There is nothing in life that is not political.

[MessiahRp]

I was asked to repost my reply in another thread as its own post. In that thread someone asked some DUers to put aside political criticism of Tony Snow due to his death and that there was another world outside of politics.

I disagree. I don't think there is any aspect of life in which politics does not have some affect.

Every day life beyond political arguing is really decided by politics.

-When you go to school your education and the school you attend will be influenced by how politics has decided the funding and type of curriculum you are allowed to learn.

-When you go to work, politics has decided whether your work can send your job overseas without penalty, whether they can get out of paying you overtime pay or benefits.

-When you walk down the street, politics has decided what laws you must follow. Ever jaywalked? Politicians decided that this would be a good law (even if it is stupid).

-When you get sick politics helped decide whether or not to regulate HMOs or pharmaceuticals and in doing so may have raised the rates of or prevented your care altogether.

-When you get old politicians may have decided on whether or not to retain or cut medicare or social security which greatly impacts your future.

-If you're struggling and poor politics may have decided whether you have any assistance available at all. Whether it be medical assistance, food stamps and WIC or low income housing and energy assistance. Hell even your child's school lunch is dependent on politics.

-What television shows you watch, what newspapers you read, what radio shows you turn on... all the content has been determined by who owns the media and that is determined by politics.

-The gas you put in your car, the prices are largely affected by politics. Whether or not those cars get decent mileage is also dependent on political pressure on car companies (because they rarely do this voluntarily on their own).

Everything in life is political. Everything in life is dependent on people standing up and fighting for their political values and beliefs.

And when Tony Snow dies or Tim Russert dies and gets media swoon for it, we must remember that this same media for reasons listed above does not mourn the over 4,000 soldiers who were sent to die in a war that was... political.

Rp

[prairierose]

1. Thank you, Rp...

when I talk to people who say, I hate politics and it does not affect me, I try to explain that it affects everything in their life, from whether the water they drink is clean to whether their job stays or goes. The food they eat is regulated by the government and whether it is clean is up to a govt agency.

Everything in our lives is affected by politics and when so many people believe that they have no interest, it gives the corporate entities that do have an interest,their profit, more power. When people do not hold their representatives accountable for what government does or does not do, somebody gains from that, usually the corporate entities that have a profit motive.

This is a very important idea and message and one that we need to educate more people about. Politics does matter every day.

[leftofthedial]

2. agreed

[Demit]

3. Well, there is, actually.

Your post is a variation on the old theme that wherever two people are gathered, there will be politics. But there are things in life you do alone, choices you make that do not involve other people, do not depend on interaction with other people. Hence, everything in life is not political. This doesn't contradict your main point. Just refines it.

[MessiahRp]

4. I don't know that this is true.

Even alone everything you do is affected by politics in some manner.

When you watch TV alone in your house, the FCC has dictated the signals that are being sent and the fees these Cable/Satellite companies are allowed to charge. The electricity you use has its rates set by a politically appointed Public Service Commission.

If you go to grab a bite to eat from your fridge or from a restaurant the FDA declares what is healthy or not and Congress sets laws to determine what growers/farms get subsidies and what kind of chemicals they can legally use to grow their food.

If you go to the bathroom, the water that is used is regulated and sometimes even rationed by government controlled utilities.

If you're too loud in your house you might have to talk to police who come over on a noise ordinance violation that local politicians passed.

If you use the phone or internet from your house, government regulation has a lot to do with what services you can choose from and how much you pay. And politicians also decided to tap your phone and internet and watch everything you do.

Even alone, there is no escape from the affects politics has on everything.

Rp

[Voice for Peace]

5. Aside from general agreement with you - there is a place in the human heart where no politics enter

or have any say.

[Demit]

9. That's not quite the same assertion as the one you made in your original post.

Yes, you can make some sort of connection between politics and anything you do, but that is not the same as saying that everything in life is political.

When you pray alone, for example, there is nothing political about that. You are not doing something political. When you write a poem, or work in your garden, or sit with an album in your lap looking at old photos, you are not doing something political. It is when you do these activities with other people that a dynamic forms, and then there will be some sort of political dimension to it.

