Everything Is Politics

Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the news.

Photo by Nijwam Swargiary on Unsplash

I get it. More often than not, the news is depressing. The thought of keeping up with horse-race politics and listening to endless stuffed shirts talk a lot without saying anything is also far from exciting. Well, I have good news and bad news. I’ll give you the bad news first: like it or not, you are already involved with politics. The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to listen to any of those speeches if you don’t want to, and you can still change things for the better.

Here’s the thing: politics is really just human interaction. Did you help your neighbor today? That was a political action, in fact, it’s an example of what we call “good praxis.” Did you support a local business instead of Amazon? That was also a political action. These may be small examples, but if you consider what you’re really doing when you partake in these kinds of actions, then extend that to society and the world at large, you may begin to see why we say that “everything is politics.” If you further consider exactly why you’re taking these actions, and the conditions that led to their necessity, you may see why it pays to get more involved with politics in general.

If that isn’t enough motivation for you, let’s consider the implications of ignoring politics, briefly. Make no…