Attention! 5 Ways Obsession With Politics Can Ruin Your Life...

(It’s lengthy but find the meaning.)

I’m aware that politics directly affects your life. It directly affects everyone’s life.

Should you stay informed? Yes, you should.

Should you exercise your civic duty? Of course.

But there’s a difference between staying informed and developing an obsession with politics that will subtly ruin life.

Political theatre grabs you.

You feel simultaneously sickened and intrigued by politics.

If you were being honest with yourself, you’d admit you get some perverse satisfaction from bathing in outrage.

1) You’ll Lose Your Humanity

If you engage in tribal politics, meaning you will fight for your side no matter what your side does, you’ll begin to see the other side as sub-human.

You won’t see political disagreements as political disagreements, you’ll see ethical differences so stark that you’ll attribute evil and malice to the other side — republicans are all racists, white supremacists, and neo-nazis, democrats are all socialists, radicals, Marxists.

People have fought wars over those labels. They’ve tortured each other and put other humans in concentration camps and gulags over these labels. Hundreds of millions of people have died over those labels. Human beings can only devolve into that level of violence and depravity by seeing their opposition as something less than human.

If you’re engaging with those feelings, you’re engaging in the same type of feelings that caused humans to commit atrocities against one another. And before you claim you’re on the right side of history, self-righteousness is the prerequisite to carry out these atrocities.

2) You’ll Stress Yourself to Death

From a purely self-interested perspective, you should avoid getting obsessed with politics to keep yourself from a stress-induced early grave. Stress ages you and causes health problems.

2020 already has enough stressful triggers on its own.

Throw in the stress triggers you already had pre-pandemic — bills, work, errands, relationships, life in general. Toss some political gasoline on top of an already blazing fire and you get a potent stress bomb guaranteed to cumulatively shorten your life expectancy.

You’ve seen these compilations of people screaming and shouting when something doesn’t go their way politically. That’s not normal. In your case, ask yourself whether being informed is worth the amount of stress it’s causing you.

3) You’ll Lose Sense of Reality Itself

If you spend too much time following politics, watching the news, and obsessing over social media, you’ll distort your view of reality.

The news is not real.

“Fake news” isn’t fake in that it outright lies, even though it sometimes does. Fake news is fake because it spins and misleads to a point that justifies calling it a lie. Once you’re onto their tricks, you can’t unsee them.

For example, often you’ll see an article that quotes one word someone said and then will write an entire paragraph of context to explain one word.

The mainstream media, on both sides, has a perverse incentive to find the most salacious content possible because it drives clicks. Everybody understands and agrees to it, but blames the other side.

Your side is doing it, too.

4) You’ll Develop a False Sense of Security

An obsession with politics will lead to believe that your team cares about you. This will give you a false sense of hope that your side will come through and give you want you want and come to the rescue when they won’t.
Many people look to their side with hope because it’s the ultimate coping mechanism. You obsess over your team because looking in the mirror and realizing you’re all alone is tough to admit. Tough to admit, but it’s the truth.

Yes, politicians can and will pass policies that will move the needle up and down in your life. They might even greatly affect you. But, again, if you train yourself to look at policy without all the additional emotion and understand that your success in life is on you, you’ll be better off.

5) You’ll Waste Precious Time You’ll Never Get Back

Political obsession just sucks away so much time.

Has your life gotten any better because of it?
Have you helped make any meaningful change?
Do you feel like you’ve even made the tiniest of dents in terms of changing the minds of other people?

Read more: https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/5-ways-obsession-with-politics-can-ruin-your-life-795cf7df47b8


I will add my own thoughts on this and I’ll keep it brief:

You can only make a real and beautiful change in your own corner, of your own world.
If we all did that, with real intent, we would find true happiness and make the small changes that may begin to make the big changes.

Stop looking at the whole world and begin by looking at your own little world.

Being bombarded with all these big problems going on in our countries or the world as a whole can be stressful and tiring, especially seeing as most of us have very little power to do anything about them.

I do think we'd all be more mentally healthy if we tried to focus on the things we can influence, rather than railing in futility against the problems caused by people with far more power than we will ever have.

It reminds me of the Serenity Prayer, which my parents often talked to me about as a kid when I would get stressed out and anxious. You don't need to be religious to benefit from it:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

“An intense interest in current affairs from the viewpoint of spectator rather than participant is also a common indicator of a life going wrong. People who are in trouble mentally, in their careers or in their relationships, tend to develop strong opinions and feelings about the political scene, and to follow the scene with more intense interest than those whose lives are going well.”


