Why are we so jaded about "politics?"
From a comment by my friend, Connie on a recent post:
The issue may not be politics per se, but rather the theft/distortion of it by hierarchies using the pretext of organization. Corporations (and government) have given politics a dirty name.
Yup, sounds right to me.
When something as fundamentally human as the group's need to decide among competing choices for its common good becomes as universally disdained as politics has become, you know something's up.
What's up, I think, is that our history has taught us to distrust those who purport to represent common interests; to assume that their own interests actually have priority. Whether it's corporate officers violating their fiduciary responsibilities or government officials moving back and forth between corporate positions and government posts, we now believe that politics = maneuvering for personal gain.
Is it possible to regain confidence in a process that is inherently ambiguous (personal factors will always come into play in group decisions), or will our cynicism continue to deepen?
Update: In catching up on RSS feeds (what a futile enterprise that is!), I came upon this little Dave Weinberger gem. His explication of knowledge as neverending conversation resonates deeply with the kind of discourse that sits at the center of political behavior. The image of the town meeting, in which all are given the opportunity to express their points of view embodies that political discourse for me. In those conversations, minds are changed, knowledged re-formed, relationships deepened. This is why I believe in the transformative potential of deep connectivity.
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