The Nature of Politics and The Politics of Nature
Politics, though a substantial integrant of the modern construct of humanity, is an impediment to nature’s intent. As impaled as it is in the collective understanding, there would currently be no need for it had the course of civilization taken an alternate route, and thus winding up at a different destination. The existence of politics is subjective to the reality humans have been deliberately constructing for centuries, one that may be too far developed to be ultimately dismantled. Realistically, humanity may not ever be able to “unlearn” politics, and I fear that we have mistaken it for a Law of Existence.
The Nature of Politics is deception. People utter “that’s just politics” not when foul play occurs, but when the foul play is discovered and broadcasted, demonstrating that the lie is only troublesome when the truth of the lie leaks. In the case that it doesn’t leak (as I assume is the norm, and the leaks are the rarities), business goes on as usual, and the masses continue to consume the lies put up for sale. It is truly a horrid thing to fathom that a person would want to sedate people to have them drooling over the falsity of his/her rhetoric. But mostly, it is a boulder swung into the human spirit intended to demolish it. Politics divides people, and contemporarily speaking, it is doing it marvelously. Furthermore, politics divides us from ourselves. This unnecessary fabrication of “us vs. them” and fueling of one’s ego has resulted in the overarching fiction that politics is part of nature.
No matter how routinely we are made to believe otherwise, human beings are animals. Hence, human beings are part of nature. Our original instincts were to live off the earth and use its resources respectfully, thus our relationship with nature was harmoniously balanced. Inevitably, evolution performed its task and human beings developed, becoming more and more complex each passing day. The evolution of this animal demanded evolution in its way of life. The rise of strictly organized civilization called for the fall of that sacred relationship with nature. Though not in the absolute, because nature’s invitation to dance with it is far too irresistible to absolutely deny — and that is where man’s logic is callused.
The fallacy lies in the belief that man can control nature — that it is a perfect interdependent relationship — it is not. An old rabbi once said “I am I because you are you, and you are you because I am I,” meaning interdependence. One cannot exist without the other (e.g. a student is a student because a teacher is a teacher and vice versa). This duality does not apply to nature and man: nature does not need man to continue being nature, because nature is too powerful and does not require anything but itself. However, man needs nature in order to keep being man, and that permanence of the universe has been obscured. Obscured by politicising nature.
The Politics of Nature are man-made. Nature has no politics. It is us that continuously brand it with labels intended to uphold the deception created by politics to further divide us from it. And in that pursuit of separating oneself from nature, a separation from ourselves occurs, a separation from each other because human beings are nature. When we separate from nature we separate from ourselves. When we politicise the things that don’t carry politics in its essence we stray away from our origins and fall deeper into the man-made deceit.
Another example of politicising what is not meant to be politicised is human nature. We are naturally curious creatures; we question and seek answers and make discoveries about the conditions of our existence, and perhaps discovered some paradoxes in the process (e.g. nature never rushes but it is always on time). It is the entitled sense of superiority of one’s beliefs that wreaks havoc. The philosophic minds that the world places on pedestals are only guilty of taking advantage of the miraculous human ability to question, and everyone else who agrees or disagrees does the same thing, for agreement and disagreement are also facets of human nature. However, the tribulation lies in the hateful exchange of disagreements. The My-Ideology-Is-Right-And-Yours-Is-Wrong mindset lands us in the peril of self-destruction. It is the catalyst of hate crimes and human division. This is the trouble of politicising that which is not political: a self-induced doomsday.
It is important to note that the modern concept of politics, in all its upheaval, is centuries old. Like all things, it had to adapt to the cultural and civil shifts of every era in order to secure its survival and not succumb to obsolescence. The Ancient Greeks soared with the role of politics in their newly-created democracy. To them, politics was embedded with virtue, in the sense of excellence more than morality (though it still carried that weight). Does politics require piety, moderation, wisdom, courage, and justice to be virtuous? Perhaps it did, and that is how the Greeks maintained a successful accordance with Politics, because they did not extract the necessity of human nature from it like we have. Politics to us is just politics, nothing else to it. No piety, no moderation, no wisdom, no courage, no justice, no morality, and no truth. We stopped asking ourselves that question, which keeps the heart of humanity as their focus point. The question became obsolete — politics did not. This lack of discourse would have troubled our Founding Fathers, Greek and American alike.
The essence of the human experience of existence resides in the original intents of nature, not in the fabricated concept of politics, despite its meticulously incised delineation in modern society. Our world requires government, there is no undoing this that has already been done and upheld for so long. We constructed civilizations that require this rigidity, but in the process also created a monster that demolishes the spirit of humanity. Politics is a seared human condition, but not a Law of Nature.