In life – at least life in a well-ordered, free society – the highest matters are not political. They are familial, cultural, social – involving greater pursuits than contending over the role of the state. Under this view, one contends over politics (as libertarians do) not because it is too important but because it must not become too important.
In our time, sadly, politics has already become too important, carrying with it the risk that America will lose her republic, and that a bigoted & autocratic nativism will impose a continent-wide herrenvolk.
One would prefer to fight a small fire and not an inferno; it’s an inferno we now face.
Editor & journalist Heidi N. Moore is right about the (regrettable) importance of politics today:
Politics right now is the biggest story in American history since the Civil War. It’s corruption, treason, cyberwar, racial hatreds, women and POC finding a voice and real power for the first time in decades.
And the DC press corps is completely fucking up the assignment.
If by politics one means a mostly domestic matter, then Moore is right, and right about our time for some of the same reasons the Civil War so obviously mattered: questions of race and rights, in a choice between cruel oppression & humane liberty.
Although she’s writing about the national press, the obligation to face these threats reaches to every corner of the country.
Someday – soon one hopes, but likely not for years – politics will again thankfully matter less. The business of watching over it will then safely be left to fewer people. A better politics is a bounded politics; a bounded politics is the chance for a boundless & vibrant culture.
Hyper-localism has always been a narrow idea; it’s more like a mortal sin of omission now.