By Angelika Del Carmen-Emeterio
At dinner back home, everything is on the table, except for politics. It’s the elephant in the room. We keep the peace because a little niceness after the proverbial chaos of life doesn’t sound too bad an idea. Each side thinks it’s more right than the other. Each thinks the other is stupider than the rest. Nobody wants to give. But politics is shelved for regular dinner conversation.
It is, however, inescapable. See, around us, hiding in plain sight, are the vestiges of political will. Food we had delivered, made and brought to us by criminally underpaid workers from the kitchen to the ports is by our hands. The rice is harvested by farmers who have a hard time sending their kids to school. No one wants to bring this up because no one can confirm or deny any of this. In fact, it comforts us to not know. But looking at the trends of the world, it’s hard to look away from the ugliest truths we have.
A lot of times, in those nuances, is where we can see the larger scope of politics come into play.
Most people are uncomfortable with topics like politics or religion because they can’t confront their own biases. Outside the actual physical government, politics is embedded in our daily lives. As long as something is protected by the interests of a select group of people, politics is involved and, perhaps, needs to be dismantled. Politics creates a society’s frameworks for thinking, which, in a broader sense, leads to the assumption that the act of thinking itself is political.
From the schools where we study and the jobs where we work to the food we eat, the art we see, and the books we read, there is a careful intersection of politics that happens upon their creation and sustenance. Education, in itself, can be viewed as a politicizing agent of a people, so it’s no surprise why subjects are modified and books are banned. Our employers, at the end of the day, will only pay us what “legally” is our worth. How many underpaid, overexploited employees have the service industries gotten away with? Artists carry the weight of politico-historical narratives on their shoulders. Books should always speak truth to power. Works of art should always reflect the times.
Limiting our politics to just partisanship is never productive. When someone tells us that everything is political, the sentiments of some, if not most, are automatically taken from partisan cues. The way we’ve been taught to understand and conduct politics outside the academic sphere is just awful. We can clearly see a rise in radical utopian politics, only magnified by the social media age and indifferent tech giants.
Partisanship ebbs and flows, depending on the political climate. But the power dynamics of the times and the harrowing conditions our people are subjected to in the class divide are forever. That’s what people get wrong about this conversation. The “everything is political” slogan pertains to the social ills of power, deception, and corruption, not the figures we “democratically” elect or the parties we support. Anybody who disagrees with this needs a reality check. We all live in our own bubbles, but that shouldn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to other people’s misfortunes and struggles. It’s not their fault to begin with, and those who have more in life should give more and know more.
Politics can never be a separate entity from life. It is engraved into our birth rights. Politics gives us access to our actualization, from the commodities we can afford to the things we can dream of and make possible. That’s what decides a society’s capacity for truth and dissent. We can never make things too political because the fact that we exist is political. Everything is more politicized because politics is as pervasive as it has ever been. Man, ultimately, is a political animal.
These things don’t exactly make for good banter. It’s going to sound way too preachy, heated, and repetitive. And maybe it is. But while these conversations can be difficult, they’re essential to how we can collectively process and engage with our current affairs. The real challenge, however, is addressing people’s gross reduction of our politics.
Maybe it starts by listening more to people outside our echo chambers. Maybe it starts by creating more safe spaces for the disenfranchised in our communities and giving them more avenues to speak. Maybe it starts by us being more honest, too. Of all things, maybe it can start in something as simple and seemingly inconsequential as the dinner table. Talk about it. Or don’t talk about it. It will consume us either way.
