The Patch

The Patch

Written by Nicholas B. Mackey

The American Dream, as it’s called, is hard enough. The constant grind of employment, social enterprises and exterior commitments fuels each of us to push ourselves to exhaustion on any given day. Plain and simple- it is not easy. Our passion for our best interest is only paralleled by our ideology that what we do is what’s best for us. (Why else would we do what we are doing). We, as people, want the highest paying job, the most efficient diet plan and to be the most popular person in whatever room we walk into. We have this ideology that we need to whatever is best for ourselves, and it is true we must do that to some degree, but this competitive spirit naturally bleeds into our political landscape. We, as people, firmly believe our ideology is the fairest and most productive method and belief system and could work if the other people would not shoot it down (for the same reason you would shoot down their paradigm). But that’s just it, we are far more similar than we believe. That ideology of “do what’s best for us” is used by everyone and so is the concept that “my ideas are better than yours”, and ergo the vicious cycle. We are constantly doing and believing what is best for “us”, but who is “us”?

We talk about “us” (and doing what is best for us) so often, we forget who us is. Us is us. Us is you, us is your neighbor, your coworker, your father, your sister and that guy who always parks in your spot in at work. Us is us. It is everyone. So when we say “this or that ideology is best for us”, do we really always talk about us? I believe the time discuss who this us is is upon us. The discussion is about us and the medium is politics and that is the goal of this pamphlet.

When was the last time you can remember politicians, on the opposite side of the spectrum, working together to complete a goal without some sort of backlash and social media outburst? Let me ask you another question. When was the last time you completed a task or goal without the help of another person? (Even the golf player needs a person to mow the greens, so he can sink his putt.) There is very seldom a challenge, task or goal that one person does by themselves. Almost, every single person relies on other people to help them do what is best for them. Thomas Paine, in referring to society, once said, “A thousand motives will excite them thereto; the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might labour out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the meantime would urge him to quit his work, and every different want would call him a different way”. And so this rings true in every sphere, except for the political one. We constantly fight, and argue, and deny each other in this field. So why is this so? Is it because we truly do not agree with the ideologies of others? Is it more of a vendetta style tactic and straight out refusal of paradigm? Is it just we do not know how to get along (which I totally disagree with)? It is far past obvious we work better in partners and teams and societies, so why do not do in this land of politics? I do not disagree there is no perfect solution to any given problem, but I also believe we all have great ideas and can input great things into the political spectrum. We are always providing feedback and analyzing the ideas of others, which I find necessary in order for improvements to be made, and I also believe this can be translated into the political landscape. We constantly network and provide resources to every given situation, so why not politics? We seem to go against the common grain when dealing with politics and I am afraid that we are moving backwards as the rest of our society constantly pushes forward. We want to do what is best for “us”, but in reality when we say that we are only talking about ourselves. I firmly believe that paradigm can change and we can begin to start doing what is best for us, we just need to work together to complete challenges and hurdle obstacles, in regards to the political spectrum. Once we start looking at politics in this light, and working together, I believe it will truly be better for us.

NBM