Party Loyalty

So unless it wasn't completely obvious from the title/description of this series, let me categorically state: I do not belong to any political party. Nope, not even to the Independents or Libertarians. In fact, I don't even think Nonpartisan accurately reflects my point of view. I simply don't want any manner of connection, literal or implied, with "parties", and I'll tell you why:

Parties operate on a dynamic of loyalty.

Now I'm going to ask you to think about that for a minute or two. I realize that you might not be particularly used to critical thinking, so I'm going to take this slow. What could possibly be wrong with "loyalty"? In what possible context would a political party ever not operate from such a standpoint?

Perhaps to discover the real answers to these questions it behooves us to stop and consider for a moment why it is that political parties exist at all. And the simplest answer I can think of is: People have goals.

Yes, people have goals. You have goals. I have goals. Everybody who can think has goals. Why this is is a matter of some speculation (not to mention a good deal of both scientific and religious debate). But for my purposes here, "why" doesn't matter. I simply wish to make a clear starting point: people have goals, goals lead to organization and organization leads to... politics.

But you know, just saying "I have goals" doesn't really tell you a lot. Goals vary as widely as people do - wider, in fact. For example, I have a "goal" to walk across the room, fill a glass with water and drink it. Ready? Here goes...

Success! Yes! I rule!

Are you completely impressed? No? I don't understand. I had a goal and I accomplished it. I'm "ambitious". I'm a can-do go-getter. I'm empowered...

Perhaps... it's because I'm no longer a three year old in "big boy" pants...

You already have the expectation that I can, with extreme predictability and consistency, get myself a drink of water whenever I wish. Indeed, you would only truly become "impressed" by such a feat if there existed a substantially good reason why I might not be able to do it. For example, if I was lost in the desert or maybe recovering from a debilitating stroke, etc.

And of course, you would be justifiably annoyed with me if you believed that the reason I "couldn't" get myself a drink of water was because I was faking incapacity, or just simply too lazy to do such things for myself.

But I want you to notice something:

Even if I was faking, that still wouldn't mean that I didn't genuinely have a goal. Quite the contrary. It would mean that I actually had two goals: 1) getting a drink of water by 2) having you bring it to me.

I know, I know. I'm telling you things that you already know. But I think it's important to bring this distinction across: People never have "just one goal", and neither do political parties. They have multiple, on-going, complementary - and self-competing - goals which they very much are attempting to simultaneously pursue. (If it feels chaotic, it's because it is...)

And - and this is important - not all of those goals are stated or obvious. Not even, I would wager, to the goal-havers themselves. In other words: people lie.

And to make matters worse, they lie to themselves as much as to others. They make up them most outlandish and convoluted stories you can possibly imagine, usually just as much to convince themselves as anyone else that they're not completely full of shit.

Yeah, I know. Big shocker there too, right? People want things and people lie. They cheat, steal, manipulate and intimidate all in the name of their goals. I don't need to be telling you this; it is the story of humanity.

But at the heart of it, it does have everything to do with why I don't - and won't - participate in political parties, which is:

Political parties are expected to lie. Political parties operate from dishonesty.

Alright, let me lay out the game for you. As already noticed, people have goals. But most goals of any real significance require cooperation. They're too big, too expensive, too technical, too time consuming, etc, etc, for any one person or small group to carry off on their own, so they attempt to recruit help. Unfortunately, they soon find out that "help" always comes with a price. Quite often those "other people" don't particularly care about "your goal". If you want their assistance, your going to have to provide something they actually do want.

Now, usually, we're just talking about money for sex, but sometimes those other people actually want your help with their goals in exchange for their help with your goals. Service for service. Support for support.

So far so good, right? I see no harm in this. What possible better solution could there be that "everybody wins?" No, seriously, what could be better than that? That's pure compromise at its best. That's truly worth striving for.

But of course, that's an ideal world...

