PERSONAL

I Miss Having Strong Political Opinions

Despite saying goodbye to my radical sensibilities in 2018, it was during this year that I have truly learned to be pragmatic. I believe being one is a great way to balance out my thoughts and perception of the world. Sometimes, however, I still miss having strong political opinions.

Being Realistic and Pragmatic

When we talk about Politics, we don’t have to be idealistic and see the government as a devil and its opposition an angel, or vice versa. The reality is that nobody is perfect, and everyone who’s on top decreases or completely loses their empathy. What’s even worse is that they may be sociopaths for all we know.

That’s the reason why we shouldn’t be dealing with Personality and Identity Politics. All of these are brands and strategies. At the end of the day, Politics is just about interests, whether political, personal, social, or collective. What we should do is to choose the lesser evil or the one that may give more to us, especially the poor and marginalized ones.

I have sustained that neutral and pragmatic judgment. However, it doesn’t go without its reversals.

The Irony of it all

I know it’s crazy, but having strong political opinions and being an idealist had some fair points. It’s the one that feeds art and creativity. Yearning for change creates a more profound change within ourselves.

Having deep emotions and opinions regarding social change has improved my writing. I wasn’t merely a robot. I felt like all the creativity just flew through me. I’m lucky enough to be having a good and relaxed love life, so instead of putting the robust emotions into love, I reserved it for politics.

man in gray pants holding white and black signage
Photo by Thomas Lopez

I have thought of it as enlightenment, but of course, the real enlightenment, wisdom, and maturity come into facing reality. Nevertheless, my strong political opinions somewhat gave rise to a little F. Scott Fitzgerald or William Shakespeare in my brain, politics-wise.

The thing is, anxiety got the best of me, but it has also produced the best of what I could do. C’mon, being pragmatic is almost like being robotic. Being smothered with hatred builds an emotional opacity that it can produce some of the best works of art.

Missing the Burst of Emotions

After I began embracing reality, I got a copywriting job that dealt a lot with business writing. That made me forget about politics, but it also blocked some of the regions of my brain. Ironically, I suffered from writer’s block even if I was writing everyday.

So what am I missing here? I miss all that burst of emotions. I could write passionately about a lot of stuff. I could easily relate every movie and music review with politics and any social issue.

I can still choose to be idealistic if I want to, but it just bends the reality. Reality is still king.

Gradually, however, I’m discovering how I could tweak my thoughts and bring neutral but still strong opinions on legitimate yearnings for human rights and manipulation. All these issues keep my motor running.

The copyright-free images used in this blog post are from Unsplash. Cover photo by Brian Wertheim.

Spread the Love

5 Comments

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: