To be frank, this is a topic I tend to avoid in any conversation, but I thought it was about time I confronted my personal fear and discussed my perspective on how it seems men specifically should respond to the political agendas of their day and age. The reason I am directing my writing towards men is because I fell I can relate to them most. Non-men, I assure you, may or may not relate to what and how I think.
Politics..... In a day and age where the vast amount of information is fed through the vomit of social media and television; I find it trifling to grasp any necessity of substance in this plague of religious, narcissistic, politically correct, misinformation epidemic I have been taught to call the information age. God forbid you disagree with someone or have a civil conversation about an opposing view on a topic such as migration or taxation of small businesses. Now granted, I may not be the most formally educated scholar or a renowned politician throughout the land, but what I do know is this, passivity has never served me or our country well.
"Between an uncontrolled escalation and passivity, there is a demanding road of responsibility that we must follow." Dominique de Villepin
It has become more and more apparent to me that even though we live in a time where we are remarkably detached from the decision-making that manipulates our everyday life, there is still a sense of responsibility that should be harnessed from day to day. For the lack of a better parallel, the old Christian adage seems appropriate "Take the log out of your own eye before the speck out of your brothers." Why I bring that saying around is this; I feel that it's time for us as men(specifically myself) to take more ownership of our immediate surroundings before we even begin to start thinking about things on a federal level. I want to focus on myself and build up my inner constitution of self-ownership that could be equal to the physical challenge of getting a six pack of abs. HA! Seriously, though, I think the lack of education and the commodity itself of emotional intelligence is a contributing factor to this day and age we live in. This inadequacy has been the fertilizer for complacency and lethargy to feed upon, which has left the larger picture issues to few rich and powerful humans at the top whom may or may not be morally equipped to care for society as a whole.
I am sure that in even writing this, people will miss my intentions, reconstruct them and aggressively attack, which I had to come to terms with. In the face of that, I do believe that men should be proactively responding to this political shit storm. Honestly how men take personal initiative to care about their immediate spheres of influence will look different from person to person. I do not think it would be intelligent to give a list of ways to be a society contributing citizen, maybe a list of principles would be better, but just like U.S. federal government, I could care less if you vote.
I want to see men, specifically myself, engage in life, and to be present emotionally and physically. If I have learned anything from working in a family business, it is this. The more ownership and sacrifice I have invested in my daily work the greater the probability that I will be willing to fight actively for it. I believe the same is with politics and life as a whole. If I take the time to care actively about my immediate surrounds of economics, family, friends, hobbies, and city, it seems that the instantaneous reaction would be my involvement in society as a whole. If positive cognitive attention is devoted to daily life and the muscle of self/societal awareness is consistently grown, I think it would be close to impossible to not say or do something about the issues that are at hand.
Some other small issues with politics in the U.S. is the pressure to conform to a two party system and the constant strain to have an opinion about things that in reality few have sway in. I could see maybe if I was a CEO of a major corporation that his company lobbies or being a senator of a state, then, perhaps, I would feel a need to influence the direction of politics in a way that I deem for the greater good.
Looking at the larger picture and calculating my personal power and sphere of influence, in these situations is a quaint two plus two problem in my mind. I've done the math, and the solution seems simple, I personally don't have impact on any political level currently. If I am going to invest my time into something I want it to be worthwhile and after looking at the current way our federal political system works I have decided that if and when I do get involved with the government it will be on a local and state level and that will be it. I personally am inspired by Benjamin Franklin and how he observed his social environment, saw a need, and then did things to change it. He helped begin some of the first firefighting organizations and hired people to sweep the streets. He was a proactive man in his community because he took ownership of it and cared enough to influence it for the better. He saw a need, found a solution, and got the people around him to back his resolution. In doing so, it opened greater doors of societal impact for him to walk through because he was diligent with his immediate surroundings.
In conclusion, how I think men should respond to politics I guess could simply be in the following.
~ If you see an immediate need, try not to ignore it, and help in some way.
~ Evaluate and calculate in which areas of life you have influence or sway in.
~ Start taking ownership of one's immediate surroundings and work against being passive by being proactive.
~ Contribute to local and state communities because they are where the general populous have authentic influence and can see tangible change.
~ Stop being a fanatic narrow-minded media puppet about which party is better than the other.
~ Read about men from history who have had an actual impact on society and learn from them.
~ Be open to being wrong.
I hope this article gets you headed in a new direction. Since I have started going down this path myself, I have felt relief from societal pressure and inner strength grow from starting to fight passivity. Please join me on this journey of caring about life and the world around us!
Comments, shares, and love are welcome!
Cheers,
Timothy
