Politics is merely among the earliest and most primitive inventions intended replace that very first method of settling disputes: viz. bigger guys with clubs smashing in the skulls of smaller guys. (Another early invention, which Bonobos have, to date, gotten farther along with than we have, is placatory sex.)
In its earliest incarnations, politics involved making friends and allies so that your group of big guys with clubs was more likely to smash the other guy's group of big guys with clubs.
Very slowly, over many thousands of years, we have managed to increase the ratio of "making friends and allies" vs. "smashing guys with clubs". At this point, most people use different names for the skull-smashing versus the making-allies bit (except for von Clausewitz, of course); but the one still hasn't completely replaced the other.
So we shouldn't disparage politics for what it is not, or has not been able to accomplish, but rather appreciate it for what it has. Every Prop 2 override, school board election, primary caucus, Senate roll call, etc. represents another example of people at least not smashing each other with clubs.
Perhaps there's an even better invention hovering in our future. So go ahead an discover/invent it. (Personally, may I recommend taking another look at the placatory screwing?) In the meantime, bad-mouthing politics is often a lazy substitute for thought. Those damn bastards in Congress can't get a flea's-ass worth of stuff done because there are other damn bastards in Congress whose constituents really do fundamentally disagree with you in outlook, analysis, and opinion. You can't expect their representatives to just roll over and do what is "obviously right" to you, even if they are completely wrong-headed about everything. You want them to vote differently? Don't blame their representatives; convince the people they represent, or find more people who don't yet have an opinion either way and find a way to convince them.
If you think that politicians suck, consider the alternative. I recommend, for instance, refreshing yourself on the events of the siege of Sarajevo in the 90's. That's what happens when the politicians leave the field to the big guys with clubs. It's true that those were politicians who whipped things up there, and got their populations eager to have the big guys with clubs take over. But once you start screaming about blood feuds and vengance, what you're doing isn't any longer "politics", no matter what your job title.
...by other means
Politics is merely among the earliest and most primitive inventions intended replace that very first method of settling disputes: viz. bigger guys with clubs smashing in the skulls of smaller guys. (Another early invention, which Bonobos have, to date, gotten farther along with than we have, is placatory sex.)
In its earliest incarnations, politics involved making friends and allies so that your group of big guys with clubs was more likely to smash the other guy's group of big guys with clubs.
Very slowly, over many thousands of years, we have managed to increase the ratio of "making friends and allies" vs. "smashing guys with clubs". At this point, most people use different names for the skull-smashing versus the making-allies bit (except for von Clausewitz, of course); but the one still hasn't completely replaced the other.
So we shouldn't disparage politics for what it is not, or has not been able to accomplish, but rather appreciate it for what it has. Every Prop 2 override, school board election, primary caucus, Senate roll call, etc. represents another example of people at least not smashing each other with clubs.
Perhaps there's an even better invention hovering in our future. So go ahead an discover/invent it. (Personally, may I recommend taking another look at the placatory screwing?) In the meantime, bad-mouthing politics is often a lazy substitute for thought. Those damn bastards in Congress can't get a flea's-ass worth of stuff done because there are other damn bastards in Congress whose constituents really do fundamentally disagree with you in outlook, analysis, and opinion. You can't expect their representatives to just roll over and do what is "obviously right" to you, even if they are completely wrong-headed about everything. You want them to vote differently? Don't blame their representatives; convince the people they represent, or find more people who don't yet have an opinion either way and find a way to convince them.
If you think that politicians suck, consider the alternative. I recommend, for instance, refreshing yourself on the events of the siege of Sarajevo in the 90's. That's what happens when the politicians leave the field to the big guys with clubs. It's true that those were politicians who whipped things up there, and got their populations eager to have the big guys with clubs take over. But once you start screaming about blood feuds and vengance, what you're doing isn't any longer "politics", no matter what your job title.