Some people like to pretend they are apolitical.
And it is a pretense. It’s impossible to be apolitical. Saying you are is often strategy way to avoid conflict or avoiding to get involved in social matters that impact you.
EVERYTHING IS POLITCS
Everything is politics. Politics is about what we value.
Everything in society reflects our collective values. Everything we individually chose and do reflects what we value.
Everything happening in society impacts us one way or another.
And when something happens in society that more directly impacts our personal life and goes against what we value, the pretense of being apolitical falls apart.
BEING “APOLITICAL” IN RUSSIA
We can see this in Russia these days. According to some sources, about a quarter actively support Putin and the war, about a quarter oppose Putin and the war, and about half are indifferent. As long as it doesn’t impact them, it’s fine. (We can see examples of this in some of the street interviews done about the war in Russia, for instance on the 1420 YT channel.)
That’s not how the world works. The war and the other Putin policies will and do impact you. You live in that society. You live in an authoritarian system. You live in a system based partly on corruption. You live in a system where people are not allowed to publicly speak their minds. You live in a system where political opponents to Putin are imprisoned or killed. You live in a society that goes to war against a democratic and sovereign neighbor. You live in a society where people are randomly drafted to be cannon fodder on the front. This impacts you. And it either matches or goes against what you value.
WHAT HAPPENS IS OUR BUSINESS
That’s the same for all of us. What happens in our society is our business whether we want it to be or not, and whether we pretend it to be or not.
These days, the one major issue is the ecological crisis we are all in the middle of. It’s already impacting most or all of us, and it will impact all of us in a much more obvious and direct way in the (near) future.
We all know this. And yet, most keep voting for politicians who don’t seem to know, pretend it’s not happening, or prioritize a large number of other (important and clearly less significant) issues above it.
Most people live as if it’s not the one major issue we are all faced with today. Most people chose to get caught up in peripheral issues.
This is not the fault of politicians or even corporations. It’s the fault of every single person who says they are apolitical or down-prioritize this issue.
Most people are like the fifty percent in Russia on this topic. And reality is going to bite – hard.
Note: This article was originally from one of the “Reflections on society, politics, and nature” collections of articles.
PRETENDING TO BE APOLITICAL
Some people like to pretend they are apolitical. And it is a pretense.
Everything is politics. Politics is about what we value. Everything in society reflects our collective values. And everything we individually chose and do reflects what we value.
Everything happening in society impacts us one way or another.
And when something happens in society that strongly goes against what we value, the pretense of being apolitical falls apart.
We can see this in Russia these days. According to some sources, about a quarter actively support Putin and the war, about a quarter disagree with Putin and the war, and about half are indifferent. As long as it doesn’t impact them, it’s fine.
That’s not how the world works. The war and the other Putin policies will and do impact you. You live in that society. You live in an authoritarian system. You live in a system based partly on corruption. You live in a system where people are not allowed to publicly speak their minds. You live in a system where political opponents to Putin are imprisoned or killed. You live in a society that goes to war against a democratic and sovereign neighbor. You live in a society where people are randomly drafted to be cannon fodder on the front. This impacts you. And it either matches or goes against what you value.