Can’t remember where I read that, (I had copied and pasted it from somewhere), but it’s worth thinking about.

I think when people feel things are going wrong in their lives, they look for a reason. And people have a tendency to look for something simple they can blame their problems on -- for example, the Tories, the blacks, the immigrants, the polluters.

We can have a real tendency to think, "Everything will be fine once X is taken care of." But we're never going to run out of problems.

Problems are blessings. Without them, we'd have no reason to live. We wouldn't have jobs, and we'd never grow or get good at anything. We'd never be surprised. Life is all about our relationship with problems.

Politics is also my entertainment and sports for the most part.

Always some sort of bullshit going on.

Maddog wrote:Politics is also my entertainment and sports for the most part.

Always some sort of bullshit going on.

Same. I've had a deep interest in politics since being a teenager. The discussions are fun, whether I completely disagree with the person or not.

I will say, I became way more politically interested once I came out and again when I got into a relationship with a foreigner, largely because political issues suddenly seemed to impact me a lot more than I'd ever given thought to.

Ben wrote:I do think we'd all be more mentally healthy if we tried to focus on the things we can influence, rather than railing in futility against the problems caused by people with far more power than we will ever have.

I detect a bit of the head-in-the-sand thesis going on here.

Might I remind you, Ben, that in a democracy politics is not a game, but a responsibility.  If you aren't paying attention, you are letting yourself, your family and your fellow citizens down.

To say, never mind, go back to sleep, is also an old autocratic trick to get the "people" out of the way, so that tyrants will have no restraint.

Original Quill wrote:

Ben wrote:I do think we'd all be more mentally healthy if we tried to focus on the things we can influence, rather than railing in futility against the problems caused by people with far more power than we will ever have.

I detect a bit of the head-in-the-sand thesis going on here.

Might I remind you, Ben, that in a democracy politics is not a game, but a responsibility.  If you aren't paying attention, you are letting yourself, your family and your fellow citizens down.

To say, never mind, go back to sleep, is also an old autocratic trick to get the "people" out of the way, so that tyrants will have no restraint.

I just meant that it's easy to get yourself down if you put too much energy into things you ultimately can't do much to change.

Ben Reilly wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

I detect a bit of the head-in-the-sand thesis going on here.

Might I remind you, Ben, that in a democracy politics is not a game, but a responsibility.  If you aren't paying attention, you are letting yourself, your family and your fellow citizens down.

To say, never mind, go back to sleep, is also an old autocratic trick to get the "people" out of the way, so that tyrants will have no restraint.

I just meant that it's easy to get yourself down if you put too much energy into things you ultimately can't do much to change.

I know. But look how it reads. One of the reason why we have a First Amendment, and Britain has its freedom of speech, is because political discussion is so essential to politics, safety and wellbeing. Democracy deteriorates without discussion.

Ben Reilly wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

I detect a bit of the head-in-the-sand thesis going on here.

Might I remind you, Ben, that in a democracy politics is not a game, but a responsibility.  If you aren't paying attention, you are letting yourself, your family and your fellow citizens down.

To say, never mind, go back to sleep, is also an old autocratic trick to get the "people" out of the way, so that tyrants will have no restraint.

I just meant that it's easy to get yourself down if you put too much energy into things you ultimately can't do much to change.

Yeah, if you get too wrapped up in it you will go crazy. Its been since 2004 that a person I voted for was elected president. Such is life. .

I used to get more wrapped up in the whole process. Now I state some beliefs, make comments and hope I change a mind or two, but realize in the big picture, I'm not changing shit.

Ben Reilly wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

I detect a bit of the head-in-the-sand thesis going on here.

Might I remind you, Ben, that in a democracy politics is not a game, but a responsibility.  If you aren't paying attention, you are letting yourself, your family and your fellow citizens down.

To say, never mind, go back to sleep, is also an old autocratic trick to get the "people" out of the way, so that tyrants will have no restraint.

I just meant that it's easy to get yourself down if you put too much energy into things you ultimately can't do much to change.

you are so right, Ben - reminds me of an old prayer

Lord, grant me the courage to change the things I can
Lord, grant me the fortitude to accept the things I can't
Lord, grant me the wisdom to know the difference


I think eddie got it right

''You can only make a real and beautiful change in your own corner, of your own world.
If we all did that, with real intent, we would find true happiness and make the small changes that may begin to make the big changes.

