Over The Air Waves: A Political Reflection

Written: 01/11/2009
Publication: Edinboro University's WFSE Radio
Publish Date: January 11, 2008

My father once told me, as many parents tell their young, naive children: “Son, don’t ever debate religion or politics.” He said this of course as we entered my grandparent’s house on one snowy Christmas day. My family, you see is a fickle bunch. Us Millers… we know it all. Seriously we do, or at least we think we do. My Uncle Jeff is a writer, my aunt Nancy is a (quote un quote) jock, my uncle David is an artist, and they all formidable players in the battle of who knows more. My father tended to be the least outspoken of the bunch. I think after years of watching the mayhem of yuletide sparing and almost blow for blow insulting, my psyche learned to take a neutral approach to arguing. I guess I never needed my dad’s advice after all, but I certainly never forgot.

I don’t like to argue, unless it’s with my siblings, then it takes on a completely different form all together. Imagine angry chimpanzees given machine guns, then shaved with a rusty razor, then told to fight. That is how toughs’ arguments usually pan out. I’m not saying I don’t love my siblings, but our fights sure are epic.

Arguing is an art form, one that I don’t really understand, because I can never make up my mind. Red or Blue, soft or dark, what does it all matter? Tax cut or reform? Aren’t they the same in the end? I guess you could say I’m a modern day moderate, if that makes any sense. I used to align much of my views with the libertarian party, but over time I drifted. This drift was not intentional, but rather my minds eye sorting out what was right and what was wrong. However, this shift to the middle has only left me begging for more answers to questions that may never be answered.

The calamity of a world that always has been, is a place that cannot be figured out or understood. We, as humans must grasp the handlebars as the threat of flying off the bicycle looms. I don’t know if the world will end in 2012, nor do I know if president elect Obama is a Muslim in disguise. All I know is that I know nothing. I think Socrates put it the best way: “I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.”

I don’t know many things and perhaps that is why my father told me so long ago never to arouse my family with the prospect of arguing those two taboo topics. Nonetheless here I sit, about this embark on a radio journey that will seek out better understanding and comprehension of the innumerable problems plaguing our society. I don’t want argue nonsensically nor debate in the friviless fashion of left vs. right, but rather transcend to an enlightened, analytical, mindset and leave it all far behind.

Best,
Mr. Madison