Thinking inside the box

Things aren't like a lot of us would like them to be, and what is surprising is that every now and again, we find ourselves agreeing with people whom we probably wouldn't even normally talk to. Don't you just hate it when that happens? You always hope nobody you know is around to see it.

Not too long ago, a friend suggested I read something in the American Conservative, a publication, I'll admit, I don't have RSS feeding me, but in keeping with my policy of if-you-really-want-me-to-I'll-read-it, well, I read it. It was a coherent, fairly well argued piece about fixing Congress. It should be clear by now that I'm not all that convinced there's anything left to fix, but in principle, I found myself agreeing with a lot of what he had to say: his point that it is really about governance is, to my mind, spot on, and we would agree that the left-right debate is a red herring; we agree, as well, that in essence money and power are at the heart of the issue, and in this regard, we also agree that whatever solutions may be found can and must cut widely across currently accepted ideological lines; we agree that the people most affected should be part of deciding on the solution, and that's what we have lost most touch with. In other words, it has everything to do with being serious about things that matter to you. And the place you have to start is by talking to people, and very often people you wouldn't normally be talking to.

His approach, of course, was one inside the box. And I suppose if you're in a box, or think you are, that's the best place to start. What encouraged me was not that we disagreed on points but that we agreed that if we didn't start talking to one another, openly and seriously, we were in for more trouble than we really all are bargaining for. As I've been advocating for some time now: we need to start figuring out what matters to us as why, and then we need to figure out ways to get things to be the way we want them to be.

And there you have it: it's more about we than me. That's why too many people are probably not going to get it.