Puck on... Politics pt. 6

You’re awfully quiet.  What do you have to say for yourself?

Nothing.

Don’t give up just yet; we’ve barely scratched the surface. Tell me something, does it surprise you that you could perform an action thinking it was for the best, thinking it would spread the word, bring about good things, and yet what you sacrificed in order to do it sullied the very victory you finally attained?

No.

There’s a word for that you know: Pyrrhic victory. A quite succinct description of politics, don’t you think? At the end of the day, you may have gained much, but what has it cost you?

But how quickly you forget, or choose to forget. You follow these causes, these laws, these parties, these candidates, so feverishly. Does it not occur to you what sort of message you are sending, what sort of image this conveys? You, who hold the truth of the universe, embroiled in petty squabbles, no better than all the other rabble. No better? No, worse, for you ought to know better. Yours is a timeless ideal, and you rake it through the mud like it was a naughty child’s play thing.

Oh, I know what they would say. Perhaps not you, but others not so unlike you. They would say they don’t care what the world thinks, that they don’t put two cents on it, that they will stand for what is right even if everyone says it’s wrong. But is that the issue here? Hmm? Does it occur to none of you? Have you completely forgotten? That your actions can and do have an effect on the truth you are trying to convey? It may not matter how they think of you but should it not matter how they perceive your message? And if all they see is you, what sort of message will they perceive?

But still you hide behind your minor afflictions like a martyr, thinking the pebbles that peck you are well-earned badges of righteousness. Has it ever occurred to you that the world is not so far-gone yet that it will truly accept a hypocrite? Tolerate perhaps, but not support. Your “persecutions” in the public sector, if they even can be called that and not make a mockery of real martyrs, are not the result of your virtue but your pettiness, dare I say your worldliness. For the world will judge you by your convictions, your words, deeds and your rules. They will hoist you with your own petard the first chance they get. They may not be better themselves, but they have no tolerance for those who are supposed to be.

But you, or those not so unlike you, go right back to it. No matter the cost, no matter the consequences. They don’t care about what the world thinks, because they don’t care about the world. But that does make one wonder.

Aren’t those the people you’re trying to save?