Social Practice | circleofpractice

How do you get politically involved?

Is it enough to vote? Voter turnout in 2008 was 63% of the electorate. I was among them, but it didn’t seem like much of an effort.

Is it enough to be an “informed” voter? What does that mean exactly? If you search the web, the idea and the benefits seems foggy even to political scientists.

Should we join a party? The founding fathers wrote at length about the dangers of factions and party spirit, but then proceeded to found political parties of their own.

I confess I don’t like politics. Folks seem more bent on winning an argument than they do listening to each other. I don’t like all the angry emotions politics seem to generate. I don’t like the way we tend to demonize the folks on the other side of an issue. I don’t like the way parties seem more interested in staying in power than they do in solving the nation’s problems. I don’t like the money that is allowed to sit in a dark corner, and speak as if it were the voice of the people.

What seemed to impress Tocqueville were our townships. He wrote:

“The town or tithing, then, exists in all nations, whatever their laws and customs may be: it is man who makes monarchies and establishes republics, but the township seems to come directly from the hand of God… Yet municipal institutions constitute the strength of free nations. Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a free government, but without municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty. Transient passions, the interests of an hour, or the chance of circumstances may create the external forms of independence, but the despotic tendency which has been driven into the interior of the social system will sooner or later reappear on the surface.”

I think I’ll start attending city council meetings. Maybe if I listen I’ll learn something about what it means to be a citizen.

Coming up with a social practice has been a struggle for me, in part because it is not clear to me what the end of that practice ought to be.

Note that while I separate emotional from social well-being, I’m not sure the two domains are separable.

So what does my socially healthy person look like?

She has friends she trusts and can confide in. She is willing to be vulnerable with those she trusts. She enjoys being with people, and people enjoy being with her. She is approachable, and approaches those acquaintances she wants to know better.

She wants to broaden and deepen her relationships. That is, she wants to extend her circle of acquaintance. She wants to get to know and understand the people she is already acquainted with. If she finds someone she is acquainted with both interesting and admirable, then she wants to turn that acquaintance into a friend.

She keeps an eye out for those people she finds intriguing, who nevertheless challenge her point of view. For example, suppose both she and another person like to read nonfiction, but have opposing political points of view. They might find they both have to stretch a little in order to understand the other person’s perspective.

In other words, she will make an extra effort to befriend someone who will add a measure of diversity to her social circle; not only for diversity’s sake, but to gain some perspective.

So the socially healthy person has a broad and diverse circle of acquaintance, together with an inner circle of deep friendships based on trust and a willingness to be vulnerable.

Do you agree? What do you think the socially healthy person looks like?