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The Politicization of Everything
You know just what I mean by that title, don’t you? Like spilled ink politics has oozed over culture in the past half a decade, absorbing more and more territory as the years pass by. You will find mixed reactions to this advance. Some are heartened by this new reality, their eyes sparkling at what they deem progressive success. “Technically, everything is political,” they muse. By this logic, a political veneer translates to a veneer of enlightenment.
Others, however, do not share the same comfort and worry that the encroachment of politics into culture is a bad omen, stunting and blunting society rather than advancing it. There is, of course, a confluence of factors responsible for the inflated presence of politics in daily life and along with them some powerful reasons to stand guard along the frontlines of politicization.
The essential truth is this: While everything is political (insofar as it can technically be mined for political meaning), politics isn’t everything.
The thorn of ideology
And a society that tumbles too far into the blood sport of ideological struggle will find itself impoverished in other capacities. The politicization impulse is addictive — before too long becoming a knee-jerk compulsion to see every aspect of life through the rigid lens of power. A society that cannot…
