Politics, History, and Psychosis

Talking with a friend in an e-mail exchange yesterday, I was struck by her observation that when engaged in debate with right-wing troglodytes, she felt herself transformed into someone "like them."

For a full description of "them," see Frank Rich today.

There's a lot of truth to that, especially lately. Now that they've lost a few elections, and have no prospect of winning one any time soon, and in fact are now looking like history's biggest losers, the wingnuts have become more shrill, more hysterical, more intolerant, more incoherent, and more distanced than ever before from anything that might be identified as reality. Trying to argue with them is very upsetting, and there's no profit in it. And yet, even though they've relegated themselves to history's garbage can, they're still setting the terms and conditions of the debate, by continuing to shriek like a bunch of 15-year-old girls at an 'N Sync concert.

It's really too bad. All my life I've been fascinated by history and politics, which are actually two versions of the same thing. So it's a sad day when I can no longer actively pursue dialogue, wherever and whenever it arises, relating to both my twin passions. However, when such debate and discussion starts doing me harm, it's time to quit. As the scripture says, "If thy hand offend thee..."

This morning, as I tried to attend to my breathing (pranayama, in Sanskrit) in preparation for movement (asana), I couldn't clear my mind of the disturbances generated by the heat and intensity of a couple recent political discussions. And if politics is threatening my understanding of what life is all about, it has to go.

"Even if you take no interest in politics," the Athenian politician Pericles is reported by Thucydides to have said, "you can be certain that politics takes an interest in you." And yes, it really is a topic whose importance can't be downplayed, since to a large extent our political configuration at any given time determines the specific arrangements of our material circumstances.

However, political debate at the moment falls more into the realm of the psychoanalysts than the policy makers. We used to call them "conservatives," but that word no longer accurately describes them. They are really horrible, dreadfully twisted, broken people. Engaging them in any manner is a mistake, and the experience is bound to be toxic.

I love to write, and I still love politics and history. But for the moment, I think I'll stick to history, or maybe historical fiction, or even historical fantasy.

The illustration, "Nearly Hit" (oil on canvas), is by Paul Klee, and is housed at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art.

The quote from Thucydides appears in "The Peloponnesian War."