I'd be interested in hearing what politics means to each of you that visit here. Once again elections in Canada are being brought to the forefront, and once again I hear people say there are no viable political parties to choose from. I'm tired of hearing about voter apathy and all these rallies trying to convince people to vote. I find such a narrow vision trickling down to us from the media of talking heads and scandals that seems to miss again and again the basis of what politics should be in our lives.
Our homeless shelter has certainly felt the cutbacks the current government implemented regarding underage youth. We've seen an influx of 16, 17 and 18 year old youth come to us the past six months, lacking the supports and services they need as they face homelessness. There is also a glaring lack of support for young single mothers in regards to basic help and supportive housing. One of my co-workers has been really good at communicating with our political leaders the ramifications of cutbacks to social services (as many friends have demonstrated to me in the past), so I'm learning to take that time to become part of the process rather than grumbling about it. But even my housemate has reminded me that we're all involved in politics, in the simple act of how we spend our money, and how we live in our communities. I like this excerpt from Spiritual Politics by activists Corinne McLauglin and Gordon Davidson, as it paints a more holistic vision of what politics should be:
"Politics is the way we live our lives," stated an early new paradigm group called the New World Alliance, which helped co-found with forty other leaders in 1979. "It is not just running for office. It is the way we treat each other, as individuals, as groups, as governments. It is the way we treat our environment. It is the way we treat ourselves. Politics has to do with where we whop, what we eat, how we maintain our health. It has to do with the kinds of schools we create, the energy we use, the neighborhood organizations we build, the work we do. Politics involves our way of seeing the world, of developing our consciousness, of awakening our whole selves. It has to do with our attitudes, our values, our innermost dimensions."
The old political paradigm assumed that events were caused solely by political leaders and public policies. The new emerging paradigm could be called "politics as if people mattered." It addresses causes inherent in our own human psyche, our thought and feelings, as well as in the karma of groups and nations.From Spiritual Literacy (330).
