I wrote an article about this a few months ago after a friend had unfriended me on Facebook because I refused to allow him to spew Bernie rhetoric without having me respond to it. 'If you're going to preach about what you believe, then you'd best be ready to have it come under fire' has always been my stance on such things, along with 'those that tell you what you want to hear aren't your friend, friends tell you what you hate to hear.' Needless to say, he wasn't ready. And it wasn't until after Bernie, as expected, sold out, that he came back. No words were spoken, no 'I told you so' or 'you were right'. It's as if nothing happened. And I'm okay with that. He knows and I know and it's done and over.
However, when that happened, it hurt me so much and I wasn't mad at him. I was mad at the state. At the politicians. At the games they play with our lives. That is when it truly crystalized for me that the state is truly at war with us. I had been saying it for some time and I truly believed it; just as I truly believe that, because of historical precedent, we will have to come to arms at some point to truly turn the tide and hold our gains in society.
But this friendship lost to politics made it clear the stakes of this war are much, MUCH more personal than this abstract idea of freedom. It is a silent war against our relationships, our communities, our friendships and loves and families.
This war destroys everything down to the connections we have made and fostered for years. Politics rips apart siblings, parents and their children, long time friends, lovers, EVERYONE. The Civil War is famously regarded as a war of 'brother against brother,' but this 'silent' war we are in is much more insideous. We aren't out there gutting each other. We are destroying each other. I think that it is much worse to have your heart ripped out and still be breathing than it is to have your guts spilled and to move on to the other side. I can't say that with certainty, I'm still here, but I can't imagine that death could truly be any worse than living with the loss of a good friend, a family member or a lover... over POLITICS.
It is disgusting to me how they divide us, not only by race, religion, not only by region and with fear, but even down to our most personal and intimate levels, they divide us. They demand that we give them our allegiance even to the detriment of those we love and the relationships we have in our lives.
There is no doubt we are at war. But it is a silent and horrendous war of not just the mind, not even just the spirit, but of our hearts as we are forced to choose between our principles and our communities down to the smallest levels. It is not our families and friends we should blame for the broken relationships. To be sure, they are making a choice, but it is a choice that has been all but hardwired into them. Most anarchists should be able to remember how fervently we embraced much of the same indcotrination. But they are increasing that with hourly, even up to the minute, fear mongering and shit slinging. It's not as it was where you had a break from their bombardment of fear and control. There is no escape from it if you wish to remain social. So can we truly hold those that abandon us over politics solely responsible?
I don't think so. I believe they are casualties of the war between free men and women and the masters of the state. Those relationships are killed and torn asunder, not so much by the ignorance of our loved ones, but by the ever increasing hypnosis they are put under by those that would rule and own them. Our loved ones' ignorance is simply the avenue of their control, but it is the politicians and their handlers who use that avenue to rip those people from our lives.
So don't write those loved ones off. Keep a candle lit for them. They may come back. They may not. But we can't allow the state to harden our hearts to those we love. We can't let them make us burn the bridges between us and others.
A³
I have to agree with you, that if you're going to throw your political beliefs out there, you need to be prepared to defend them. I've seen way more political arguments come across my feed than what I care to read.