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I realized today that I’ve become completely apathetic towards mainstream politics, and that, for the first time in my life, I have very little, or only marginal interest in who wins national elections in the United States. I’m so interested in certain subjects right now (history, theology, aesthetics, ecology, architecture) — subjects whose interestingness is not dependent on the present, that when I return to presentist concerns, I find them banalized and dull. Politics is really just a less beautiful version of sports; I’d much rather watch the NBA than CNN; American political discourse is not just stupid, as I used to think, it’s incredibly narrowing — obsession with politics indicates is a narrowing of the arteries of the soul. You turn to politics — to national politics — when you can no longer do anything interesting in your own sphere of influence: in your own life; Americans are so obsessed with national elections not because they are their constitutional right, but because elections help mitigate the deep sense of existential impotence that one develops in a consumerist society. In leu of deep change — wholesale proven to be impossible after Obama — we fall in love with the idea of temporary, superficial change. Democrats take house! Begin investigation into Trump administration! Those headlines will last for a few months, until a new boogieman emerges in time for 2020. It has nothing to do with Trump — if he disappears tomorrow, he will quickly be replaced by Democrats, who will find — who must find — a new object for their ire (in the same way, no doubt, that Republicans are gearing up to replace the Hillary-goblin with the Elizabeth-goblin). It’s all very predictable and I have better things to think about (I hope).
