Weary of politics

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I know that political debate energizes some people, but I find all of politics to be a very wearying affair. The debate, such as it is, is endless; in many (if not most) cases, both sides in the debate have some good points to make, and a lot of bad points that each side willfully ignores. The truth is often somewhere in the middle, and it is rarely pretty.

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Just to take one contentious issue: immigration. Here's an issue I can see both sides on. Illegal immigration is, in fact, a violation of our nation's laws, and those who violate it are lawbreakers by definition. They're also desperately poor people, in most cases, who want a better chance to work their way to a better life for themselves and their families. So their desire to cross into the U.S. illegally is very understandable to me. But it's not without consequences. Illegal immigrants tend to work cheaper than native workers do, which depresses wages at the lower economic strata. But, they also work hard and contribute to our national economy. But, they also use a lot of "free" government services from cash-strapped states that many citizens don't have access to. And what of those who follow the law, who immigrate legally? Are they fools? What are we to say to them if we shrug at the influx of illegal immigration?

All of which to say that this is a very complicated issue, one that defies simple solutions. And there I'm typically left by all the debate, not sure what to think, frustrated and weary. I sometimes wish I were more of an ideologue, just to find some degree of comfort with a political position. But then, when I see friends who are—how much of their time and energy gets swallowed up by their politics—I'm glad I'm not.

And I'm not. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, that much I know and believe. And I have friends who also are who fall all along the political spectrum. I'm grateful for them all, and I condemn none of them, even if I happen to disagree with them. (I also have friends who are not Christians; the same applies to them.)

It seems to me that politics is a necessary evil, an endless debate over every imaginable issue that has no solution that works for everyone. There is a futility to it all that I ultimately run into, and in times of futility, I run to the Lord. In this life, all things, all times are ultimately futile; in His embrace alone I find hope and comfort.

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Reasons to be hopeful: Life is getting better for most of us

I tend toward pessimism, I freely admit it. It's either an aspect of my personality, or a character flaw, depending on how I look at it. (I tend toward the latter view.) I'm trying to change that, in view of my faith and in view of the reality of the world, too, when properly viewed.

Matt Ridley wrote a great essay on HuffingtonPost.com getting to the heart of this very conundrum: Why is it that there are so many pessimists predicting a dire, hopeless future when the world is actually improving by every reasonable measure? Ridley has a few ideas:

I now see at firsthand how I avoided hearing any good news when I was young. Where are the pressure groups that have an interest in telling the good news? They do not exist. By contrast, the behemoths of bad news, such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and WWF, spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year and doom is their best fund-raiser. Where is the news media's interest in checking out how pessimists' predictions panned out before? There is none. By my count, Lester Brown has now predicted a turning point in the rise of agricultural yields six times since 1974, and been wrong each time. Paul Ehrlich has been predicting mass starvation and mass cancer for 40 years. He still predicts that `the world is coming to a turning point'.

I think Ridley's onto something here: Follow the money. Nobody raises funds by claiming that the problem they aim to solve is actually getting solved. No, it's dire predictions of imminent doom—unless you send money NOW. That's not to say that there aren't very worthy causes worthy of our support, and in many cases these organizations addressing these causes are the very ones imbibing at the downer bar to raise funds. They spend a lot of money, so they have to raise a lot of money. Understood.

But still, it's a healthy bromide—and it feels good going down, believe me—that mixes a healthy skepticism of pessimism along with an optimistic outlook rooted in facts. For all our carping about the excesses of the modern world, who among us wants to go back to a time of less sanitation? How unhappy would you be about unprocessed food if you struggled to raise enough food to feed your family? How much would global warming suck if you were alive during the Little Ice Age, when food was scarce and life was amazingly harsh? I could go on, but the idea is clear enough.

Nothing new about this dynamic, either, as Ridley notes:

I got back to 1830 and still the sentiment was being used. In fact, the poet and historian Thomas Macaulay was already sick of it then: `We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all before us, and with just as much apparent reason.' He continued: `On what principle is it that, when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us.'

Admittedly, I'm as guilty as anyone. I tend to narrow my focus too much, in part because my depression can be so daunting at times. That's no excuse, but it is an explanation that makes sense; when my depression is treated adequately (as it seems to be now), I become more hopeful, reminded by my faith in Christ that I have every reason to hope no matter life's circumstances. (On that note, though, it doesn't hurt that I've recently fallen in love, and that definitely ups the hope factor.)

So, I invite all you fellow pessimists to drink in a little optimism and broaden the scope of what you see. Doesn't mean that problems don't abound, that horrors still exist; does mean that things have gotten much better, sometimes fitfully, and in spite of the predictions of imminent doom, things are generally better now than they ever have been. The future? A lot brighter than I had imagined. And that feels damned good.