Critique of Politics #7: The Personal Narrative and A New Participation in Civil Political Society

Critique of Politics #7: The Personal Narrative and A New Participation in Civil Political Society

By Tim Krenz

June 5, 2019

For Hometown Gazette

Do you have power? Do you have REAL political power? Absolutely, yes you do.

Social norms can mistake the act of voting as the last obligation and last resort for an average individual to express opinion and preferences in political affairs. Outside of the professional or volunteer in the aptly named political industry, we little understand the vast, latent, and unexplored potential of the average citizen's impact beyond voting. Individual votes, sought by a candidate and their supporting lobbies and committees, do eventually add up to the entire turn out of voters, and one side wins and everyone else loses.

Voting itself gets lost in the collective, where a sole and single person may think their vote means either less by not following the conventional viewpoint; or that the single vote means more by voting with everyone else. In the end, for many who vote, voting ends as the passive-aggressive frustration of casting a ballot to choose between the same evils—the evils we have always had when people abdicate their participation except on election day. We can no longer allow such passive practices by the majority of the population, not just those who decline to vote. Neither can we continue the elite domination of the system by the fewer and the wealthier. Look where the two-party system has taken the country, and the world. The result of the damage to government and policy by only passively participating every year, two years, four years or six, has increased. The house divides, more. It will not stand. It must change, or we will suffer the consequences.

Instead of arbitrary choices of evil and evil, we can change the norm. How do we make the change? We first must change the minds of more people, the ones heretofore not participating in solutions and the ones propping up the political institutions which cause the problem in the first place. Then, we must unleash the sleeping social power of everyone to effect the political and social changes. We have no other course to saving the government of the American people or the world at large. Again, to repeat and repeat and repeat, things must change, or we WILL suffer the consequences.

How can we change minds, to recognize our personal power over politics—beyond merely voting? It starts with the most important act of regaining control of our own personal narratives, in our lives, our civil society, and about our political-economy. Too often, we as a society, our huge collective mass, falls prey to the sound bytes, ideas, policies, advertising, public relations, “spin,” and all the other propaganda which accompanies the noise in our daily lives. For whether one thinks of political advertising and media campaigns, or commercial and business advertising, or anything designed to instill an idea or persuade someone to vote or buy in a certain way, it amounts to nothing more than organized and targeted manipulation—i.e. some type of propaganda.

Furthermore, modern society has fallen prey to the phenomena of social media, a new primary source of news, opinion-sharing, and personal interaction. We need to call it by a proper name of “anti-social media,” and nothing more than a collectivist attempt to manipulate the opinions and preferences of disconnected people separated from physical contact to each other. Social media as tools has good uses. When used to influence people's choices, it has done damage to civil society. We can only deny its impact on the politics of division and personal isolation to our long-term peril.

Things brings us back to regaining control of our personal narratives, and critically, control over our stories, beliefs, values, morals, principles, and the ethics by which we can live in good conscience. In the age of political systems defined by an increasing conformity to the popular line, a personal narrative can better filter the lies of leaders and followers. A political system—possibly now or shortly in the future—based on corruption, coercion, violent enforcement, and conflict to divide and rule people can only survive by propagating the lies that create collective conformity.

What lies? We can find some glaring ones, for example: that countries need to wage aggressive wars of prevention; that children and other innocent people killed and wounded in conflict only count as “collateral damage,” and not human victims of a moral crime; that we have no responsibility to help and/or feed the hungry poor of the world; that having extravagant amounts of more money, more property, more toys leads us toward happy spiritual fulfillment, and that we should emulate the rich by stealing our own self-respect to become one of them; that capitalism and socialism differ in that both do not eventually create and operate a systemic state welfare for the elite and wealthy; that the country have only two viable options in politics, the left and the right, instead of the correct, ethical and moral side; that individuals cannot make a difference where they live for a better neighborhood or a better earth. These lies have germinated into the national dialog and we have reached the point of their almost permanent deception.

As for the personal narrative, how does one begin? Think of yourself. Have any readers ever written—actually put pen to paper—a statement of personal ethics and principles by which they can live a good, honest and conscientious life? I challenge readers to start with that. State those things that you can do that will help. State things by which you will always stand, in the moral imperative of doing and protecting right and opposing wrong. What will you endorse and support that meaningfully helps change the world in your mind and your neighborhood for the better? What wrongs must you ethically not support and even oppose with every asset and fiber of your conscience and body? Then go on to further refine these questions: “Who am I, really? Where am I in life? What do I do? When do I need to do more and make hard choices? How can I become a better neighbor, and in turn create a better world? Why must I help create a peaceful, positive change?”

Start the personal narrative with those. Stick to them as best as you can. Obey those laws that you must, especially the Natural Law that you must withdraw consent from the fraud and the lies the world and its leaders want to impose. Take seriously your responsibility to your family and your employment. Change begins at home. But if enough readers do this personal narrative only once, it can translate into some rather important accomplishments. However, unless we understand our own personal narratives, we would only remain part of the deceptions.

Use this personal narrative as your starting point and guide-post in all your personal actions and efforts with others. The action can extend to unlimited ways and means of creating some fairly powerful effects. For, in all seriousness, we live on earth for two reasons: To love our fellow humans and to help them if we can. (If we cannot do those, we should not make things worse). If we apply this narrative and guidelines, and our supreme purpose in life to politics, the world has some chance of surviving the lies and conflicts resulting from them. We would do so only to our great benefit. The change begins with us.