Dili’s Log 傾聽你的心 ― dedicated to the people that got me here.

Politeia

One of the topics I have been meaning to write an article on for some time is the subject of politics. This is an aspect of society and life that I typically shied away from, until I realized that it was both inevitable and better confronted. There is a saying that “to care deeply about self-development and not care about political life is like spending a fortune on a priceless seed and giving no thought to the soil upon which the seed is to be planted.” This can also be likened to starting a business without a market research. Whichever the case, today, I decided to muse a little about politics.

While I mostly consider myself apolitical, I am not apathetic to social discourses, events, and world affairs. In general, however, I avoid labels because of how detrimental they are to a person’s ethos when incorrectly or too broadly defined. Moreover, political ideology is one of those subjects often prone to extremes and culture war. Similar to the attitude on religious faith, not too many people hold a personal grasp of political fundamentals when jumping onto a bandwagon. Many concerned themselves and are rattled by the supposed superiority of a view, more than they are the avenue to empower and move humankind forward; in both social and personal growth.

I believe that communal changes, for example, that aren’t punctuated with the necessary individual maturity usually ends in depression and self-dissatisfaction: with the system, other people, sense of entitlement, and especially the unnerving realization that whatever was achieved may not have been the meaning of life after all. Conversely, a person’s lifestyle that is inconsiderate on how she affects other people, or an excessive conservation of tradition at the expense of sustainable human betterment, commonly results in a legalistic society; one that represses innovation – ever learning, but never adapting to changing circumstances and sensibilities. Views that swing in-between merely aiming to moderate others without having any principal vision of their own aren’t necessarily effective either; since they are neither here nor there, but rather creates a Frankenstein incarnation from the variety of perspectives; often without a brain.

The point, altogether, is to remember that we live in a messy and unscrupulous world, but are making an effort nonetheless. Every cause, ideology, and view eventually add to the reformation and development of our story as a people and race, whether or not the process is palatable. However, social causes and movements are no substitute for individual maturity, and the size of a person’s heart and their values are ultimately more important than the obsession over the size of government, big or small. Governments, in the end, aren’t made up of extraterrestrial beings. They consist of the same individuals from our society and world. The better we each nurture our individual and spiritual maturity, I believe, the closer we will be to a better world – regardless of the ideologies we adopt.

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