our politics are still boring

At the turn of the millennium, Crimethinc produced a great and still relevant piece, “Your Politics Are Boring As F*ck.” They describe how practitioners of radical political ideologies are going about things the wrong way. One delightful example posited spending the afternoon collecting food from businesses, who were going to throw it away anyway, to share it with the hungry comparing it with writing an editorial to a leftist paper about their improper use of “anarcho-syndicalism.” The article ends with a delightful list of how not to make politics boring:

• Make politics relevant to our everyday experience of life again. The farther away the object of our political concern, the less it will mean to us, the less real and pressing it will seem to us, and the more wearisome politics will be.
• All political activity must be joyous and exciting in itself. You cannot escape from dreariness with more dreariness.
• To accomplish those first two steps, entirely new political approaches and methods must be created. The old ones are outdated, outmoded. Perhaps they were NEVER any good, and that’s why our world is the way it is now.
• Enjoy yourselves! There is never any excuse for being bored… or boring!

Yet, while I thoroughly enjoy and agree with the article I think it needs to emphasize even more so: EVERY ACT WE COMMIT IS POLITICAL, whether or not we see it as such. Who one hangs out with, the city one lives in, what you buy or not buy for groceries, what you’re watching on TV, etc. etc. IT’S ALL POLITICAL! And so it seems to think that political action happens every four years is an utter and complete farce.

For me though, political discourse can be oh so boring because US politics is extremely circular. The US must always have an enemy, who appears evil and hurts their citizens. The US must threaten and at least appear to defeat such enemy for the sake of democracy. The problem though is that the US oligarchy controls our political discourse. Even in my circles, questions do not arise as to whether or not the enemy of the US government is actually the enemy of the US people. I, for sure, do not have qualms with Afghanis, Yemenis, Iraqis, North Korean citizens, and so on. Rather, those whom I disagree with and challenge are already in my community: police and local politicians.

We must move away from imperial discourse and move towards local discourse! 

Of course, this is not going to end the Tr*mp drama, but it will grant us the energy to move towards what is important: the marginalized, poor, and sick among us. In a few weeks, I’m preaching on the “Good Samaritan.”* I gather from this ancient story that your neighbor is the person spatially closest to you. In other words, it can be good to have an interest in the Middle East or Latin America, but what are you doing for your neighbors within reach. I find Jesus’ parable compelling in the fact that the Samaritan touched and bandaged the beat up, bloodied man. I often do not have the courage to act in such a way.

Our politics are boring because we’d rather spend our time and energy with those who share similar ideologies. I too am guilty of this. And it’s difficult to share with my moderate/liberal friends an anarcho-communist vision of the world. Don’t get me started on reactions to Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism! Because honestly, who cares? Who cares if I can quote Marx, the EZLN, and obscure theologians in the same sentence? I do, certainly! But how am I going to show compassion to those who sleep on the church steps or foster relationships with people I encounter every day because if I am not doing that then my politics should be boring.

*Luke 10:25-37
“Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.
“Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”
He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind;
and your neighbor as yourself.”
And he said to him,
“You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

But wanting to justify himself,
he asked Jesus,
“And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied,
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,
and fell into the hands of robbers,
who stripped him, beat him, and went away,
leaving him half dead.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road;
and when he saw him,
he passed by on the other side.
So likewise a Levite,
when he came to the place and saw him,
passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan while traveling came near him;
and when he saw him,
he was moved with pity.
He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
having poured oil and wine on them.
Then he put him on his own animal,
brought him to an inn,
and took care of him.
The next day he took out two denarii,
gave them to the innkeeper, and said,
‘Take care of him; and when I come back,
I will repay you whatever more you spend.’
Which of these three,
do you think,
was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.””