Stop looking at the whole world and begin by looking at your own little world.''

it's what i've said to my kids. If you want the world to change you need to first BE the change

also, if you focus your own intimate world (mind) on being peaceful and serene you find it being reflected back at you

imagine how powerful it could be if everyone did that

too many people focus on greed and resentment and general negativity

Be stupid, don't ask questions...be happy.

Original Quill wrote:Be stupid, don't ask questions...be happy.  

i understand that's your life's philosophy, quill?


stupid is as stupid does, question everything, be happy

gelico wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Be stupid, don't ask questions...be happy.  

i understand that's your life's philosophy, quill?

stupid is as stupid does, question everything, be happy

I was paraphrasing your message...

My ethos comes from C. Wright Mills in his 1956 book, The Power Elite" Question authority!

Original Quill wrote:

gelico wrote:

i understand that's your life's philosophy, quill?

stupid is as stupid does, question everything, be happy

I was paraphrasing your message...

My ethos comes from C. Wright Mills in his 1956 book, The Power Elite" Question authority!

groovy

but little point in quoting book reading in your response when you failed to understand the message to which you were responding

still, well done for trying

Gels wrote...

Lord, grant me the courage to change the things I can
Lord, grant me the fortitude to accept the things I can't
Lord, grant me the wisdom to know the difference

I always thought these were very wise words.

gelico wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

I was paraphrasing your message...

My ethos comes from C. Wright Mills in his 1956 book, The Power Elite" Question authority!

groovy

but little point in quoting book reading in your response when you failed to understand the message to which you were responding

still, well done for trying

Well, the book is the source of what we should all learn: running away from your problems is no answer. We live in extremely volatile times, and we need to have situational awareness constantly.

What appalls me is this, of all times, is no time to urge that we all become lethargic citizens…that we become so blasé to what our politicians are doing, that we—what is the phrase?—go asleep at the wheel. We’ve just had a madman at the helm of the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth. If he weren’t the puppet of the most powerful enemy of that nation, who held him in check, we might well have blown up the world.

This is no time to be chatting about flowers or the latest fashion fads.

Original Quill wrote:

gelico wrote:


groovy

but little point in quoting book reading in your response when you failed to understand the message to which you were responding

still, well done for trying

Well, the book is the source of what we should all learn: running away from your problems is no answer.  We live in extremely volatile times, and we need to have situational awareness constantly.

What appalls me is this, of all times, is no time to urge that we all become lethargic citizens…that we become so blasé to what our politicians are doing, that we—what is the phrase?—go asleep at the wheel.  We’ve just had a madman at the helm of the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth.  If he weren’t the puppet of the most powerful enemy of that nation, who held him in check, we might well have blown up the world.

This is no time to be chatting about flowers or the latest fashion fads.

Instead, people should be an irritating force on a forum with about a dozen active members.

That will show those rascally politicians.

AWARENESS is sometimes an "irritating force", and sometimes it is nothing special...just staying awake at the wheel. That depends on the existential conditions.

Right now, the world faces the greatest challenge to institutions in 300-years. Democracy is being threatened. We'd best pay attention.

Original Quill wrote:AWARENESS is sometimes an "irritating force", and sometimes it is nothing special...just staying awake at the wheel.  That depends on the existential conditions.

Right now, the world faces the greatest challenge to institutions in 300-years.  Democracy is being threatened.  We'd best pay attention.

Have you put this on Instagram to activate your thousands of followers?

Is Instagram like Twitter?

Original Quill wrote:Is Instagram like Twitter?

You're not going to be very influential with that level of ignorance.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Is Instagram like Twitter?

You're not going to be very influential with that level of ignorance.

Yes, I agree.     I focus on what is proper, logical and correct, not on what is influential.

People can determine on their own, from the facts, what influences them.  

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

You're not going to be very influential with that level of ignorance.

Yes, I agree.     I focus on what is proper, logical and correct, not on what is influential.

People can determine on their own, from the facts, what influences them.  

Great.

Keep up the hard work.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Is Instagram like Twitter?

You're not going to be very influential with that level of ignorance.

Yes, I agree.     I focus on what is proper, logical and correct, not on what is influential.

People can determine on their own, from the facts, what influences them.  

What are you actively doing to change the world?

Original Quill wrote:Be stupid, don't ask questions...be happy.  

I see the point totally went whoosh, right over your head.

eddie wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Be stupid, don't ask questions...be happy.  

I see the point totally went whoosh, right over your head.

I think our positions are reversed.  My point went right over your head.

"Be stupid, don't ask questions...be happy" is a caricature of a person with no situational awareness.  Why do they have no awareness?  Because they don't ask questions, and engage in discussions about the powers that be in their surroundings.