I Must Study Politics
I was at book club again tonight (booksandbars.com) for probably the first time in 6 months, which was in turn probably the first time in the 6 months prior. Every time I go to book club, I see great people that I have not seen in too long and get to discuss delightful topics over pleasantly potent potables.
But every time I go back, I have a hard time explaining why it’s been so long. I always feel like I’m making excuses, usually some variation of “I’ve been really busy,” which always feels like a cop-out.
Of course, that is in fact the truthful proximate cause–I am damn busy. As my friends like to give me a hard time about: “I got shittodo.”
But this is certainly not the ultimate cause. If I really cared about book club, or reading and discussing great literature, surely I would make time for it, and indeed I try. Believe it or not, I would like nothing more. In my ideal world, I would spend most of most of my days reading–from literature, to poetry, to philosophy, to religion, to science, technology, history and anything else my study leads me to.
Unfortunately, I feel like I’ve lost the luxury of such pursuits. I am overcome with an urgent need to understand not–as much as I’d love to–the nuances of verse, characterization, or plot, but instead the basic workings of money, trade, economies, and rights.
These are issues reasonable minds long ago understood and whose important, fundamental details they agreed upon but which, tragically, have been commandeered, subverted, and misconstrued much to humanity’s detriment.
It is a sad fact that my generation had every reason to believe that it was going to be, like almost every generation before it, better off than all previous generations, but that, due to a gradual subversion of certain hard-earned truths, is fated to spend its precious time and energy fighting fights that were long ago fought and won, at a dear price.
John Adams said it best:
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”