Politics & Religion

From a young age, I was told that these were the two subjects that you shouldn’t discuss because you’d end up falling out with everybody. We all have our own political views, and even those within the same political spectrum argue amongst themselves. Religion is similar. Even those of the same faith, split into different denominations and argue about the meaning of scriptures, other books, and teachings. Both politics and religion cause wars.

At the end of the day, we usually don’t end up changing a person’s views. We can argue with them, discuss with them, and present a strong case for our own opinions, but at the end of the day, it’s usually the case that the other person will still hold their own views fundamentally unchanged.

So I sit back and I think, is it worth the time? Is it worth the effort? Unless you’re actively involved at some political level within your community or your country, then, surely, your time is better spent doing things that you find enjoyable.

You can’t change what you can’t control. You can protest by writing to your local and national representatives and elected officials. It’s undoubtedly important to make your views known to the people who can do something about the world, the country, your town, and your street. However, is it really in anyone’s genuine interest, and especially in these days of social media platforms, to spend hours sitting at a keyboard, ranting and getting angry and stressed when your words aren’t reaching those who really can make a change?

Vote? Does It Matter?

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Green Tea

Politics. Don’t fall out with your friends about it. Don’t talk about it. Thing is,  at varying levels, we all do. Most of us are talking from a point of little real knowledge of what is going on at the seat of Government. We tend to have our own, often ill-informed ideas, and we tend to read or listen or watch the media channels that reinforce our political views and values.

Winston Churchill once said “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”  It’s a valid statement, in that in democracies, we often feel that we don’t get any real say in what happens; that the politicians that are supposed to represent us don’t; that said politicians say one thing, and do another; that it really doesn’t matter who we vote for, or even if we vote at all, as nothing ever really changes anyway.

What are the alternatives? Perhaps the best one would be that which doesn’t exist – a truly benevolent dictator, who had everyone’s best interests at heart.

Still it is important to vote, even if we end up with pretty much the status quo. By not voting, not only has the individual greatly lessened their own claim to whine about the state of the nation, but also increased the possibility of letting in an extreme fruitcake instead, who is usually even less likely to represent their interests!