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"I don't do politics"...

  • Writer: Therese Renée Van Elst
    Therese Renée Van Elst
  • Oct 9
  • 10 min read

Updated: Oct 11


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Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum


Warning: Protracted reading


policy1


Noun

noun: policy; plural noun: policies

a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an

organization or individual.

"the government's controversial economic policies"

Similar:

plans, strategy, proposed, action, blueprint, approach, scheme, stratagem, programme, schedule, code, system, guidelines, intentions, notions, theory, line, position, stance, attitude, practice, custom,

procedure, wont, way, tack, routine, matter of course, style, pattern, convention, mode, rule


Origin

late Middle English: from Old French policie ‘civil administration’, via

Latin from Greek politeia ‘citizenship’, from politēs ‘citizen’, from polis

‘city’.


Politics:




“I don’t do politics”...


I’ve decided to heavily opine regarding this statement.

While my decision to do so is personal and based upon actual experiences, this discussion affects everyone, worldwide. Instead of being despondent, disconnecting and turning inward, which would have been easiest, I’ve decided to instead…engage.





Throughout my life, I have heard people make this statement. 

Including my adolescent years, there was a space of time when I was less knowledgeable of the world, where I also believed that in order to maintain peace or my ‘neutral’ space, that it was safer for me to stay out of conversations regarding politics, and to keep my political or policy views more to myself. You know, “polite society does not interact or share politics” trope. Even when I was negatively impacted by how people treated my family, friends or myself, it still seemed better to address these individual circumstances as one-offs or in some cases, out of fear, to address not at all and to hide the harm caused by what transpired. I was in denial of the systemic nature by which these circumstances occurred. As I was already afraid, in my mind, in order to be hurt less I needed to pay with my silence. This meant taking whatever attacks or biases were lobbed at me. In some cases, I  was dismissive as a means to further protect myself from my own thoughts or feelings of shock or betrayal at the maltreatment. I lacked the necessary motivation to stand against what was happening and  I was more concerned of what could happen to me if I did. 


As a person who also believes in doing what is right, the utilization of introspection and changing oneself when you discover that you have been wrong, it was hard for me to remain in that previous spacing. Either I would be a hypocrite to my own core values or I would need to honestly say that I was more into self-preservation than tending towards changing what I observed to be injustices in my environment. I would then just need to remain quiet and complicit.  It became obvious to me that I had to make a choice. Not an act of courage, but a definitive action. The value system that I had/have, coupled with experiences and observations was in deep conflict with what I feared. I decided that despite the fear, I was more convicted of not standing on my core principles. I could not continue to suppress myself nor require other people to do better than what I was willing to do.


Today, I have carefully fostered a deeper conviction when it comes to protecting others, acknowledging  the entire world and not just the small space that I occupy, and decidingly addressing what I observe as clearly wrong positions that people around me and our governments take in regard to policy. This brings me back to the statement of “I don’t do politics.” 


My frustration with this stance is multiple. 


First, I looked to clarify what people meant when they made this statement. I reviewed my old thoughts back when I thought I was “apolitical” and compared it with conversations that I’ve recently read from people who currently have this stance or people that I have engaged with who have this stance. I wanted to ensure that I was not choosing to principally misunderstand these people. After giving thought to the readings and direct statements from people, I was able to distill what upsets me. I understand when others express this stance that some have encountered individuals that do not know how to disagree or debate with civility and some even become aggressive when discussing policy. Despite what some may think, when we vote for certain policies or against them, we are voting with our core values, not just haggling over the price of eggs or gasoline. It is why people are so defensive regarding their vote. If you oppose their vote, one feels as if you are telling them that their values are wrong and thus, their existence is wrong. This challenges a person’s core of who they are and consequently their policies and politics. Being apolitical or checking out the process, allows one to protect oneself by either not concerning themselves with policy, etc. and/or disallowing others to challenge or judge their way of thinking and being.  While some things are not up for debate (i.e. a person’s right to freedom from the point of birth or a people's right to live or exist, etc.), I try to understand not wanting to debate or discuss policy and thus politics. My issue is that if you separate yourself from the discussions or even the very necessary participation in policy, then you are allowing the loudest voices in the room to often make choices for you and everyone else. There are vulnerable people in our world that cannot make choices for themselves and our exclusion from the debate, conversation or decision making process does these people unknowable amounts of harm. This harm may even make it back to you if you decide to eliminate yourself from the process. 


Then, it is our responsibility to participate in the discussion and the choosing of policies. What you leave for others to choose for you today, may haunt you and others for a long time tomorrow. My other thought is that the decision to abscond ourselves from talks on policy, feels very... self-servient. It seems to be self-centered or based in self-preservation, which historically hasn’t bode well for our societies (see also here, for example). If you do not choose for yourself, a choice will be made for you. Neutral stances or detachment isn’t the best way of addressing what we are observing as illegal, unlawful and immoral decisions being made by persons that we have given power to make decisions on our behalf. When I listen to people who purportedly care about me or say that they care about society, etc. I find it contradictory that one could look at me or others and say that they cannot participate in politics. It hurts because I feel let down and knowing that for every person who does this, makes it so that the rest of us will have to work that much harder to fight for a world that everyone can live in safely. It means that we will have to stand up for them also, even as they abandon us. It means shouldering on so much that if we don’t succeed in providing a better landscape for the present and future, that we truly have the persons that have been in self-preservation mode to blame for the failure. 


