Monday, December 30, 2013

Politics Is Boring

Hi everybody. This is your loveable doggie host Chester L. W. Spaniel, and this is The Daily Bone.

Hi.

In the past few weeks, I have presented not one, not two, but three articles on the subject of hate. It seems there are tons of web sites and social media pages that are practically bursting with horrible hateful things, especially when it comes to politics. My kind-hearted colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel and I tried to analyze this using doggie logic, but have failed so far to understand what is so great about hating something. So then we decided to look at the problem from a different point of view. What kind of things do humans love? The first thing to come to mind is entertainment. Humans love to watch exciting movies about good vs bad, especially if it involves the good guys blasting the bad guys to pieces. They also love watching sports, like football. Politics, on the other hand is essentially boring: a bunch of humans in a big semi-circular room, arguing about all the legal minutiae of making complicated laws to regulate every move and penny we make, and then wrapping it all up in barrels of pork. Who wants to watch that when the new Ironing Board Man movie or a major football game is playing on TV?

So, the media figured out how to make politics more exciting, and in the process, choose sides, promote their agenda, and make a ton of money: make politics into a sport! Yeah, that’s right. There are two big teams—Democrats and Republicans—and they can be labeled by a narrow  list of extreme and unrealistic things they sort of stand for. Now people will take politics personally, so let the hating begin! As I have pointed out in many TDBs, from what you see on TV, you might think there is bloodshed, mayhem, and downright havoc going on in Washington, as the two teams slug it out on Capitol Hill. It’s a death match, and there’s a panoply of reporters and analysts lined up to explain each and every move, try to figure out who will win, and why, and how, and what it will cost, and how it will affect our lives, all whilst spinning the whole thing right or left. Then the hate-fest continues on line.

Nobody seems to stop and think, hey, I know a lot of nice, friendly, logical, fair-minded people who are affiliated with either one party or another, and they’re not anything like the exaggerated stereotypes they’re labeled with. So our doggie advice to all you humans is, don’t judge each other by the lunatic fringe presented on the media. Be kind to each other. Listen to both sides, and make your own judgement according to the goodness in your heart. Maybe you don’t agree with some issues, but that doesn’t mean you should express your disagreement with hatred. Hate just creates more hate. And that’s a memo.

Seriously … just stop hating.

No comments:

Post a Comment