The Politics of Love
I know that not everyone shares my personal politics, which are to the left of the general public. There may be places that they stand in contradiction to each other, and some things are hard to reconcile but I imagine most people’s personal politics aren’t 100% ideologically coherent — we all live contingent and reactive lives and often only deal with what’s in front of us at the moment.
That said, my own personal politics come from a deeply empathetic place, one that knows some suffering and knows how big the world is and how each and every one of us has our own interesting story and hopes and dreams and fears and love.
Love — that’s where I come from. I love humans in all their varied and messy ways since we are all imperfect creatures continually trying to make sense of this big and confusing world. There are a few things that I don’t love though, and that includes cruelty and selfishness. These go against my fundamental empathy because it creates out-groups who it is ok to treat differently. I understand the impulse as we live on the edge of scarcity or deep within it. Though I understand the impulse, I cannot accept it. As the poet said, we must love one another, or die.
Originally published at http://econautodidactic.blogspot.com.