The Challenge Of Being Politically Independent
Don’t teach me about politics and government,
Just tell me who to vote for,
Don’t teach me about truth and beauty,
Just label my music,
Don’t teach me how to live like a free man,
Just give me a new law,
Don’t teach me about moderation and liberty,
I prefer a shot of grape juice,
Don’t teach me about loving my enemies,
And don’t teach me how to listen to the Spirit,
Just give me a new law,
I don’t want to know if the answers aren’t easy,
So just bring it down from the mountain to me,
I want a new law,
Just give me that new law.
"A New Law" by Derek Webb
When I was a Republican there were plenty of voices on the radio and TV to tell me what to think about any given issue. I also knew what stance to take by default: If an idea was being proffered by a Democrat (synonymous with "Liberal") it was a bad idea until proven otherwise. An idea from a Republican (synonymous with "Conservative") was, by default, good. It was easy. I imagine the same is true for those on the opposite side of the ideological fence.
But I eventually became a political Independent (as well as a Quaker). I can't just borrow my views from Rush and Sean and Glenn and Bill O and Dr. Dobson and Pastor So-and-So. I've chosen instead to listen to the Spirit and to the Scriptures, without the interpretive "assistance" of demagogues. This means I can't just assume the value of an idea or viewpoint or political position based on the affiliation of the one putting it forth.
My default position has become this: "Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." (Romans 13:8) This means, among other things, that I "owe" no one (and no political party) their influence over my opinions. The important question to me anymore when considering an issue or viewpoint is, "Where is God's love in it?" If I can't see that, then I'm probably not going to find it worth lending my allegiance to.
It is a discipline to remain unbeholden to the pundits--searching out instead like a Berean for evidence of truth and love in their words. Sometimes, frankly, I'm tired and busy and would rather just have someone tell me what to think.
But that's being lazy.
Just tell me who to vote for,
Don’t teach me about truth and beauty,
Just label my music,
Don’t teach me how to live like a free man,
Just give me a new law,
Don’t teach me about moderation and liberty,
I prefer a shot of grape juice,
Don’t teach me about loving my enemies,
And don’t teach me how to listen to the Spirit,
Just give me a new law,
I don’t want to know if the answers aren’t easy,
So just bring it down from the mountain to me,
I want a new law,
Just give me that new law.
"A New Law" by Derek Webb
When I was a Republican there were plenty of voices on the radio and TV to tell me what to think about any given issue. I also knew what stance to take by default: If an idea was being proffered by a Democrat (synonymous with "Liberal") it was a bad idea until proven otherwise. An idea from a Republican (synonymous with "Conservative") was, by default, good. It was easy. I imagine the same is true for those on the opposite side of the ideological fence.
But I eventually became a political Independent (as well as a Quaker). I can't just borrow my views from Rush and Sean and Glenn and Bill O and Dr. Dobson and Pastor So-and-So. I've chosen instead to listen to the Spirit and to the Scriptures, without the interpretive "assistance" of demagogues. This means I can't just assume the value of an idea or viewpoint or political position based on the affiliation of the one putting it forth.
My default position has become this: "Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." (Romans 13:8) This means, among other things, that I "owe" no one (and no political party) their influence over my opinions. The important question to me anymore when considering an issue or viewpoint is, "Where is God's love in it?" If I can't see that, then I'm probably not going to find it worth lending my allegiance to.
It is a discipline to remain unbeholden to the pundits--searching out instead like a Berean for evidence of truth and love in their words. Sometimes, frankly, I'm tired and busy and would rather just have someone tell me what to think.
But that's being lazy.
8 Comments:
great point and well said ... thx!
Friend so speaks my mind--though I started out with different labels.
"where is Gods love in this" is a great question to ask in all aspects of life.
Thanks...Glenn
This is a great post!
I just saw the link to this in my QuakerQuaker email this morning.
I was on a very similar journey to what you have expressed here earlier in life. While I have always been registered to vote with no political party, I had leaned conservative but with libertarian tendencies. Now I am still independent, but I am a full-blown philosophical libertarian. I recognized the political-intellectual dependence you speak of rather early, but I was curious as to why that was and is the prevailing current culture.
In the past five years, I have read extensively about the subject of education. Some very interesting patterns emerged for me as to how and why the American culture (and possibly the whole of the Western world) has developed pervasive intellectual sloth. This learning has been revolutionary for me not only in the political sphere but also in the spheres of theological ecclesiology, nutrition, business, environment, and of course education.