In the real world - and religions pull this off even better than political parties - support-for-support has devolved into support-for-promises. Promises that are almost never kept or very badly when they are. Or even worse: support-or-consequences, also know as: intimidation, coercion, bullying.

This is the state of American political parties: bullies, salesmen and preachers, power-happy manipulators who have zero compunction about telling even the most grandiose and implausible lies. Everybody knows it, everybody accepts it and (virtually) everybody has come to view it as an essentially unavoidable form of entertainment.

And why do they get away with it?

Because they're the only game in town. Because everyone "knows" that only something as large as a "party" ever gets anything done. So if you want to "get anything done", you will join up and support a party.

Do you see now what I meant when I said "support or consequences"? Despite all their rhetoric and mountains of speeches, the parties ultimately promise you nothing at all. The true message is the threat that "the other guys will get their way". "They" will win and "we" will lose. It's a pure and simple identity manipulation.

And that really is all you get by joining a political party. As far as I can tell there isn't even a genuine pretense of them trying to learn what you want, what you need, what your actual goals might be. The only thing you get for your support of ANY political party is the identity badge of "I'm a Democrat", "I'm a Republican" or "I'm a non-conformist who prefers to throw his votes away rather than vote Democrat or Republican".

I have news for you, people: ALL OF YOUR VOTES ARE THROWN AWAY. All you're voting for - all you've ever been voting for - were the next set of actors to play out the same script that's been going on for decades. You may slightly effect the level of entertainment, but you are creating no progress whatsoever.

So, how do you like being a tool?

Don't answer that. (Because this is a blog and that was a rhetorical question.) Just think about it. And as you think about it, include this idea in the mix:

Change - real change, the kind that leaves the world a different place than it was -

never comes via politics.

I bet you don't believe that. I bet you believe just exactly the opposite of that. I bet you believe that, if you work hard enough for "the cause", if you're active enough of an "activist", that you - yes, you - will actually effect change in this world.

HA! I crack me up! Wooo!... Ah...

Just kidding, just kidding. Trying to lighten the mood just a bit to distract you from the more depressing truth, which is: You get involved in politics precisely because you're convinced that you, on your own, are utterly powerless. No, in fact it's actually even worse than that: You, on your own, are not only powerless; you're a sitting duck.

Your indoctrination has been so very successful. You think there's two parties? You think they can make change? You think that your support of them makes you significant? I have just two words for you:

FALSE IDENTITY

When you look at the history of American policy what you're seeing is an endless stream of business tactics dressed up to look like "issues". You see the sum total of lobbying, bribery and blackmail, none of which was conducted with your "best interests" in mind. Great fodder for movie scripts, I suppose. Not so great for derailing this country's oil burning train engine from running off a cliff.

What you do NOT see when you look at executive level decision making is: goals. Well... that's not quite true. You see plenty of short-term, attention-grabbing popularity goals, lots of profitable-to-some fuck-everybody-else goals, "moral" goals, pseudo-goals, red-herring goals and holy-shit-I-can't-believe-this-is-a-thing-that-got-done goals.

But what you do NOT see is long-term, principle-based, people-positive, party-neutral goals.

And why do you not see those? Because the two party system is a fraud. Because there is only one party and that party only has one goal: STAY IN POWER.

Did I mention that not all goals are stated or obvious? Well, now this one is both.

As for me? I don't intend to throw my lot in with charlatans and frauds, especially not for the paltry reward of "illusion of progress". I will NOT join a political party. And thankfully, as it turns out, I don't have to...

And no, smarty-pants, it's not because the-constitution-of-this-great-country-grant-me-that-liberty. I grant me that liberty. And I maintain that liberty by virtue of my willingness to suffer the indignity of others for my choices. I could - and would - take this same stance regardless of what country I happened to be born in. This is my natural right, not some "privilege" that can be granted or revoked at the whim of some authority.

Besides, it gets even better. Even though I don't belong to any party, I can still be effective in making real change in the world. Real change, I said. Not just window dressing for the easily impressed/pacified.

