Game On!

 We are living in interesting times. For ... sure.

I've been watching the political rhetoric in this US of A over the last several years and the ante of "anti" seems to have been raised to the point now where we're all in. One side sees the other as the devil incarnate. The other side ... pretty much the same thing. Maybe with different words. Pick a side!

When you caste the situation in absolute, black and white terms I don't see any way forward with that except to some sort of violent confrontation. Scorched earth outcome, when you draw it out to its final end point.

The problem with political rhetoric spewed out in world-ending, cataclysmic terms is that it can put someone or someone's in mind to do something about that. 

Pols frighten me with their words. Calling the other the devil, a fascist, a nazi, a war criminal, a murderer, a mad man, a pariah ... them's fightin' words, bruh. I don't get that those slinging that stuff have any more motive in it than to get a vote. So I come out that the socio-political climate is rife with cynicism and prevarication. Doubly troubling, thinking that those who mouth like that don't seem to even look down the road much toward possible, and likely outcomes. 

The Psychiatrist and author R. D. Laing hosted a workshop I attended. He posed the question: what can we do to make the world right? My answer: "I will purify my heart". He responded that that "... is the most anyone can do". It stays with me, he's confirmation. I know it's true. The power of the individual is great. When you look at how we and everything are so interconnected, you begin to see the effect it has on the whole for just one soul directed toward The Real.

In his book, Knots, Laing early in the treatment on how we relate ...

“They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.”

So, at the risk of calling the game ...

What is the game? It's called "Taking Sides". The deal is that, whatever your side, you commit yourself to defending a position. Politically, we seem to be so entrenched on sides that there isn't much room for what politics is supposed to be about; negotiated compromise ... for the common good. 

Like I said, it seems to have devolved to nothing more than a power struggle. When I point out to some that it's a power struggle, they completely miss that regardless of which side it is, when one side has authoritative power over the other, that's what called authoritarianism. I don't know if that's what we're headed toward. But, even if we do get there, it will probably not be a pretty process.

"Taking Sides." That's the game. Pointing it out is a bitch. Mostly the response is dug in over how one side is right [my side!] and the other is wrong. Pointing out, nevertheless, regardless of who's right and who's wrong, the endgame of "Taking Sides" is violence. It's a dead end game. 

My little suggestion in all that is this: go ahead, take sides; fine. Just, also, acknowledge the common humanity we share under whatever game [or myth] we play to organize our common life together here in God's Creation. If we don't find the capacity to appreciate our common humanity, it's not gonna go well. Dig?