The Lovely Lydia's Blog for November 2020

Lydia, what are your thoughts on the election?

People in real life continue to ask me this, and my answer is the same here as it is there: I choose not to discuss politics any more than is ever necessary. I'll happily share my life story and discuss my sexual exploits in detail, but politics? That's just a bridge too far. 

My ex-wife was extremely politically minded. We agreed on most things and had some quite lively conversations. But I also found the discussions tiring. Sure, you can choose to be enraged over someone else's beliefs and policies, but the only real power you have to push back is to cast a vote. Since mass media controls public opinion for the most part, nothing I say or do is going to have an effect on the outcome. 

It perhaps reveals my hand to say I don't subscribe to the idea that silence is either complicity or a passive act of violence. There are things one can do quietly in one's everyday personal life to try to effect change in some small way, whether it's the donation of time or money to a charity or simply doing something to lead by example. But if you choose not to be politically engaged, that's okay as well. It's (supposedly) a free country. 

As I've mentioned here on these pages, I was raised by a dad who was a very socially and politically active Quaker. The Quakers have always been political activists, guided by the words of the Gospels, and particularly the Sermon on the Mount, to fight for "the least of these," the ones forgotten and trod upon. That's why the Quakers were leaders in both the abolition movement and the push for women's suffrage. They also won important political protections for those who sincerely believed that their religious principles forbade them from taking up arms against another human being.

Those were the values I was raised with. And my dad, from an early age, wanted me to understand the importance of helping others. It wasn't just to make ourselves feel better or improve on our chances of getting a free ticket to some heavenly realm when we die. It was simply because people were suffering, and if we had the capacity to help, then we needed to help, whether it was feeding them for a day, giving them a warm bed to sleep in, helping them improve their job skills, getting them into counselling, helping them kick addictions, what have you. If you are to love your neighbor as yourself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you, then according to good people like my dad, we had a moral and spiritual obligation to help our brothers and sisters in need.

My big sister, following in family tradition, channeled that need to help others into becoming a nurse. For me, it was becoming an international aid worker. That's what I went to school to learn, and I spent ten years of my life either working in the field and helping people one-on-one, coordinating aid activities, or performing administrative support work. It was hard work, but also very personally rewarding. 

Unfortunately, the years I should have been focussing most on those in need were also the years I was living a wild and mostly irresponsible personal life. I could have given far more than I did, but when practically every waking moment away from work is spent in a haze of non-stop sex and alcohol, you're not going to be able to give your best to those who need it. Looking back, I was far more effective in the second half of those ten years, when I was mostly out of the field and doing administrative work from an office, than I was working face to face.

The moral of the story is, since I feel I fucked up my opportunity to give my all when I had the chance, I try not to stand in judgement of others who fail, who are indifferent, or who think differently to me. We all have our life dramas to work through, and there may come a time when someone is inspired to pull their shit together, take action on some project or cause that's important to them, or what have you. It's not my place to tell them when or how to do that. All I can do is encourage others on their journeys, whilst trying to make my own personal choices that I think will most benefit me, my loved ones, and my community. I eventually plan to go back to my studio to teach in-person yoga and meditation classes, for example, because I believe that the integration of healthy body and mind is crucial to living a good, full life -- and for making good life decisions.

I feel most of us have very scattered and confused minds these days, and I believe far too many of us let others do our thinking for us, rather than examine the evidence on our own. People need to remember that authority figures, whether politicians or mass media, have their own interests at heart, not yours. So it's far better to cast a sceptical eye towards what they tell you than to uncritically live by their recommendations and edicts. Don't let others control your mind. Be in control of your own mind. Otherwise, you're living by someone else's wishes, not your own.

To use an example that's somewhat relevant to this blog: The people to my political left want me to subscribe to certain views regarding transgendered people. I love and support the trans people I've known, but I don't find the left's politics surrounding trans folks to be ultimately productive or helpful. Meanwhile, the people to my right sometimes criticise me for not living my life in a traditionalist heterosexual way. I'm quite happy for those who have settled down with a partner in marriage, but I also don't believe that sexual expression need be confined to the marriage bed. Sex is good and healthy, a blessed gift from above that we should share in a loving and responsible way with whatever consenting adults we wish, whether the same sex or the opposite sex, whether with one person or twelve. 

You have to follow your own muse in this life. And after careful examination, you ought to go where your heart and mind lead you. 

There's much more I could say. In particular, I lament the breakdown in our social and spiritual centres. Civic organisations are dying. Our churches are emptying out. We don't even know our own neighbours anymore. Coupled with everything else going on this year, the situation is leading to crippling isolation and despair. And when people feel directionless and out of control, lacking the support of friends, community, or a spiritual base, it doesn't take much to trigger the kind of violent outbursts we're seeing all around us. Add to that an environment of fear in which we social animals are being conditioned to fear human contact and can't even see the faces of others around us, and you have a recipe for utter disaster. 

Political parties don't have a solution to our social breakdown. They only want us to hate the "other" so that they can gain power and control. Therefore, I don't put faith in politicians, most of whom, history has shown, are essentially self-serving psychopaths who lie to get elected. Their power comes from having us pitted against one another. And it all ultimately leads nowhere good.

So all I really have to say about the election is that elections won't save us and governments are little more than necessary evils. I wouldn't have dreamt of saying that in my twenties, when I was much more idealistic and believed that we could elect people to save the world on our behalf. Now I believe that if we must have government at all, the most we can do is try to minimise the damage it causes. Politicians won't fix the world; we will. So vote or don't vote. Follow your conscience. And do your best to lead with love.