Why I Discuss Politics (And You Should Too)
Mr. Right, Chapter 2 Continues
We’re onto the next scene in Chapter 2 of Mr. Right. The last entry a month ago saw Mr. Right meeting Moses in a secret virtual section in the operating system where millions of digital copies (“Personas”) are hiding in fear of the Colors. They have been waiting for their Creator to return to free them to return to their families. We left off when Mr. Right, the Lord and Creator, was on his way to meet the Personas to celebrate when a shadow came to life and threatened him.
The new entry is below the commentary. To read the entire series of Mr. Right, click here.
Why I Discuss Politics (And You Should Too)
About eighty percent of the political class would be just fine if citizens never discussed politics amongst one another. If we remained isolated, listening to our favorite political commentators, we are fed precisely what they want us to hear. We would vote the way they want us to vote because the alternative would be, according to them, the end of the universe.
But people are social. We ask and answer questions. We share perspectives. We learn from one another. We cannot be all knowing—there is too much to know!
I think we may have forgotten that our nature and our strength is our willingness and desire to help those closest to us: relatives, neighbors, church members, local charities, local schools, the local homeless shelter or other charity nearby.
The Catholic teaching of Subsidiarity is a powerful concept that I just came across in my writing group at the Word on Fire Institute. I was struck I had not come across it before. It falls neatly in line with the foundations of the Founding Father’s of the United States. Indeed, the structure of our republic and implementation of federalism seems to follow it precisely.
Subsidiarity is the moral obligation for people closest to you to help one another, to solve problems, to organize our economics, politics, laws and policies in such a way maintain the human dignity by allowing people to ultimately take care of themselves in promotion of the common good.
Families help each other first. Neighbors help one another. It means citizens in the same town are helping one another, solving problems like homelessness, providing shelter for those in distress, protecting one another from criminals and seeking justice through local processes.
The concept is to allow people to figure this out amongst themselves so that they feel empowered and are indeed empowered to take control of their own lives. Those further away from them, like state governments and the federal government take a back seat and only step in when absolutely necessary and only for maintaining the common good. And the common good can only be achieved when the human dignity of the individual is the goal which can only be achieved when the individual is in control of their own destiny and participates in the local community.
Federal and state elections should have very little effect on those following subsidiarity. But if you are not following subsidiarity, you are likely looking for solutions from your state government or the agencies and elected officials in the federal government. Those politicians are just fine with you looking to them to solve your local problems that they can never really solve. And if you are politically disengaged with those in your community, the problems don’t get solved and you are likely not discussing anything about how to solve problems because that would be just too “political.”
Nothing gets solved and people are afraid to discuss solutions. In comes the big government to the rescue that doesn’t solve anything.
Instead discuss politics the right way about issues that affect you and those closest to you. Politics is not who you are but is how we come together to form a society. Actively participating in this is the only way for us to support one another and ultimately uphold human dignity and achieve the common good.
Peace.
Useful links:
https://www.catholicshare.com/the-principle-of-subsidiarity-governance-in-catholic-social-teaching/
https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/call-to-family-community-and-participation
This weeks entry of Mr. Right is below. To read the entire series of Mr. Right, click here.
Chapter 2 Continues
Mr. Right remained still, as his eyes followed the serious and mean face of the man walking around him. How had he emerged from his own shadow? This virtual corner within the operating system, monitored by the Colors and created by Mr. Right, had taken on a life of its own.
The man said to Mr. Right, “You are new here so I will get straight to the point. You are in serious—”
“Danger!” Moses shouted. Mr. Right turned to run away but could not move. Moses gripped his shoulder, trapping him!
Moses laughed and dropped his staff. “Danger! This is exactly what I told you not to do. This is no way to treat our new guest. Who happens to be our Lord, by the way!”
“Him our Lord? Danger said. “Right doesn’t seem to know much of anything. And why is he still so old? No doubt, the Colors have sent him!”
