Why Your Political Zeal is Misplaced
Do you care deeply about a hot topic? Are you fired up about a wedge issue? Do your fingers smite the keyboard with righteous wrath whenever you come across a political post that rubs you the wrong way? If so, your political zeal is almost certainly misplaced. Your favorite politician—you know, the one who really “gets it”—is manipulating your deeply held, legitimate concerns in a cynical bid to build his/her own power base. Yes, that politician. Yes, your party.
If you genuinely care about an issue and you truly want to create positive change, you should fight as hard as you possibly can to prevent it from becoming a political “wedge” issue.
Our two party system thrives on division. Division stirs up activism, mobilizes voters, and triggers a spasmodic injection of crisp, green dollar bills into the coffers of the party. It is positively delicious. The best way to draft an army is to have a formidable, infinitely evil enemy. If you don’t have one, you must create one. Politicians don’t care if the enemy they create is your next door neighbor, your parents, or your best friend. If you are truly loyal to The Cause, you will “unfriend” anyone who disagrees, even your own flesh and blood.
Politicians are financially and politically empowered by unsolved wedge issues, especially those wedge issues that are critically important to the greatest number of people.
If you think about it, you will immediately recognize that politicians have some pretty strong motivations to actively work against real solutions to controversial problems. Because when these problems are solved, their angriest, most motivated supporters begin to relax. When political warriors are no longer fired up, they will go home and have a beer with The Enemy. They will stop posting fiery partisan memes and start posting cat pictures instead. That is a losing strategy for the ruling class. So it is useful to keep the worst problems raw—bleeding like an open wound. Unsolved, unhealed.
Zeal is a great motivator. That is why the party would rather see you using your zeal to get them elected instead of using it to create legitimate solutions.
Make no mistake: electing a politician is not a legitimate solution to any problem. That is why your zeal is misplaced if it is being used for politics—your party is using your zeal and pouring it like gasoline onto the conflagration that is our two party system. The party is not doing that in order to solve the problems that you care about so much. The party is doing that in order to maintain their own power structure.
The truly subversive idea is undermining the power structure of the ruling class by promoting unity among the ruled.
Winning a war is not the same thing as solving a problem. The goal of war is to crush and dominate the other side. Then you can impose your power. This is highly unstable and is not a real solution. It sows the seed of its own destruction.
Exploiting important problems to create divisions, solidify power, and advance your ideology is criminal.
Calling your opponent a "Rethuglicunt" or a "Demoncrap" is not a good win.
The human flaws that promote division: 1-it feels good to be morally superior 2-it feels like “doing something” when you express rage (but actually it isn’t) 3-it is frustrating to deal with people we do not understand, so it is easier to demonize them than understand them. (muslim terror) finding common ground with the enemy seems to be “wrong” until we realize that the common enemy is NOT other people, it is a problem that needs to be solved. Compromise seems weak when it is really strength. We are simplistic in our thinking.
Use your zeal to STOP issues from becoming wedges.
Can you see that wedge issues will not be solved?
Issues where there is unity and consensus will be solved. Disunity starts wars, not solve problems.
Imagine a man having a disagreement with his wife: Call her names. Refuse to listen. Accuse her of having bad intentions. Never compromise. Mock and ridicule her. Post derogatory memes about her. Refuse to speak to any relatives that try to stand up for her. Use your superior strength to force her to do what you want. How well will that work?
Your job is to create unity and consensus not perpetuate division and an eternal cycle of failure to resolve the problem.