Another development of my weekandahalf long loss of internet access: I've lost my faith in democracy. Or pure democracy, at least.
You see, this absence from the net has forced me into talking politics with, um, normal people. People who don't think about and follow politics religiously. And, Christ. I have heard some very ignorant things. Things like 'taxes should be illegal,' and 'we should just drop a bomb on countries that fuck up--war's over, no one dies.' And I realised: Oh my God. It isn't a joke. It isn't satire. People actually think this way. I was dumbfounded. Stunned. Absolutely speechless. My mouth literally dropped open at points.
Politics are incredibly fucking complicated. There is layer upon layer upon layer of background information to every issue, not to mention endless debates and studies about what does and does not work as a solution to various problems. This is fine. It's not possible to consume and understand it all. The best anyone can do is learn what they can and act in an informed manner. But when people don't understand the purpose of taxes, when people don't understand that dropping a bomb on a nation kills people... Just. Fuck. I can't fathom it.
So I've taken up a new tack. People must take a written exam on political issues before voting, in which they demonstrate that they have a halfway passable understanding of basic issues. (I realise this would be impossible to implement, and smacks a bit too much of a literacy test, but I can dream.)
People can believe anything they fucking want if they can back it up. I don't care. I just want to know that people have thought about it more than five seconds before casting a fucking vote.
It's depressing to realise that I understood politics better at fourteen than some people do at forty.
All hail the republic. It saves us from ourselves. At least to a point.
revoless.
3:52 p.m.
October 08, 2003.
Listening to: Songs: Ohia.