Can the fight be done without them? 


We don’t want it to be, but we hope so. 


In the past, we have watched so many perish unnecessarily, while others ducked and went for cover or worse.


It takes courage to put yourself out here, knowing that you can be greeted with ostracization at the very least, or you can be greeted with pain, torture and loss of freedom or worse. There are leaders willing to exercise both the rule of law they have and also don't to extinguish the rights of their citizens.

Consequently, I wish to salute all of those who have come before me and sacrificed themselves to ensure that I could be here. I have no words to truly thank the selfless individuals who stood on business, spoke truth to power and were met with aggressive tactics from those who thrive on our pain, division, ignorance and apathy. Those who know how to use divide and conquer policies, who relish in the chaos that they create because it makes these people feel powerful. I don’t have the desire right now to psychoanalyze their entire existence (perhaps in another post), but these people are a destructive element in the world’s past, present and an imminent threat to our future.


This is a hard space for me to occupy…both desiring that if you do something for someone that you do so earnestly or not at all, but also being disappointed in a person’s decision to not protect, stand or engage because they feel as if they can not do so earnestly. There are a myriad of ways that we can engage policy and push against unfair and inhumane practices. I'm not asking for people to sacrifice their lives in the interest of others…I’m not asking you to not sacrifice yourself either, if you feel compelled. With the notion that there is so much one can do from any position in society or any place, it seems wrong that there are people who are so willing to check out and continue to live their lives as if they don’t see injustices occurring. Our position of privilege requires that we give more because we have more. Those of us in better positions are then required to use their influences and access to change things for those who don’t enjoy the same privileges or accesses. We will have a heavy indictment against us for doing nothing, as the world is being destroyed in front of us and the people along with it. Then if or when it is your turn to receive the same treatment that your inaction has permitted, then not only will it have been earned, but there will be no one left to be that buffer or stand between you and those who harm you. I'd hate to wager on your survival or what your existence will be like, in that moment.


My additional thought is that one should not only act when something affects themselves. We should care and act even when we are unaffected by what is happening to someone else. There is a disurbing amount of apathy, exhaustion and the "bystander effect" running unabated at a time where we can still stand and pull through if more people activated. We need to care about other people, because… we should. That’s…period. I no longer believe people when they are able to wax poetic over their love or care for mankind when everything is rosy, and when they have the opportunity to prove their love or care, they are decidedly unavailable…Error 404…not found. We must “put our money where our mouth is” as “faith without works is dead” and so is empty rhetoric or discourse. Save me the lip service, and simply do anything that amounts to improving the situations that are being experienced in our world, locally and abroad. Even writing is an act of resistance. As a writer, I am aware of this act throughout history and it is as true today…“the pen is mightier than the sword.” Many writers have lost their lives in brutal ways fighting for justice within authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.


So, what should we do?


Anything that you can. 


Again, there are a myriad of ways that we can stand up for the rights of others and ourselves. Excluding ourselves from what is happening in society does not change the world that we live in. Engaging in our world can only do this.


Here are a few links for those of us that find that speaking in regards to policy is a turn off for them, but feel sincerely pricked in their heart that they should engage, regarding our world:








I find that a lot of these pages have overlapping information. This is such a good thing. This means that these items are consistent. Definitely check into these ideas.

This is a start point, but certainly not the end all. Grab hold of the countless spaces for information while it still exists.


There are some pages that seem more connected than others to certain countries, but I assure you that policy and your impact on it is a global discussion and thus you can apply what has been discussed elsewhere to your own circumstance. Worse comes to worse, eat the fish and spit out the bones. Apply what can be applied to you. If it helps, it helps.


You may notice that I included synonyms or words similar to the word policy. I often find that reading the synonyms of a word, helps demystify the word or definition, and gives better context so that the decision to refuse implementation due misunderstanding of the term has been removed. One can decide to do this for other reasons, but the facts or information is harder to refute.


My final thoughts on the statement “I don’t do politics...” include providing a small amount of exegesis on the root of politics and policy. While the definitions are differ, politics involves policy. It is hard to separate the two even though policy often goes on to live beyond politics. This is why I chose to discuss policy vs. the politics that many say they eschew. One may not be about politics, but politics is decidedly about you, so is policy. We cannot avoid the consequences of politics and policy. When I read through the various synonyms for policy, I wonder how people are able to avoid interacting with policy and thus also politics in their day to day life. It's not possible. From stopping a red light to when the trash is picked up, all of these involve creating policy. Homes are run by their own created policies and so are groups of children playing together on the playground. So much is happening everywhere that I tend to think that it expends more energy avoiding interacting with governmental policy/politics than taking it head on. The synonyms explore the many different ways one can see policy in their lives through words that seem more benign. Is it practice? Is it approach? Is it custom? Or how about matter of course? You cannot avoid policy or politics.


I desire us to take a very serious thought about how we are interacting in our world and if we are ready to accept the consequences of our actions or inactions. 


I would say to take your time and think things through, but I am afraid that time is no longer on our side and that integrity, rational, decisiveness and implementation is the best policy.


 
 
 

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