Have you watched the news lately? Or, better yet, doom-scrolled on TikTok while your reality TV show runs, half-watched in the background? If you spend at least a fraction of the time I do in this circumstance (which for me, is also known as “first position”), you will quickly realize that there is a lot going on. Always. Everywhere. Becoming more politically minded has been a goal for me in my adulthood, as I’m sure it is for many. This came firstly because I wanted to understand the decisions behind who I vote for more intimately, which led to just a growing fascination with and recognition of the importance of politics.
Back in November, something that some might call a somewhat semi-important event for politics occurred. Upon the day of this event, and following the spiral of repercussions succeeding it, the thoughts of the state of our world and its future became exceedingly distressing. I’m sure many of us, for any multitude of reasons, in this sensitive political climate, have experienced the same distress. For me, it manifested interestingly: as I often do, I began to fantasize. My fantasy world wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though, of course that is entirely unrealistic. No, instead I daydreamed about a better world, one where we were all united against a common enemy. Naturally, my mind turned to alien invasion.
This incredibly odd thought became commonplace for me. When I read a headline that upsets me, or witness a frustrating conversation between two opposing viewpoints, I find myself wishing: “If only there was something, even if it was a devastating, terrifying alien invasion that turned our world upside down, that was objective and unifying.” Even this (insane) thought, however, is naive. When I would wander to that fantasy world, it would begin as a hopeful story of human determination to dispel an objective evil, that we all agreed was undeniably unacceptable. However, the thought would soon become corrupt with power-hungry entities using the mass devastation as an opportunity to further individual goals, or some moral complexity being discovered in the alien eradication itself. There seemed to be no answer or circumstance that could ever lead to political harmony. Every day, this insane, depressing, nonsensical mental spiral played on repeat until I finally decided:Hey, maybe it’s time for a small break from the internet.
Don’t get me wrong. Understanding what is going on outside of your own individual and personal life is incredibly important, obviously. However, we are living in a time where if you look for it, you have access to an infinite supply of knowledge about any topic, so many of which are devastating and difficult, as an understatement. If you have basic human empathy, this can become unbearable and, in my case, for some reason result in an alien-themed mental breakdown. It has become entirely acceptable to bring up topics far too important to thoroughly understand in one conversation. And if that conversation is at all a debate or disagreement, “hypotheticals” regarding some of the most horrendous outcomes, such as death, illness, or imprisonment, become trump cards to use at the drop of a hat to “win”, or be “right”. This is what is alien and inhuman, the personal politics, egos, and opinions we hold becoming intertwined with topics of extreme importance and consequence. It has become so normalized, and it took wishing for a global disaster for me to realize how mind-warping that is.
At the basis of my fantasy, clearly, was the naive wish for simplicity. When engaging in political discussions or research, you are hypothetically speculating on the well-beings of mass amounts of people. Of course that is hard, and of course it can feel devastating and alienating to disagree with other people in your life about such important matters. Witnessing these conversations made me wish that there was an agreeable solution to the well-being of everyone, because I was exhausted with facing the reality of the complexity of our world. I was longing for the separation of personal and political, for the fantasy world where everyone you love has the same opinion on what is best.
Given that this will never happen, I want to examine what the fantasy meant to me. More specifically, I want to understand how I can use this experience to have more tolerance for these conversations in the future, without reaching this breaking point. And I think I’ve learned that sometimes in order to keep a clear head about complex moral relativity, consequential outcomes for large groups of people, and political divisiveness, you have to walk away. Certain conversations are not going to make you any more well-informed or more useful member of society, they are only going to make you furious, emotional, and muddy your view. Certain videos on the internet, that are not from reliable news sources, will do the same. Of course, I cannot state enough how I am not in any way meaning to say you should avoid politics outright. It is impossible to do so, not to mention wrong. But, sometimes, quality over quantity is going to ensure that your tolerance isn’t exceeded and you reach a place of reality-warping insanity, like I did. So, if a person says they don’t want to talk about politics, maybe don’t jump to the conclusion that they don’t care, are uneducated, or can’t tolerate opinions that differ from their own. Maybe, they are just trying to avoid having a crashout of extraterrestrial proportions.