District Sleeps

I try and avoid politics. I don’t see very much legitimacy or meaning to becoming highly involved in them, not in my case. I honestly believe that a good deal of people simply take up the mantle of certain political ideals for the sole purpose of being incendiary. Go to any university which is a part of the first world and you will find a deep admiration for Communism as both a political and economic view point, that’s just how it is, most of the people you talk to about it though have as much understanding and genuine interest and support of the subject as they do on why another popular cause such as the legalisation of marijuana should be introduced. Very little, but they love the arguments it causes, as do the extreme right. It’s the bad people, or rather, the people with the bad reasons that do the most harm to causes, for every realistic and sincere communist there are 2 or 3 who are fairly ignorant and use the subject to attack people.

I have a friend who is a Anarcho-capitalist purely because he loves arguing and then decimating other people in arguments. He’s something of a professional arguer, if you’re the sort that gets upset about arguments he’s the worst person to be friends with, he is a brilliant arguer, I would say the split of ‘winning’ arguments between us would be something around 80% to him and 20% to me. His favourite game is to win even if he knows he is wrong, he sees it as a challenge. He admits it though, which I admire, see I make a very specific distinction that a lot of people don’t seem to care for, but in his case, he’s not being pretentious, because he is honest about his reasons, for someone to be pretentious it requires a level of deceit, if you are honest then you’re not pretentious you’re probably just an arsehole, but an honest one, and I think that is infinitely superior to a liar.

I mean, it’s obvious but it’s hard to trust a liar, that’s part of the reason why when you encounter a pretentious person it’s so difficult to become friends with them, because you’re aware of this implicit deceit in their character, it puts great doubt over their sincerity and as cliche as it sounds, trust is the foundation of a relationship. All of my friends I trust with my life, I have faith in their sincere care for me and consequently I have no doubts. I set a high standard though. Although there is an aberrant discrepancy, I trust my life with them, but I wouldn’t trust my money with some of them, isn’t that bizarre? Well, I think it is.

I haven’t always avoided politics, however as I became older certain, family secrets I suppose, were revealed to me, and my father began being honest with me about his political sway, he never forced a religion or political regime on me as a child, but when he thought I was old enough to understand he told me about the families history. The more I learned, the more I felt that mild disinterest towards politics is, for someone in my position, middle class in a well to do nation with a high level of education, welfare and so forth, the best option.

My families history is in Ireland along the border and my family and their extended family and friends were involved, as were many others, in the Irish troubles. My half-brother had his best-friend at an age a bit younger than I am now taken aside and shot in an alleyway, family members were lost and so were many friends. My father has a deep distrust and frankly hatred for the British occupation, because our family is from Derry, the primary scene of the troubles, where Bloody Sunday occurred and the extending problems, he’s been involved with the worst of it.

It’s a different world, or rather, it was, for instance the British forces would build playgrounds next to and around their operations, it was beneficial to them as the Shin Fein extremists would not attack a piece of land where Catholic children were playing. Imagine living in a place where children were used as shields. Tanks rolled down streets, back alleyway murders were widespread on both sides, political prisoners taken and famous set ups as regards imprisonment and defamation and assassination.

I have, I suppose, empathy and understanding, even I think of what I would come to if some of my family or friends were killed, what I’d be willing to give up, but thankfully for me it’s all theoretical, I don’t blame my father or my family for their beliefs but I’ve no intention of joining them, or indulging them. See I’m tracked on to become a Public Prosecutor, which requires me to spend 3 years with the police, my family is deeply against this aspiration, they still have a basic hatred for the police and even for the Public Prosecutors since they were integral to the sentencing.

I try and keep my distance from politics, or if I do involve I make it clear that I don’t support either side. I get family criticism for it but that’s a separate matter.

Anyhow, with all that said, I do recommend taking a look at this site. If you all haven’t already found it, absolutely fascinating to read.

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/