Back to the Woods

 

For many years I did not vote in elections.  My motto was that it just encourages the sons of bitches.  And, I think that every choice one makes is a vote, often about things of more importance if of less pomp that voting for a president or some other claimant of power.  For most of the past twenty years, I have lived more or less as a hermit in the woods, something of a madman, and concerned with things fringier than politics.  I have occasionally offended someone, mostly by rejecting the gospels of Gene Roddenberry and Christopher Nolan.  Mostly I think people were amused or confused at best.  Presidential candidates seemed to me to be twiddle-dee and twiddle-dum, and I expected that none of them would do anything particularly good, and I could only hope that they wouldn't be too bad.  For politics I had little to no passion.

In 2016, it became more difficult to ignore the commotion, as the two major parties nominated one person disqualified and one unqualified for office, or so it seemed to me.  I public supported Gary Johnson, and even registered and voted.  Living in a firmly 'blue' state, it mattered little for whom I voted, since the outcome was strongly Calvinistic.  I was fascinated by how much vitriol my choice received.  I was told that I was all sorts of things other than a free moral agent, who could make a fool of himself if he wanted to, but only in the prescribed ways.  I was surprised when Donald Trump was elected.  He had seemed like a bizarre cross of Il Duce and Oliver Hardy.  I suppose that what I had been missing was how many other people have as little faith in politics as usual as I have, and the politics of Trump was not usual.  

Slow forward to 2020 and the democrats nominated folks with even less qualities that I admired than they had in 2016, and I made clear why I found that saddening, and admitted that I would vote for Trump., who also had few qualities that I admired, but who had dropped (relatively) few bombs  He was no less a buffoon, but he had not done the horrible things I had been told he would do.  I was still allowed the satire of having a holy water pistol, and I still had my mostly useless Obama Care.  But.

But I was amazed again and again by how people I had known for years began treating me.  They expected me to justify my every statement, claiming I was being mean-spirited or illogical or worse.  I had never thought of saying things like that about them. because they said they were going to vote for Biden.  About some of their conclusions, yes.  Logic is a fascinating method, having nothing to do with truth.  One can proceed quite logically from false premises and arrive at a completely valid but false conclusion.

Slowly what I have come to realize is that many people have replaced the sort of passion once reserved for religious beliefs with political passion.  When there is nothing left to render to God, everything is rendered to Caesar.  Personally, I have never been one to put my trust in horses, and I am still enough of a Christian or whatever to hope with Locke and Jefferson that governments are formed to protect our natural, god-given rights, not to decide which rights we are allowed.   But to be honest, I do pretty much whatever I think is right, without checking with the civil code.  I suspect that most of us actually operate on a day to day basis like that, occasionally speeding or committing some small act of sedition.  

The truth is I just don't have as much concern about politics as many of my friend have, and I don't find my time spent pursuing the nuances of politics rewarding.  In general I think the big advances in human achievements have come more often in spite of the state rather than because of it.  If any of my dear readers think I am wrong and want to prove me wrong, go for it.  But please be advised that I will mostly likely not read their arguments.   I am returning to spending my time pursuing the nuances of quantum physics and sacramental theology and other esoterica, like aged Merlin, although it is unlikely that I will be visited by Nimue.  Perhaps that's a pity.  I will continue to try to be amused by the actions of the state when I can not ignore them, recognizing that many of the Bard's best lines were spoken by a mischievous sprite.  Indeed what fools.

Meanwhile,  I can do perhaps no better than to share Puck's request for forgiveness, being so unwoke as I am:

'If we shadows have offended/ think but this and all is mended/ . . /If you pardon, we will mend./Else the puck a liar call./Give me your hands, if we be friends,/and Robin will restore amends.

Or, it may be that I am not a good fellow at all.