Looking For Leaders

I heard a news story about people waiting in line to vote in Nevada. It was a party, people feeling they were meeting friends. And there was a critical distinction: THEY DIDN’T ASK EACH OTHER WHO THEY WERE VOTING FOR. “I’m just a good old boy in a cowboy hat” one said. “And I’m makin’ friends here today. I don’t know who they’re votin’ for. And they don’t know who I’m votin’ for. And we like it like that.”

“Would you like to tell us?” the interviewer asked.

I could hear the grin in his voice. “No,” he said. “I really wouldn’t.”

In other words they enjoyed each other, liked each other, saw each other as Americans. Friends. Neighbors. And knew that politics can destroy that.

Philosophy does not, at least not to the same degree. It asks “what is true?” (the material and ethical structure of the universe). and “who am I?” (what is it to be human). One’s ANSWERS to these question will, IMO, influence our politics, which is more about “how can we win?” How, in other words, can we build coalitions to accomplish the goals resulting from our positions and perceptions.

I believe that philosophy is more in the nature of “what is an automobile? How can it best be designed? Built? Fueled? What motivates our workers to invest themselves in manufacturing them? Why and when are people motivated to purchase them?”

But politics is more the HOW: “I want to drive to Disneyland. How do we convince the family to do this, and forget about Hawaii this summer?”