“Talking Politics”

Dear Editor,

I have so often heard, “Oh, I don’t ‘do’, ‘have any interest in’, ‘want to hear about’…’talk’…POLITICS.  Today, the word (πολιτικά (politiká) in its Greek origin) carries a negative connotation.

The Greek philosophers who coined the word were talking about the affairs of the city-states in the days before what we know now as countries. They were concerned with the activities associated with the governance of an area, especially the debate between parties having power.  In those days, powerful people to whom one might owe allegiance to the tune of a spike or a sword (definitely a hog or a goose every now and then) made all the decisions.  A person couldn’t take their family or farm for granted.  They had to know what was going on, and on which side of the line their well-being could be found.

It’s not so different today.  There are still those who have some power over decisions about the sidewalk, the schools, the name of the state park close by, or what books should be in the library.  It’s all politics – settling differences of opinion through discussion followed by action…or inaction.

The same is true in the local church, or in any group – a fraternal order, a business endeavor, a nation, a continent, the World.  Where decisions are being made it can’t be done without politics.  In a democratic organization, If people are not writing or voicing their opinion, or standing on the corner, marching through the street, or voting their choices, someone will inevitably make the decision.

If people have no opinion, or choose not to use their rights, then it is soon not a democracy, but run by those who feel they have a right to make the decisions for everyone…to match their own wishes and wants.

If there is never any disagreement, or one person always has the final say, that is not a democratic process, but an authoritarian one – where total freedom from organization is left to laissez faire at one end of the spectrum (you know, an attitude of “whatever”), or at the other end, a royal command of a King, or the fiat of a dictator.

There is a rumor that people really want a dictator so they don’t have to talk politics, make decisions…VOTE.  I know that isn’t true, don’t you?

Lola R. Gregg, Mineral Point, WI