Politics always made me tune out. From my earliest memories of adult conversations at table, the pattern that emerges is a series of blanks. My parents and their friends spoke of far-away things and none of it had any bearing on my small world. Could I please be excused to play outside?
Later I made a stab at formulating political opinions of my own. Having paid so little attention to any issues larger than my own small world, all I could do was restate what I’d read or heard. Analysis hadn’t begun for me yet and so I forwarded hearsay to fill the vacuum with beliefs I pretended were my own.
Inevitably there is talk of politics. Digging around for something to add to the conversation, all that appeared had already been said. In my better moments, I remembered that it was wise to remain silent rather than advance an opinion that I could neither justify nor defend.
Very recently I struck something solid: I actually believe something! I’ll write about what it is when I have a clearer idea of it.
[Update: I don't believe in anything after all.]
I was all excited until I saw your update.
“Having paid so little attention to any issues larger than my own small world, all I could do was restate what I’d read or heard. Analysis hadn’t begun for me yet and so …”
Let me get this straight: your first step in coming up with an analysis of your own was to jettison your own existential basis.
No kidding.
That made sense /how/?
We have options of where to branch: the tyranny of family politics? or how de-bug and collaborate are expressions of simple sanity (or not)?
–bentrem