The
second presidential debate in this cycle is over. Who won? Not a
mature question, really. The question itself reveals the disease of
warfare. And the fighting continues.
We the People... we the losers. We witnessed more verbal bickering by two lawyers, both Harvard trained, each trying hard to make his case to gain or to maintain power, and to defeat the other.
The debate is over, the feuding goes on. Soon this election will be over, and the incessant feuding that has become the stuff, the essence, of American politics will go on and on. The fighting for power will not cease. Truth suffers, problems do not get solved, the fighting and struggling for power, for dominance, will continue unabated.
Why is American politics reduced to fighting for power? Partly, because of our human potential to seek power rather than truth and the common good. But more existentially, given what we have become, the unending feuding is a function of our loss of reason. Clever arguments, citing selected facts, do not make a well-reasoned argument. Watching Obama and Romney reminds me of children on a playground, bickering: much heat, little light. No, not men, but wounded and wounding warriors.
We are the losers. Long after Election Day, fighting will continue, with too little time, attention, effort given to solving real problems.
Talk is cheap, and argumentative talk is ugly to hear, disturbing, like being exposed to powerful, seemingly interminable winds. They blow and blow, allowing no quiet reflection.
What have we become? Whither are we tending? Nietzsche saw it clearly: we are plunging headlong into perpetual warfare.
We the People... we the losers. We witnessed more verbal bickering by two lawyers, both Harvard trained, each trying hard to make his case to gain or to maintain power, and to defeat the other.
The debate is over, the feuding goes on. Soon this election will be over, and the incessant feuding that has become the stuff, the essence, of American politics will go on and on. The fighting for power will not cease. Truth suffers, problems do not get solved, the fighting and struggling for power, for dominance, will continue unabated.
Why is American politics reduced to fighting for power? Partly, because of our human potential to seek power rather than truth and the common good. But more existentially, given what we have become, the unending feuding is a function of our loss of reason. Clever arguments, citing selected facts, do not make a well-reasoned argument. Watching Obama and Romney reminds me of children on a playground, bickering: much heat, little light. No, not men, but wounded and wounding warriors.
We are the losers. Long after Election Day, fighting will continue, with too little time, attention, effort given to solving real problems.
Talk is cheap, and argumentative talk is ugly to hear, disturbing, like being exposed to powerful, seemingly interminable winds. They blow and blow, allowing no quiet reflection.
What have we become? Whither are we tending? Nietzsche saw it clearly: we are plunging headlong into perpetual warfare.
