Politics Is Dangerous to You and Everyone You Care About

 I don't write about Christopher Cantrill's pieces much, though they are thought provoking.  But today he made a point that needs to be amplified if we are to retain our sanity.  You can find his article at the American Thinker entitled Why Do the Virtue Signalers Hate Carl Schmitt? So, who, you are wondering is Carl Schmitt? I will admit that this individual is today just a little bit obscure. He was a Nazi jurist and sometime philosopher who made the point that politics requires an enemy. If there isn't an enemy, one has to be invented. Sometimes our overlords can't find a human enemy so they invent one like terrorism, poverty, or drugs. The whole point of politics is to acquire power so that you can punish your enemies and reward your friends.  Well, duh.  Obama made that point as well as noting that elections have consequences.

But there is another way to live. You can live by God's laws, doing good, loving God and loving your neighbor. This is how most of us, most of the time, live our lives. We are social creatures, for good and bad. Politics is a necessary evil. But Democrats see it very differently:

Notice how I am always writing about “our liberal friends” or “our Democratic friends.” There is a reason for that. I do not think that liberals are The Enemy. I believe that our liberal friends are fools and knaves that believe in politics as the solution to social problems -- and race problems and patriarchy problems and climate problems. Earth to liberals: politics makes most things worse.

I repeat: Doesn’t Yarvin’s maxim exactly explain the minds and the acts of our liberal friends, from intellectuals to politicians to activists? They are devoted to politics: therefore there must be an enemy.

Now, to me, Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt is important because he teaches me why politics is really dangerous to humans and other living things. I Have a Dream that one day our liberal friends will finally understand that politics is radioactive and that politics should be shut down like nuclear plants before we melt down all the way to China. My understanding of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt is that politics should be confined to dealing with the problem of real external enemies, and real internal thugs and criminals.

Schmitt explains why Communism has been such a disaster, why Nazism led the Germans into Hell, why the Iranian regime is blowing up the ancient land of Zarathustra until the rubble bounces. Using politics as a guide to running society at large is a disaster, because humans are social animals. Nearly all the time we interact with each other with the give and take of community and work and play and a shared moral framework. Politics is only useful in an emergency, as “in emergency, break glass.”

Yes, but whatabout morality, about good and evil? I direct your attention to our Democratic friends in Minnesota, and the apparent large-scale corruption featuring the Somali community. If you look at Minnesota politics through a Schmittian lens you see that, to Democratic politicians, it doesn’t matter that the Somalis have been ripping off all kinds of federal social programs. The Somalis help get the Somali vote out in elections and harvest the ballots to defeat the Republican Enemy. The Somalis are the Friends of the Democratic politicians in their fight against the Enemy, and in politics you reward your supporters and friends.

In other words, despite all the talk about morality and helpless victims, our Democratic friends just fight the enemy and gift the friends that help them get elected. Morality, good and evil, has nothing to do with the case. In politics the only rule is: just win, baby. Morality, good and evil, only applies outside of politics.

A note here about what it means to "love your neighbor," because too many confuse "loving" with "letting you neighbor get off scot free." It does not mean that at all. Suppose your neighbor defrauds another out of his life savings, and you discover it. If you do nothing, you may be showing one neighbor kindness, but you are further hurting the neighbor who was defrauded, not to mention that you are demoralizing yourself. Sometimes tough love is the only way to show love. This is why it is so important for the authorities to prosecute those who have lied, cheated, stolen elections, and engaged in lawfare. While we cannot achieve absolute justice in this fallen world, we must attempt to approximate it.

My main takeaway from Chantill's piece though is that while politics is necessary, it should not consume us. I have certainly allowed it at times to overtake my life, to my regret. Don't let it overtake yours.