Choosing Truth Over Ideology
I can’t with political conversations anymore, and it doesn’t matter what side you’re on. I’m just not interested. Mostly because we are speaking of ideologies, thought systems, non-truth. I’ve been saying this for a while now; I’m seeing through all of these man-made constructs and ideas that got us here, and that continue to keep us stuck. I often choose to bite my lip when I hear people spout off, because we typically can’t change another’s mind about beliefs such as these. The question I’m sitting with is: how do I do activist work in the face of such division? What is my place in it, (because I know I do have a place). How are my gifts best served in this capacity? It’s important (and hard) work. This is the reality I’m living into, the reality that calls me deeper day by day.
Theologian and writer, Matthew Fox, has been writing of this very thing for a while now. From his Daily Meditation today: “Most all of us saw the violent insurrection of January 6 in our living rooms on our television sets. Now we have a big shot broadcaster making $35 million a year, with his hands on 45,000 hours of footage of the invasion of the capitol because of which five people lost their lives and hundreds of others were maimed in body and soul from the trauma of it all, telling us that things were just fine. Sightseeing was going on and that is what counts … Notice how the power of ideology can trample truth. And how ambition from the head of congress, who gave him exclusive right to that footage, can distort truth. And kill truth. And maim and murder truth.”
Tears came as I read it. That’s the embodied indicator for me. Truth almost always makes my eyes well up. “Sightseeing was going on and that is what counts …” That sentence says it all. People died but others turned a blind eye or were simply unaware; the day went on. Capitalism won; capitalism always wins in our world. Drug overdoses, mass shootings, unwanted pregnancies forced unto birth, and more — also the products of a society gone mad. To say ‘the system is broken’ is an understatement; look at who we’ve become. Essentially anything that is not happening to us doesn’t affect us. We turn our heads and go about our days. I wonder if these are the major contributing factors toward the dis-eases that plague us: anxiety, depression, heart disease, cancer. Dysfunctions of our inherent biology and embodiment. Is all of this really what God intended for us?
When we compare political ideologies with deep truth of ourselves as a species (God’s beloveds), we compare apples to oranges. Is that not plain to see? But deeper than that, how did we even get here in the first place? We’re living our mostly human lives within a man-made construct that is capitalism. What will it take for us to wake up? And are we so far into the illusion (that we call our lives), that it’s no longer possible to recognize it? I fear this is the case.
I’d love to tie this narrative up with a pretty bow and tell you it will all be okay. I’m not sure it will. My current task is to go deeper, to contemplate the mysteries of life and our place in it, and to trust in God, the ground of my being, with each passing day. Blessings, friends.
