There are times, an intermittent madness on my part, when striving for a social, economic or political target seems to beg for clarity and classification. Although all that I have to go on are incomplete notes and a bit of experience, recent events have illustrated that it might be possible for us to move beyond the 19th and 20th centuries, and engage in a new sort of public discourse. It’s not all wine and roses, but the politics of conformity is decidedly loosening its grip on the way people choose to manifest their beliefs and desires.
The moment we take up a label and stick it to our lapel, we inspirit a kind of doppelganger of ourselves which surrounds us and our potentialities. As a phantom in broad daylight, this ghostly apparition begins to act in ways that we ordinarily would not, but the deeper we go into political theories, the more herculean the task of breaking out of that unholy placenta of conditioned thought. That is ideology, which forms politics; the very same anti-human specter to be found in hardened theological debate. These walking, talking psychological scaffolds would have us leave the way of love, respect, and social cohesion. They are no friends at all.
By logical extension, this ghost of preconditioned potentials is why I take issue with any elected official who purports to be wise enough to make laws in every field. Democracy should not be a forum of lawyers elected by predetermined political abstractions and rhetoric, but an organic set of relations, beginning in our workplaces and livelihoods, and extending to the community as a whole.
My political views and goals are to live ἀγάπη "agape": unconditional, selfless, active, volitional, and thoughtful love. Admittedly, this kind of love is a very difficult goal to achieve on a large scale. Nevertheless, this starting point does not abrogate my responsibility as a human being to take an active part in building a better community. To the contrary, it is a fundamental principle of honest, constructive, civic engagement. Under this banner, I cannot walk into a debate immediately poised to counter someone else's ideas, but to look beyond the political façade for common ground. In that common spirit of respect we can build the kind of society which will encourage, not merely tolerate, the essential dignity of the human person.
***