I told you I wasn't arguing with your main point, which I assume is that politics (actually, you more properly mean government, as all your examples pertain to governmental regulation) has a broad reach into everyday life. But finding some nexus between a solitary activity and politics is not the same as calling that activity political. So: when I use city water to water my garden, the rates I pay are set by the city government, so government (and by extension, politics) affects me. But the act itself, watering my garden, is not political.

If I water my neighbor's garden, now, there could be something political about that—I could be hoping for some advantage to come to me through that act. We are members of the same polity. But solitary actions taken for your own benefit are not political. It's just the nature of the word.

[ColbertWatcher]

14. I think you're making a big assumption, however.

Not to be argumentative, but, when you say:

"...write a poem, or work in your garden, or sit with an album in your lap looking at old photos..."

I think you're assuming you're in a country where that is possible.

I believe there are some places in this world where writing a poem, working in a garden and looking at photos are not possible. Where owning a pencil and a sheet of paper to write whatever you desire is a crime against the state.

I believe there are some places in the world where owning your own plot of land on which to grow whatever you choose is an impossibility.

Hopefully, where you are, you can keep photos and have the leisure time to look at them.

We may have the luxury to do those things even without being politically conscious, but that doesn't mean at some point politics didn't make it possible.

[Demit]

18. I've changed my mind.

I don't know what your point is. The arguments you use to defend it are getting increasingly silly. In what country in the world is owning a pencil a crime against the state? And you don't need to write down a poem to create one anyway. In Nazi Germany, there was a saying, "Die Gedanken sind frei." Meaning, thoughts are free. So, not only is everything in life NOT political, but also governments do not and cannot reach into every activity in your life.

I think you should do some serious reading, investigate the meaning of the word political.

[Prophet 451]

6. Been saying this for years

Politics is everything. It's the air you breathe, the food you eat, the school you go to, the sex you have (or not). Everything in life affects or is affected by politics.

That said, I do think that when someone dies, we should allow a day or two for those who wish to pay their redpects before we proceed with dancing on their graves (wiuth the exception of Jesse Helms and, hopefully soon, Fred Phelps).

[Hannah Bell]

13. ah, but everyone else has their exceptions too. :>)

i mourned when reagan took office, & celebrated his death.

i guess i'm a ghoul, but he didn't worry about the folks he killed & bankrupted.

[RayOfHope]

7. k&r n/t

[bluesmail]

8. If I were a neo con I'd use your OP as an example why

we need less government. :evilgrin: but I'm not and I have always opposed Less Government, the classic line that started the ball rolling which ended giving us, Thanks SCOTUS, * . Not once, but twice!! Thanks again SCOTUS.:thumbsdown:

[MessiahRp]

19. I believe in less government or rather more efficient government

It seems to me that the only reason our government always gets larger is because we're always creating new departments to help do the job that another has fucked up on.

Rp

[Usrename]

10. kick!

:thumbsup:

[crimsonblue]

11. NOT EVERYTHING is political

taking a crap, for one. Masturbation, another. now, taking a crap whilst masturbating.... that's political because that's what Dubya calls his "thinking time".

[Igel]

12. Don't know that I agree.

I've known people who believed that everything in life involved religion. Or ethics.

If you're both right--and I can see a point of view justifying both you and them--then politics and religion are, for some, analogous. I can see that, too: for some, politics is a kind of secular religion-substitute. It's what makes church/state relations difficult (since they occupy the same kind of mental space for some people), and makes some secularists antagonistic to religion (which competes for the same space).

But everything in life is also economic. Which also makes sense: some liberation theology is largely economic, and a lot of politics is economic.

And cultural. Etc.

So while I can see how somebody could say "all X is Y", it strikes me that we need fairly extreme definitions to render the statement true. That doesn't mean the definitions can't be had, to be sure.

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. Spirituality.

[Posteritatis]

16. It was sunny today. (nt)

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Not in the parts of California where the fires are still burning.

Not to be so contrary, but, if California's fire policies were better, these fires wouldn't burn so damn badly.

Oh, and don't get me started on how Arnold waited weeks to ask for federal help from Dumbya as San Bernadino county (or was it Riverside?) burned.

Or, how they play games about getting Super Scoopers from Canada.

[raccoon]

20. I'd rec this if I could! nt