...if it fit into my schedule... and didn't cost much to attend...

I'm admitting I'm part of the problem here, aren't I?



I had originally decided when I came up with the idea for this blog, that I wasn't ever going to discuss politics, except perhaps in an even-handed journalistic way, if something political happened that had some overarching link to Judaism.  I wanted to make sure that my readers were comfortable in this space, regardless of their political persuasion.

What changed?

First, I realized that by stating my opinions and interpretations of Judaism, I am taking a particular point of view, and one that may not (and almost 100% of the time, won't be) shared by everyone... Trying to mitigate that issue waters down any point I wish to make, and that won't be useful to anyone... And there's no use in trying to please everyone, so why attempt it?

Second, I am becoming increasingly concerned and frustrated by what passes for political discourse in our country... and I realized that this is not only a universal theme, but a distinctly Jewish one as well.  The number of intersections between our political landscape and Jewish values and philosophy are staggering.  I couldn't be acting more Jewish than by speaking about politics.



So, here I am, talking about politics...

I wonder why there aren't protests... in the new connected world of the flash-mob, why aren't there flash-protests?  Why aren't there people out in the streets screaming about the insanity?

I think my introduction gave several possibilities for answers:

• No one has free time for themselves, let alone to take time out for a political protest
• It costs money that people don't have
• People feel that others are better suited to handling the problems at hand

Here are a few more:

• Being online and connected, people feel their voices are either already heard, or lost in the crowd
• A feeling of being overwhelmed... Which issue to choose?  
• Despondency - nothing is going to change, why bother?
• Feeling disenfranchised - what can I possibly do?
• My life is complicated enough, let me just deal with my own mishegas...
• Fear - that being an activist will have negative consequences (losing your job or another important relationship because someone doesn't agree with your politics)
• Feeling it won't do any good - Protests that have occurred have been largely ignored by the parties they are aimed at (I have yet to see any results or changes in SOP due to the Occupy movement protests)

It's that last one that grabs me...  I remember feeling a sense of history repeating itself with the beginnings of the Occupy movement...  I thought, perhaps this will be my equivalent of living through the 1960s... protests across the country to promote social and economic change...

And it fell apart.

I'm not going to discuss why (because I'm not even sure) - but it did.
Nothing. Happened.
No one listened.

And so - why follow up with another round of big effort for no results?

It's very simply combat fatigue...


And that scares me.

Because what I am seeing and hearing out of the fundamentalist right-wing nutjobs is... Rediculogic...

Rediculogic - noun - argumentation whose premises violate multiple logical fallacies and where the conclusions are able to be invalidated by reductio ad absurdum, yet is presented and maintained by its authors and supporters as rational and mainstream thought.

Yes, I made up a word.  I do that.
(Ask me about "ventimated"...  :)

We have moved beyond simple rhetoric and hyperbole.  We have people not just trying to reduce women to property, and push LGBTQ folks back into the closet... they are making efforts to redefine the laws of thought.

The world will operate the way I want it to, or else.

I know kindergartners with a better grasp of reality...

So where are the protests?  Where are the petitions?  Where is the unified voice of reason saying "ENOUGH!"?

I know they're out there - but the effort is fragmented, poorly funded (for the most part), and largely ignored.

So, how can we change this?  Because change this we must... The alternative is simply terrifying...