Unfortunately for pretty much every single person that knows me, two of my favorite discussion topics are politics and religion. Now, everyone knows the taboo regarding such discussions. Apparently it's something that shouldn't be done, even amongst friends. When did this development occur? I'm fairly certain that America exists because a bunch of rich men, including an author/inventor, a slave-owning tobacco farmer, and a career military man sat around one day smoking hemp and discussing the current political structure of their little system of colonies. So why, when I bring up the current political structures, do I get a sea of nervous faces, or, occasionally, angry rebukes? It seems to my somewhat-paranoid brain that this social taboo is part of an effort to reduce intelligent debate that may or may not be critical of entrenched world power structures. Or, to cleverly reference my own title, "they don't wants us gettin' no idears."
I think this conclusion is best illustrated by the rampant anti-intellectualism and gradual dumbing-down of people in the United States. We rank below the top 20 in world-wide education, and that includes K-12 Math and Science (48th, USA Today 9/26/10), Literacy (21st, UN Literacy Report 2009), and Medical Science (37th, WHO 2000). Even scarier is the fact that, ranked above us on these lists, are countries including Cambodia, Colombia, Malaysia, Slovenia, Chile, Indonesia, etc. These are countries with notoriously restrictive political regimes, and, in our supposedly free society, education is apparently highly discouraged. Or, more precisely, the application of education to question/critique the government in a public setting among strangers or friends is highly discouraged.
Of course, I'm not saying one need be highly educated to discuss politics. In fact, the opposite is true. If something the government is doing feels wrong, then it probably is. Yet the taboo prevents us from piping up amongst our brethren. It stops us from attempting to organize! If at a bar I decide to say, "You know what bothers me? This whole stupid healthcare reform bill that Obama pushed through Congress instead of creating jobs. It doesn't even work!", the most common response will be "Yeah man, it sucks but what are we gonna do? Besides, we're drinking, there's no room for that kinda stuff now." Then we return to watching the Yankees or Giants while I sit there seething.
My politics are no secret. If you're reading this, you probably know where I stand on most current issues. But for posterity's sake, let me say this: I love the Tea Party. I'll repeat that in case you fainted. I love the Tea Party. Now, I hate their message, and I hate their leaders, and I vehemently disagree with almost every single person who belongs to it. But they organized. They were unhappy with the government, and they all discussed it, and they all organized. They ignored the taboo because enough was enough in their eyes. They rallied behind common leaders and a semi-common message, and managed to get their candidates through a primary against comically-entrenched incumbent Republicans.
That's the kind of thing that happens when people discuss politics. They tend to organize and group under a banner, which is a scary thing for an entrenched power structure to witness. After all, governments are, ideally, beholden to the social contract. If a government's people aren't happy, that government shouldn't be happy. I'll go one further and say that if a government's people aren't happy, that government should be scared. The unwritten social taboo that forbids discussion of politics in public settings, with friends or strangers, needs to go the way of other, similarly-dangerous social taboos, such as women working or men being allowed to hit their wives or people with AIDS being forbidden from drinking at water fountains. It's common sense that politics are important in each of our lives, and the free exchange of ideas via political debates amongst friends shouldn't fall victim to the culture of stupidity.
Then again, a big part of what I seek rests on people's ability to agree to disagree sometimes. Maybe this isn't such a hot idear after all...
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