“The problem is politics is made a sport, almost as much a sport as football or baseball. When it comes to politics, adults and politicians do more finger-pointing and play more games than children ever do. Too often are we rooting for the pride of a team rather than the good of the nation”
~ Criss Jami
My participation in political elections has been relegated mostly to the levers of the voting booth. As an American I have always had a fair amount of idealism as far as believing that I live in a democracy, but that belief is being challenged. More and more it appears that the system is broken, which if we take a step back is reassuring because the present administration can’t really be blamed for breaking what’s already broke. Sure we are perhaps in the midst of devastating change, but change is necessary and keeping the status quo is sometimes a more certain death. My personal difficulty with politics is that it feels as if my vote doesn’t really count.
I didn’t vote for chaos, but at the end of the day, there is a fair amount of irony in the mendacity of platforms like Truth Social. People tend to believe whatever fits their narrative; our brains sort for evidence that confirms what statisticians call our “priors,” or biases. Media outlets have learned that controversy drives viewership, and the more divisive the content, the more polarizing and extreme the views, the more engaging it is. This is the TRUTH!
On the other hand presenting a fair and balanced presentation replete with facts is more like a librarian hushing the crowd at a football game. The politics and the economics of partisan media thrive in the spectacle of what passes for news, wherein impartial and dispassionate investigations appear to be on life support.
This game will eventually come to an end. The crowd will hush and head for the exists once the excitement wears off, and regardless of which team won, fans will walk down the ramps and stairs, onto the parking lot and look for their cars. It won’t matter if the colors they wear were on the right or wrong side of the scoreboard because they’ll still need to navigate their way home in the traffic of real life. The spectacle which politics has become increasingly pulls on the heartstrings of the fan eager to experience what they paid for. They want the big show, and to feel they are part of the team, something bigger than themselves, but as the clock winds down and the final whistle blows reality hits — fans are NOT on the team; they are relegated to finding their cars in a crowded parking lot, to drive home, leaving the librarian alone, as they turn the radio on, tying to tune back into the narrative that shaped their enthusiasm in the first place, to cheer on “their” players; to feel reconnected to the mission, to not only win but sometimes more importantly to defeat their rival. But the game has already ended and soon the season will be over.
Will there be another season? Or a new game?
HVA
💚🍀
Hudson Valley Astrologer 
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