Politics has been on my mind a great deal this week - not as a result of anything the powers that be have done (although they surely raise eyebrows from time to time on both sides of the fence) but because of my wanderings in the wilderness. In the revelation that my Novel had taken over the story from me (We'll call it Levon - great name, Sue ;) I realized that one of the major things missing from the story was a big Why. If you recall the synopsis that I wrote a while back about the story, the main characters are drawn into a revolt against the government. While we've all had reasons to hate things that politicians do from time to time, none of us have joined a revolt recently because those things have only affected us. One of the questions I had wanted to answer in this book was, At what point would the American people rise up against the government? Levon didn't want to answer that question. Levon wanted to play it safe. Levon went through elaborate steps to explain individual reasons - honor, revenge, etc... But Levon didn't want to give a macro reason for large numbers of people to rise up against the US Government.
I've got 30 chapters to play with this idea. And I've got a few ideas that will work for the book. But the question that intrigues me is what would that thing be for me? What would make me so angry that I'd buy a gun and storm the nation's capitol? I mean, even if, as I suspect, the Bush Government lied to the American people about the war in Iraq, lied about the weapon's of mass destruction, put their political cronies in positions of power and wealth, and occupied a foreign nation just for the sake of oil money... I'd be darn tootin mad, but I doubt I'd start a revolution. The short answer to the question, of course, would be that the government would have to do something so drastic and so terrible as to deny me the ability to be me. They'd have to discard my beliefs. They'd have to deny my thoughts, feelings, and concerns as being completely pointless. They'd have to try to conceptually destroy who I am, even if they didn't try to do it physically.
Which raises the question, who am I? What are the things that I believe, that I hold so dear to my heart, that the loss of that belief would destroy me completely? Certainly my faith. This is not something that's negotiable. But, would I revolt if the government shut down my church? Or, worse, if the church I had known was to be taken over from within by the same people that were running the country? My belief in freedom and justice for all - not just the rich and able - would be high on that list. So, too, would my belief that all people deserve the right to the freedom of speech and expression - but I would temper this with the Clear and Present Danger clause that the Supreme Court has also applied. I guess most of the articles of the Bill of Rights would be high on that list. As much as I love this country and the principles it stands for, any attack on the Constitution of the United States, from without or within, would cause me to defend that article in the best way possible. I would take up arms to defend myself and my family as well. But these are all individual reasons based on perceived threats and get me no closer to understanding the things that I hold dear even when there is no perceived threat to them.
I love baseball and the sense of fair play. I love drama. I love the idea that things can turn out good. I like the idea of innocent until proven guilty - in the great drama of life, I have to hope in the underdog idea that things might not always be as they appear. I am always for open lines of communication - and peaceful posturing as a default. I think the UN is our best hope of survival. I think the Olympic Spirit is what is right in the world - friendly competition to determine who is best, during a time of world peace. I don't believe in anyone's superiority or their inferiority, though I am greatly annoyed by those who do think that. I find all people to be God's creatures and I try not to hold any animosity towards anyone, but I admit to being an idea chauvanist. I know I'm right. I know that you're wrong. Its hard for me to understand why you can't figure that out. But I try to understand. I am open minded and think the world should be as well.
This is getting me no closer to what I would be willing to take up arms for. But perhaps that's the point. Perhaps the reason there hasn't been a revolution here in nearly 150 years is the fact that this country has done a good job of keeping people in the fold - convincing them that no matter how bad it has gotten, our system is still the right system. We might need course corrections from time to time, but as a whole, this country is still the most sea worthy vehicle out there.
More things to ponder from the wilderness... but soon, I will have found my way back to the path.
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