Not feeling it

I haven’t blogged on purpose, and not just because I’ve been busy. I just haven’t felt like blogging, or talking about the things that would be obvious for me to talk about. I just haven’t been feeling it.

I knew that the US elections wouldn’t really change anything, and that the bitter partisan divisions would continue as before. I knew that the spitting rancour that now passes for political debate in the US wouldn’t go away, and yet, I secretly hoped it would.

When the partisans in the US failed to surprise me, I found myself suddenly unwilling to express an opinion—though I have many—simply because I’m over it. The bitterness and negativity have gotten no one anywhere, and I simply don’t want to play that game anymore.

And while all that was going on, there was also political stupidity among the Left in New Zealand, with the self-appointed guardians of All That is Holy on the Left sniping at the NZ Labour Party and its leader. That most of those critics don’t even support the Labour Party—not with money, certainly not with time and effort, and often not even with their vote—was excruciatingly obvious to me, but not to the news media who preferred to report on mostly imaginary conflict as if it was real news. Still, as I so often say, if the Left spent half as much time organising to win elections as they do sniping at each other, we might actually win for a change.

So, I’m just not feeling politics lately—and considering how central politics are to me, that’s a pretty high level of disgust.

Instead, I’m going to talk about ideas more than comment on partisan bullshit, although, of course, my ideas carry a partisan tilt for which I make no apology. It’s just that I don’t think politicians are nearly as important as they seem to think they are, and definitely not as important as partisans want us to believe they are.

So, that’s where I’ve been: Away by choice. It’s time for a sort of thematic reboot, because this whole bitter partisanship? I’m just not feeling it.