It is not often in life that one reaches a turning point; a moment of clarity; a chance to see the knickers of the devil. Last week, ripe in my 48th year, I had such a moment. Last week my team lost in politics for the last time. I can say that because they are no longer my team. I no longer have a team.
Last week, when the BC Liberals pulled a blazing and completely baffling victory, instead of being crushed, it depressed me. Then it revolted me. Then it enraged me. Then it forced me to see what was really going on.
The results of the 2013 BC Provincial Election destroyed my belief in the illusion of our democratic system. Oh, I know... You might say, “Look at Tim, all dramatic an’ shit. Look at the poor loser lefty. What? Can’t he take it?”
Actually, no. I can’t take it. Not anymore. This absolutely broke me. But maybe I have been broken so that I can be fixed. Over the past 10 years or so I have had a nagging feeling that I was just being swept up in a sideshow. I was part of the “bread and circuses” concept. I got this troubling sense that I was just being given something to believe in so that I would be distracted... so that I would enjoy the fantasy that I was part of the political process. I guess it was an okay fantasy, even though my team almost never won.
As voters, we who care (or in my case, cared) are expected to support a team. You know: the guys you like and want to identify yourself with. If you have a team then you get to enjoy the other side of the deal, which is you can feel better , smarter and more entitled than the other teams. The other guys are, at best, mistaken and misguided. They are, at worst, evil. They are your enemies.
Most people love being on teams. They like the conflict, they are willing to risk defeat for a chance at winning. It can be a game of hockey, or Risk, or politics. In the case of politics you actually get to think that you know how to fix the world. Arrogant, particularly considering the fact that your “opinions” have nothing to do with what actually ends up happening.
I think the game of politics is really just a way of keeping us busy. It is a way of distracting us with (mostly untalented and morally bereft) people who act out the parts they play in their political parties. Most of these politicians have no real power.
Consider the most common political animal: The Backbencher. Most have no intention of actually representing their constituency. They know that their political party got them elected, and that the voters were actually secondary to the process. See if you can ever find a backbencher that will vote against its party’s platform in order to support what their constituents demand. It almost never happens. When it does happen, the culprit is usually kicked out of party caucus and sent packing in the next election. That’s because we (almost always) elect people from our teams. We love our teams. No one likes an independent. (Except for Delta South, which I think is amazing, and a special case.)
The party leaders don’t really represent you. Their job is to use the resources supplied by their masters in order to get elected to further the interests of their masters. Usually the masters are big business, or organized labour, or some other group that is too busy doing their own business to actually be in politics. They just want the structure of government to always be trended to their benefit. Often they are too talented and good at what they do to lower themselves to the game of partisan politics. They just pay to get their guys in. They are the real masters, and the party leaders will do whatever is required to serve them. Remember... Obama bailed out the bankers. So did Harper. With our tax money. We weren’t really supposed to notice that.
So, I’m out. Honestly, this is my final political post. It feels wonderful and liberating.
Party politics has now joined religion in my mindshare zone of, “I just don’t give a fuck. Have your fun. Leave me out of it.” If I have gone on and on in the past about the NDP or the Tories or the Liberals to you... I’m sorry. I thought I was on to something. I will no longer be voting. As far as I can see, it is meaningless and will only make me feel bad. I no longer read or follow the political news. I’ve turned off the political entertainment media. (I’m really gonna miss Rick Mercer and Bill Maher and John Stewart and Stephen Colbert and Rex Murphy... but such is the cost.) I won’t be cross-posting stuff from various news agencies that support my team’s views.
I have no team. Maybe now my views will be less obstructed.
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