“The least we can do is care” – wise words from that colossus of modern political philosophy, Kid Rock. I think Cheryl Crow was there too, but I’m not certain who she is. Nevertheless it was this song that truly summarized for me the confused mixed messages that occurred in Jon Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity”. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the overall message (the one espoused for about 5 minutes at the end by Stewart himself) was an important one. However, like agnosticism, it sidestepped any ontological argument in favour of manners, common decency, toleration, etc.
Now such an approach, as I’ve said, appears to be increasingly necessary in that crazed communal psychosis that is American politics. Yet politics, unlike Godfrey, does exist. The message of Kid Rock is the equivalent of that odd statement that “it doesn’t matter what you believe in as long as you believe”. Where this message applies in religion (albeit in a rather sad, desperate kind of way) it’s meaningless in politics. Like Pascal, the importance of the ceremony is all that matters. Your reasons for voting don’t matter. Reasons behind activism, party membership, paying your council tax, all don’t matter. This is why I favour the ethical decision over the moral code; within public spheres the subjective remains subsidiary. The operation of democratic political structures, voting and legislation, must be universal and objective in their very nature. Caring seems secondary.
I begin with this thoroughly un-thought-out rant partly to give an impression of topicality and partly in order to assure you, scrumptious imaginary reader, of my own fallibility before I continue. What I’ve stated is a plea towards objectivity in politics. Rhetorically this is an assumption that my own views are objectively better than others. It’s an epistemological leap-of-faith regarding not only the soundness of my own reason but the very possibility of objective thought, free will, and a hundred other things right down to the existence of other people. Not that I credit you with existence, gorgeous one, being such a purely theoretical massager of my ego as you are. Nevertheless, the underlying point of all of this is simply that placing a cross in a square on some paper in a box is the ultimate ontological representation of our political existence. Without that vote, we are not here.
Who isn’t here then? Put your hands up. Well there’s people in the house of lords, the royal family, people in the army last time I checked (but I’m uncertain now) and - “Topic of the Day” - criminals. Yes, apparently these subhuman beasts are biologically no longer homo sacer but homo sapiens and must receive their human rights, their political existence. Having been out of the journalism game for a while I am a little rusty on making arguments against things that are obviously wrong, so I’ll bypass justifying this and swiftly move on to the wider issue. The one neglected. The one that isn’t here.
You see I made a category mistake when I previously claimed human rights for all those included within the remit of humanity biologically. As a political, legislative law and not a natural, physical law human rights themselves have a jurisdiction with limits. The human, as a notion to be created legally, relies on the ontological existence of humans within the political and legal world. In short, if you aren’t a citizen then you aren’t human. From illegal immigration to the ongoing torture of innocents (and worse, the guilty) by our government – a biological human must prove their political existence before their fleshy form is recognised as worthy of common dignity.
Oddly for me, currently writing on this as I am, the tendency towards negating human beings the right of political existence seems to follow a similar trend as arguments regarding the soul under Christianity. A dog can be tortured as a dog has no soul. Similarly, only those with a soul can participate in the Kingdom of Heaven and follow the moral teachings of Jeebo – much like the laws of the land only technically applying to citizenry and those citizens of other nations entered into this jurisdiction provisionally. Not the best analogy I’ve come up with in terms of functional parallels I realise. My point is more that the inability of people to recognise a fellow human being due to a lack of the proper paperwork is clearly a case of neurotic self-deception and double-talk to a point only matched by fundamentalist religion. Yet thanks to the very objective nature of the political sphere this is not only an everyday occurrence but a matter of near universal acceptance. Fellow humans are becoming few and far between these days.
It’s awful isn’t it? Oh well, at least we all care. Take that Iraqi Police Service!
Now such an approach, as I’ve said, appears to be increasingly necessary in that crazed communal psychosis that is American politics. Yet politics, unlike Godfrey, does exist. The message of Kid Rock is the equivalent of that odd statement that “it doesn’t matter what you believe in as long as you believe”. Where this message applies in religion (albeit in a rather sad, desperate kind of way) it’s meaningless in politics. Like Pascal, the importance of the ceremony is all that matters. Your reasons for voting don’t matter. Reasons behind activism, party membership, paying your council tax, all don’t matter. This is why I favour the ethical decision over the moral code; within public spheres the subjective remains subsidiary. The operation of democratic political structures, voting and legislation, must be universal and objective in their very nature. Caring seems secondary.
I begin with this thoroughly un-thought-out rant partly to give an impression of topicality and partly in order to assure you, scrumptious imaginary reader, of my own fallibility before I continue. What I’ve stated is a plea towards objectivity in politics. Rhetorically this is an assumption that my own views are objectively better than others. It’s an epistemological leap-of-faith regarding not only the soundness of my own reason but the very possibility of objective thought, free will, and a hundred other things right down to the existence of other people. Not that I credit you with existence, gorgeous one, being such a purely theoretical massager of my ego as you are. Nevertheless, the underlying point of all of this is simply that placing a cross in a square on some paper in a box is the ultimate ontological representation of our political existence. Without that vote, we are not here.
Who isn’t here then? Put your hands up. Well there’s people in the house of lords, the royal family, people in the army last time I checked (but I’m uncertain now) and - “Topic of the Day” - criminals. Yes, apparently these subhuman beasts are biologically no longer homo sacer but homo sapiens and must receive their human rights, their political existence. Having been out of the journalism game for a while I am a little rusty on making arguments against things that are obviously wrong, so I’ll bypass justifying this and swiftly move on to the wider issue. The one neglected. The one that isn’t here.
You see I made a category mistake when I previously claimed human rights for all those included within the remit of humanity biologically. As a political, legislative law and not a natural, physical law human rights themselves have a jurisdiction with limits. The human, as a notion to be created legally, relies on the ontological existence of humans within the political and legal world. In short, if you aren’t a citizen then you aren’t human. From illegal immigration to the ongoing torture of innocents (and worse, the guilty) by our government – a biological human must prove their political existence before their fleshy form is recognised as worthy of common dignity.
Oddly for me, currently writing on this as I am, the tendency towards negating human beings the right of political existence seems to follow a similar trend as arguments regarding the soul under Christianity. A dog can be tortured as a dog has no soul. Similarly, only those with a soul can participate in the Kingdom of Heaven and follow the moral teachings of Jeebo – much like the laws of the land only technically applying to citizenry and those citizens of other nations entered into this jurisdiction provisionally. Not the best analogy I’ve come up with in terms of functional parallels I realise. My point is more that the inability of people to recognise a fellow human being due to a lack of the proper paperwork is clearly a case of neurotic self-deception and double-talk to a point only matched by fundamentalist religion. Yet thanks to the very objective nature of the political sphere this is not only an everyday occurrence but a matter of near universal acceptance. Fellow humans are becoming few and far between these days.
It’s awful isn’t it? Oh well, at least we all care. Take that Iraqi Police Service!
RSS Feed