Politics of the Playground II

I always loved recess growing up in our small town.   We may not have had the best equipment in the world, but we had a good time.  The monkey bars, the slide,  the swings, the little baseball diamond, and the tetherball pole made for some good times with the Clearwater Elementary classmates.  Memories of playing games with those kids, most of whom I ended up graduating with, are very fond.  One of the guys had some kind of skin condition that caused pretty severe swelling in areas which were hit very hard.  I’ll never forget the time he was hit by a soccer ball in the face, and the other time the tether ball smacked him, again in the face.  His head swelled up like a basketball.  He was as fully Caucasian as I am, but within a matter of minutes he looked like a red-faced Asian with an oversized head.

Another thing I remember about the playground was the arguments.  Of course, there were rarely disagreements with those dear classmates at Clearwater Elementary School, but when it did happen, it usually happened in classic kid style.  Most arguments started out with some life or death issue surrounding favorite sports figures, opinions of boys/girls, who gets to go first, what game is going to be played, etc., etc..  Each person would state their case, give their opinion, and sooner rather than later, the conversation would pretty much stall out when one or the other of the participants in the disagreement would run out of things to say, and the only thing that was left to be said was, “Well………you’re just STUPID!”  That’s the politic of the elementary school playground.  You would think that rational stroke of genius would be the ultimate argument ender, but inevitably the argument would not, in fact, end there.  It would continue with one of two things.  Either the parsing of reasons why the said person is not in reality ‘stupid’, or with the response, “Well……YOU’RE the one who’s an IDIOT.” 

Those memories make us go back and laugh at least a little bit at the crazy, immature school children and their silly arguments and even sillier lines of reasoning.  The politics of elementary school, gotta love ‘em!  Politics of the Playground I.

Most of us, if we have many years under our belts realize that adults are just kids in aging shells.  Sure, we mature not only physically, but most of us also mature mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as well.  One of the things that I’ve realized is (and it wasn’t originally MY thought, but I’ve forgotten the origin), we spend our adulthood getting over our childhood.  The negative things that happen in our childhood, and I have yet to find anyone who had nothing but a positive childhood, the issues that are unresolved and not faced, come back and bite us in the butt later in our lives.  When I was growing up, I never heard of a counselor or a therapist, but being adopted at birth brings with it some baggage that I could never have imagined, and a little counseling earlier in my life could have saved grief in my early adulthood.  With most of us, there are those issues that have had long-term effects on our lives and really need to be faced.  There are many things we carry from our childhood into our adulthood.

Some things never change.  Every election year (especially Presidential election years), I have flashbacks of scenes from the Clearwater Elementary playground.  Obviously (hopefully to my top shelf readers it’s obvious) there is more than one political party.  Some folks even realize there are more than two parties.  We tend to think of the two major parties because they are the ones most often spoken of in the media.  They are the ones with the major bucks backing them, which we all know is the most important thing in deciding who the next president should be.  There are some polar opposite ideas coming from each party, although some of those ideas are not as polar as some people make them seem.  But there are many of the ideas that are held dearly by each party that conflict greatly with each other.

When there are differing ideas, what do we do in our political system?  We have debates!  Debate is good.  Logical arguments are set forth, rebutted, and listeners have an opportunity to hear those arguments and make informed decisions.  Some of you are already poking holes in this, as can I, but I don’t have the time and space to talk about how logical the lines of ‘reason’ are(n’t), and the ‘facts’ upon which those arguments are based.  What we end up with is muddied water.  There are so many statements  being spilled out as ‘a matter of fact’, and many assume those arguments are valid and/or sound.

So if any doubt remains, we go to the media to help us sort out fact from fiction.  But by the time the media gets their hands on the issues debated, and they are appropriately spun to the right or the left, the water gets muddied even further.  If we just take the word for those who are obviously much more informed and better equipped to interpret these facts, we’ll be able to understand the issues...especially if there are some good polls and statistical data to back them up.

Nonetheless, the debate eventually spills over into the public arena.  That’s where it usually gets interesting, and the déjà vu occurs.  It happens in break rooms, conversations at the gym, in social gatherings, and now, with the advent of social media, Facebook and Twitter…and just so some of my friends don’t feel slighted, Google + (that great idea that really has never left the ground). 

Some of you may know I tend to lean toward the more conservative side of the political spectrum.  I’m not sure I can really be labeled, though many try and do, because I don’t agree with everything that someone who may call himself conservative may think.  As some of my friends know, I do not agree with many things our President has said and done, nor do I agree with many of his ideas.  I will and do try my best to respect the person with the office of President, first because that’s the way I was taught and raised, and second, I don’t want the job.

However, I was livid the other day when I heard a guy on a cable news show say about voters in Louisiana and Mississippi, “You’re just mad because there’s a black man in the Presidency, and you can’t do anything about it.”  While there may be some pockets of racists left over in the deep south, to imply that the people of Louisiana and Mississippi are either won’t vote to re-elect the President because they’re racist, or they are racist because they choose not to vote for the President’s re-election.

Well, I’m not choosing to vote for Obama for President in November.  What I was left with was, I must be a racist in the mind of this guy because of that fact.  That infuriates me!  I am not a racist!  I just don’t agree with the guy.  It reminds me of arguments on the playground.  When you run out of argument, just yell at the top of your lungs, “Well…..YOU’RE A RACIST!!!!”  Sheesh!

Before you think anything else, I’ve heard it from both sides.  It’s not a liberal thing, a conservative thing….neither a Democrat or Republican thing.  It seems to cross political borders.  All you have to do is go to the Coffee Party (liberal leaning) page or the Tea Party (conservative leaning) page on Facebook and read the discussions.  Each page has their own trolls, stalking the “other side” and engaging in social media guerilla warfare and launching surprise attacks on unsuspecting readers.  The attacks usually involve a wide variety of name calling.  SERIOUSLY??  Is that all you have to offer to public discourse?  You  have nothing better than “stupid”, “idiot”, “insane”, or any other affectionate names or any combination thereof? 

I used to teach Introduction to Philosophy at a local community college.  One of the sections of the course was Logic.  I absolutely loved teaching that section.  If I had the ability to make Logic a required course for every high school student to take before graduation, I would.  It teaches how to make valid and sound arguments.  One of the most valuable parts of that section is teaching about logical fallacies.  In a nutshell, it spells out rules for proper argumentation.  One of the fallacies is called the “ad hominem” argument.  What happened on the playground and what happens all over America in every conceivable sector on election years that we’ve been talking about is the ad hominem argument.  It’s the attack on the person.  It’s not attacking the reasoning, the facts, or the ideas, it’s an attack on the person….a personal attack….the politics of the playground.

I have reasons why I’m not for abortion for any and every reason…I was adopted at birth.  I could have been aborted.  Does this mean I hate women?  No, it means I’m glad I had the opportunity to get to know you all.  I have reasons why my take on immigration laws are what they are.  And there are so many other issues about which I have opinions.  You may disagree.  That’s ok.  Opinions are like…..well, you know, everybody has one.  And that’s ok.  These days, it seems  like the playground politic prevails.  If you don’t agree with me, we can’t be friends.  I’ll take my toys and go home.  That seems to be the result of the Politics of the Playground…anger, frustration, division, and isolation.

My hope may be unrealistic or idyllic, but one day perhaps the politics of the playground will be replaced with real dialogue and discourse…a world where we can disagree and still call ourselves close friends.  Until then,  I may have to change my blog from “Reflections of a Freaking Genius” to “Reflections of a Racist, Woman Hating Idiot”.  FG