“Old?” Mr. Right asked. “I was still fast enough to reveal you as my shadow, Danger.”
“That’s Mr. Danger to you! I’m watching you, Right!” Danger squinted his mean eyes, his teeth clenched.
Mr. Right turned to Moses. “And what kind of name is Danger, anyway?”
Moses picked up his staff and walked back to Mr. Right. “Lord, I have assigned names most suitable for each person. Just as you have done, Lord.”
“I have done?”
“Yes, with your name.”
“Right is my family name. No one gave it to me based on anything else.”
Moses said, “But it represents your viewpoint. Does it not? And so I assign names in such manner to everyone here.”
Mr. Right pondered why Moses would do such a thing. “That’s an old political way to look at things. It’s not how I live my life.”
“But, it was Yellow,” said Moses, “the Color monitoring political information, that was set on denying your request to allow the creation of your Persona.”
It was true. On Transition Day, Yellow was determined to know how Mr. Right voted. Once he refused to answer, the Colors were set on denying his transition to create his Persona for his family. Mr. Right thought through things further and remembered that this was the inherit problem with the Colors.
Years ago, when Mr. Right built the Database and operating system, the interpretation of information in the Database was a concern. So, he had each Color look at data and information of each person through the lens of its own proprietary language model to catch the nuance of humanity. Humans are complex and irrational so a nuanced approach was needed to interpret the information and knowledge provided by each person prior to entering into the Database. Each person, based on their individual and vast experiences and the culture in which they reside would help explain the information stored in their minds. This allowed such knowledge to be interpreted properly and output correctly to the Database for safe human access.
The information itself was not enough. It was why the information was desired by the human. How was the information obtained? What were they feeling when they obtained it? What did they intend to do with the information now that they had it? And were the answers to all these questions good or bad?
To complicate things further, Mr. Right recalled, each country, each territory, each city, each town had its own culture that needed to be factored into interpreting the information that the Database collected. All information and knowledge was created through every touch point that could be connected to the Database. Anything with a camera, microphone, written words and voices were absorbed through devices and, eventually, the human brain on Transition Day into the Database.
But how could the meaning of such vast information be interpreted correctly? Each culture was unique, and each person’s thoughts, shaped by their experiences, needed to be understood to de-bias the information and make it useful for the Database. And inappropriate—or worse, dangerous—information, needed to be kept out of the Database. Such information needed to be analyzed through specific lenses, each with its own paradigm.
So it was not simply storing a memory of giving money to a person in hunger. The Colors had to determine why the money was given. And they had to come sort of consensus among one another.
Mr. Right thought of the years of programming and the careful building of the algorithm that governed the Colors interpretation of the information and of people. But now Orange and Yellow—religion and politics—seemed to be all that mattered to the Colors. There was no balance.
Mr. Right realized that he failed. And he had to do something about it.
Coming back to the moment, Mr. Right asked, “So why is his name Danger?”
Danger stepped between them. “As if you didn’t know, Right!”
“Danger, calm—” Moses said.
“The Colors,” Danger interrupted, “have indeed briefed you on everything you need to know to infiltrate our world.”
Moses bent down to look him in the eye. “Please, Danger—”
Danger stepped around Moses. “No doubt, Right, you have an undetected connection feeding you real time information to penetrate our defenses and ultimately destroy nearly 100 million Personas sent here by you!”
“I’ve no time for this,” Mr. Right said as he walked to Moses. “He’s a scaredy cat.”
Moses saw Danger’s eyes widen and mouth snarl. “He’s cautious. Very cautious.”
“I’m going to rename him,” Mr. Right said.
“You can’t do that,” Danger said. He turned to Moses, “He can’t do that!”
Mr. Right, put his finger to his mouth and thought. “Craven,” he said. “Your new name is Craven.”
“And so it is!” Moses raised his staff. “Onto the celebration.” He led them down the flat path.
Craven ran up to Moses, “He can’t do that!” Finding a sense of humor, Moses laughed and winked at Mr. Right.