Puck on... Politics pt. 12

And, of course, it doesn’t stop there. I trust you have realized by now how the whole process is riddled, nay rife with that little concept we talked about earlier.

“Us and Them.”

Yes. We might call it the law of politics so endemic is it to the system itself. Why it’s what the system is built on. After all, what’s the point of striving for power if there’s no one to strive against? That’s where politics gets its power. It implants the idea that one side is salvation and one damnation, then feeds off the fruit of its labors. The backbiting, the empty promises, the general hypocrisy are all symptoms of this, this underlying vein of thought that winds through everything. Reaching across the aisle is even used in this way, with one side insisting that it would be more than willing to do so if only the other side would cooperate, by which it means stop being the other side and agree with them, and the other side is simultaneously saying the exact same thing. Oh, it’s delicious.

It’s getting to the point where it needn’t be hid. Do you know that in this very political season the phrase “lesser of two evils” has actually been used? And not ironically, either. Quite seriously. It’s hardly to be believed. You’re practically doing our job for us. Does it occur to none of you that that statement carries with it so much misunderstanding and simple-minded thinking that the wisest of every generation have regarded it as little more than a joke? Setting aside the sheer idiocy of the idea, “the lesser of two evils” means you are still picking an evil. And that assumes, of course, that the one you are choosing really is the lesser. How can you be sure? Are you really picking him because he is more righteous, or I should less unrighteous, than the other? Or are you simply picking him because he isn’t the other?

Ah, there’s the rub. Us and Them. Such a useful tool. So many applications. Both sides employ it, for it’s what drives them. And the hypocrisy of even those who think they are above it, who think they are superior to the rabble that don’t know how to think for themselves. Even you aren’t above it. How much of your life is dictated by it? Don’t be so demure.

And all those little people who think they are backing the right horse for no other reason than because he is the only other horse to back. Where’s the progress? And see how they judge the others for the same action. How they accuse them of constructing their cult of personality around their man, thinking him their savior. And what are they doing by detesting him? Are they not constructing their own cult of personality around him but simply in the negative? For worship and hatred are two sides of the same coin. They come from the same place. They each give power to the object adored or despised.

Don’t be disappointed. None of this, not an iota, is anything new. “Lesser of two evils” has been around longer than any of you, that’s why it’s so laughable that you would fall prey to it, a trap so many before you have successfully avoided. But it matters little. Politics doesn’t care. Politics wants power and cares not for the means to get it, as we’ve discussed. One side battles another, feeding off the failures of their opponent, even while feeding them from their own. Like two parasites on the same host. They bicker, they battle, but in the end the only one that suffers is the host.

If you, any of you, were smart, you’d stop. But you’re a junky for politics. It’s got you hook, line and sinker. Because when challenged you fall right back into the old philosophies. Don’t you see that as long as you buy into the idea that Them winning means doom things will never change? Why should they? Us will always be there, standing against Them. The only hope. Never mind that they are saying the same things. Never mind that the party of Us is no more righteous. Best to stick with the lesser of evils. “The Devil you know”, right?

Ha! “The Devil you know.” That’s something I would say.