Politics and Hypocrites

If you watch the news long enough, you are sure to find something about politics. The republicans did this. The democrats did that. It is all very annoying. Compounding things further is the whole presidential election campaign thing which I find completely annoying. The election is well over a year away, why are we talking about it now? A friend of mine pointed out that in Great Britain, you cannot campaign over six months prior to the election. I like that idea. Six months of annoyance and it's over (except for the chad defining and subsequent counting). What does all of this have to do with me?

I am a non-political person. I think that all politicians are liers and will screw me. The question is who can lie better and who can make the screwing the least painful. I am a proud GDI. I vote for whomever I like the better no matter what political party they belong to.

Then I got to thinking which, at times, can be a dangerous thing. As much as I hate politics in general, governmental in particular, I do it everyday. I also suspect, that we all do in some way. If you don't think so, let's look at the cars on my train of thought and see what conclusion you come to.

To study something, it must first be defined so here you go: Politics is a big game of scratch my back. (This isn't the official Webster version but the distilled essence.) You do something for me and I'll do something for you. We learn that as kids. We learn that, to get what we want, we have to do certain things a certain way. And, we learn who to have the dealings with. Is this starting to sound familiar. We get to school and get exposed to elections for various things, student government, homecoming court, prom royalty and such. They teach us that the entire election process is a popularity contest. The value of the person is of little consequence. How popular are they? How's that for a life-lesson?

Now, how many times a day at work do you do/not do something because of the consequence? In other words, how will your action hurt or help your career? We even do it at home. Think about how often you do/don't do something or say/not say something to your significant other? Yup, politics is even in the home. We do it so much that it is pretty much subconscious.

What does this have to do with me? Well, I can't tell a doctor exactly what I think because I may have to call him/her later and really need his/her permission for something. I can't tell a patient or their family exactly what I think is the root of the problem because they may call in and complain on me which, in the eyes of the company, would be worse than if I killed them or did sub-standard medicine. I am, however, guilty of using the trucks PA to give "driving suggestions" to people who really need them, much to my partners chagrin at times.

Bottom line, I am a hypocrite.