The tendency for man to dominate and to be dominated is common throughout history, but in the most recent era of human history in western civilization, the style of domination is markedly less openly violent. The trick is getting the populace to subdue themselves. The primary mechanism developed to breed intellectual and emotional dependence in the population to the pervasive degree that we have it (especially in America) is Schooling.
As you put it in your post, the stance is similar on the "right" and "left" - political-intellectual dependence. But this is not just in politics. It is a part of the fabric of culture so deep that it affects every area of life - church, health care, gov't, media, and business. Since the advent of mass compulsory state schooling about 100 years ago in this country (other western countries were a little earlier or later to this method), the people have been systematically trained to forgo active learning and self-education. It is important to recognize that the damage schooling does is caused from its method, form, and non-verbal lessons. The content is mostly irrelevant. The system could teach lessons on any topic with "liberal" bias or "conservative" bias. The content of the lessons is not what disables the students. It is rather the mode in which they are conveyed....
Education and learning are great and have existed as long as people have, but those free exercises are not the goal of modern schooling. The goal of modern schooling is to inculcate passivity and dependence where the population cedes control of their will to their "betters" voluntarily throughout their lives. In short, schooling is about obedience. Once obedience is taught, any modern institution can benefit from this groundwork laid down by the state schooling system. Media is schooling's twin sister. The mentally and emotionally disabled populace have had their sales resistance systematically lowered and can now be led around by the media to buy goods and services, accept political premises, believe religious messages, and most of all spend more time with the media. The media's most common commercial is itself.
This powerful one two punch of schooling and media ensure that the leaders of the church, the state, and business do not have to intervene too often in a physical manner as was once the style of domination in the past. We have been enslaved in our mind and emotions to the Mass Production Economy. The industrial revolution led to mass production which lowered prices which is not good for businessmen unless there is an analogous mass consumption to absorb the fruits of mass production. Modern Western Schooling was and is the answer to this dilemma. Schooling teaches competitive consumption, mass conformity, and ceding opinion to "experts" whether political, religious, or otherwise.
Of course not everyone learns the lessons of Schooling evenly. Some rebel at different levels and escape to some degree the slavery of consumerism. And then there are the folks at the highest levels of church, gov't, and business who do not attend public schools at all of course. The mode of education at most of their schools is radically different in most cases. Check out the elite private boarding schools sometime for an eye-opening lesson in independent self-education. The "elite" are in many ways saved from the "processing" that the rest of the "raw material" (us) got.
If anyone interested in learning more about this subject and how we can combat it in our own lives and in society at large, here are three examples of folks well researched in this area:
John Holt
Ivan Illich
John Taylor Gatto
John Holt was an educator probably most well-known for the Democratic and Unschooling movements.
Ivan Illich was an educator and former Catholic priest that became a student of history and sociology and advocated for a new way forward. He is most well-known for his prophetic call to de-school society.
John Taylor Gatto was a public school teacher in NYC schools for 30 years and extensively researched the genesis of the current style of schooling and its roots in the Charles Darwin's book "Decent of Man" and the industrial revolution.
They all have many books on the subject, but four good ones to start would be:
Ivan Illich - "Deschooling Society"
John Taylor Gatto - "Underground History of American Education" and "Weapons of Mass Instruction"
John Holt - "How Children Learn"
There are other voices out there, but these three are so powerful and from very different backgrounds that I believe they give a well-rounded view of the system that is in place and steps to avoid or undo the damage that schooling inflicts on its victims....
Danny, your post and the song by Derek Webb exquisitely frame the situation most of us find ourselves in. I hope what I have found will help someone else also take some positive steps toward "taking off the blinders" as the video so powerfully portrays.
We need to once again become independent and free of institutional slavery - free of Big Church, Big Government and Big Business. Understanding Big Academia and Big Media are an important step I believe in taking off those blinders.
Local food, small local faith and fellowship, small local gov't, local small-business, and other similar "relationship-sized" groups are the antidote to the big centralized institutions that feed off the ceded will of the relationally-isolated and dependent masses. We need human relationships not dependence on nameless, faceless institutions that benefit from us remaining dependent on them.
Wonderful!
Wow, YellowDart, thank you for your rich and insightful comments!
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