In between my therbligs

A therblig is a unit of work or absence of work into which an industrial operation may be divided. In my case it is 50 minutes, the length of one class period. And my next therblig does not start for another .5 hours.

Carpooled Amy this morning. We live in the same apartment, our schools are 5 minutes away on foot, and she had a sore back. Perhaps after her train pass runs out I ought to propose regular carpooling, for a fee of course.

Anyway, on the ride this morning we had a discussion on politics. It was brief and not very well thought out on my part. Something I hope to remedy now.

I hate politics. I hate politicians and them doing what they do. But I especially hate people talking about politics. As a whole, people who enjoy talking about politics are more interested in speechifying their own opinions, with an implicit agenda of making you believe what they believe, rather than having an actual exchange of ideas. Ironically, in this way they behave very much in the same manner as politicians, whom they usually despise or at least hold themselves superior to. Additionally, I find that people who are most opinionated and passionate about politics are often the ones who are least informed (though they are often smug about their ability to fact-drop).

Politics is not about who is right or who is wrong, it is even less so about choosing what is best for the country. People do not vote for policies or partisanships but their own morality and worldview. People who value discipline and success will vote with the conservatives, people who value nurture and fairness will vote with the liberals. The politicians` job then, is to sell their policies in neat little packages to suit the voters` moral taste. Since politics are decided on such deeply internalized personal feelings, convincing another of the merit of one`s personal view is simply a waste of energy that accomplishes nothing. It`s like trying to convince a lactose-intolerant that gouda tastes good.

Since I am mostly apolitical, I guess I am amoral as well.