It is as Ghandi said: "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Perhaps most people don't really understand what he meant by that. Perhaps they think that means "go be a great and renowned activist" or "go martyr yourself" or something equally dire. It doesn't.

Being the change you wish to see in the world simply means living your normal life in the way you would ask other people to live their lives. It means looking hard at yourself, noticing what needs to be changed about you and then changing it.

And that, friends, is precisely why change doesn't happen in American. "Activists" want other people to change but...

Humans change themselves.

And of course, political parties change nothing at all. They promise change, advertise to be your "change agent", to take on all that nasty "change work" for you so you don't have to. But... IT'S BULLSHIT! They don't and they can't, and quite literally they don't even want to because change threatens their power.

I'm here to tell you: I • won't • play.

But I did imply that I knew how to make real change in the world, didn't I? Well, here's how it works:

1. You change.
2. You feel happier, freer, more genuine and more at peace.
3. People notice.
4. Eventually they ask questions.
5. They disbelieve/don't understand your answers.
6. Still... they can't deny the evidence that is now you.
7. They think.
8. They experiment.
9. They fail.
10. They try again/ask more (and better) questions.
11. They experiment again.
12. This goes on for a while...
13. They change too.

You don't think the world just changed? Hmm... Well let's compare that with the political party approach to change and see how it stacks up.

1. Entertainment outlets (sometimes called: The News) make you angry or afraid (or greedy).
2. Advertising outlets make you feel inferior.
3. Smiling person in suit claims to feel "exactly the same way".
4. Smiling person in suit claims to have "secret answer" to getting-good-thing/making-bad-thing-go-away.
5. Smiling person in suit offers... identity. (For the smallest of service fees, of course...)
6. Smiling person in suit gets elected.
7. Smiling person is suit tries - or doesn't try, it doesn't really matter - to fulfill promises using other people's money, intelligence and effort.
8. Smiling person in suit meets immediate, paralyzing resistance from other smiling people in other suits.
9. Entertainment outlets laugh and laugh and laugh, and then get rich off of advertising sales.
10. Everyone (in entertainment and advertising) wins.
11. Smiling person in suit eventually stops smiling.
12. Different smiling person in suit gets elected, primarily by blaming last smiling person in suit for "screwing everything up".
13. Repeat steps 7 through 12.

You know what? I see now that I was mistaken. No, no. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Something did actually change due to that dog-and-pony show: Money changed... hands. But not, I'm afraid, into your hands...

I'll ask it again: Do you enjoy being a tool?

Do you enjoy being a "resource" for your "betters"? Do you enjoy being played like a fighting bull or a clucking chicken? (Either way you end up the same: served at dinner...)

I invite you to... get mad? No, I don't think so. Anger is the way of the dark side. Plus, next to pride, it's easily the most surefire way to manipulate a person that I know of. No, I think you're going to need your wits about you for this one. You certainly never will escape without them.

You see, in a very real way, the Matrix has you (Neo). You are already in their system, indoctrinated in their dogma, running on their treadmill. You're going to need quite a bit more than my say-so to be able to step off and walk away. You're going to need... yourself.

You know, I said this blog is going to be about politics and policy, and it is. But it's also going to be about self-esteem and relationships. Because like it or not, a country is a relationship. A world is a relationship. And all relationships will improve - or decline - based on the esteem of even one of its participants.

Don't believe that you can change the world? You're changing it already. The real questions is: In what way?

In conclusion, party loyalty is a lie. You will not receive what they promise. You already know this. They will not change the world. You already know this. They will also not save the world... Do you know this?

It's time to work around the system, people. It's time to be the change, really, ourselves, and not wait like so many plumped sheep for the master to bring the hay around again. You can make your own hay. We can help each other and do it together. Now that is a goal!

And in fact, if we don't, no one will. Honestly, our real choices are rather few...

Sincerely,

--Geo