You’ve heard it said, “I don’t like politics,” or, “I try to stay out of politics.”  Usually this is paired with, “It’s too divisive,” or, “It’s too ugly,” or, “There’s no point,” and very commonly, “Everybody’s equally wrong,” and, “Both parties are equally corrupt.”  “I just want to leave everybody alone and be left alone,” the libertarian abstinent might add.  And, armed with these excuses, out of it they do stay.  Or rather, as they would have you believe, they stay “above it all.”  If you want to know who is truly responsible for all the political evils your country suffers, it is these people.

Politics is simply what we do so that we don’t have to kill each other.  If there are conflicts in the body politic (that is, the polis, the people of the nation) which must be resolved, then they will be resolved by one means or another.  The other is war, the murder of all who will not obey.  The one is everything short of war, the set of all social interactions not including violence.  This we call politics.

Of course, most such people really mean, when they make their various excuses, as they couch their abstinence in airs of moral superiority, moderation, and reasonableness, is that they can’t stomach conflict even so meagre as that of a political debate.  They aren’t expert, they lack confidence in their beliefs (though they hold their beliefs fiercely anyway), and they have no interest in trying to defend their positions on a stage of any sort.  It’s fear and weakness, justified with claims from the high horse.

What do they accomplish?  These problems must be solved; these conflicts must be resolved.  This is “must” in the physical sense.  It will happen.  These problems will be solved; these conflicts will be resolved, by politics or violence.  All one accomplishes by “staying out of it” is to leave the resolution of these conflicts to the remainder of the populace, those willing to participate in politics.  The weak stay silent, stay nice and comfortable and reasonable, and so all of the political decisions are left to the ones who don’t shy from conflict, the ones who do want to run the lives of others.  Those people, the participant, without interference from the weak, make their decisions which inevitably bring ruin.  Then the weak complain about the world thus created for them.

So, you who were “above” politics:  You had an option to be involved, but you declined.  You were the majority, so had you acted, you could have preserved the world and life you enjoyed, but you abstained.  You opted not to participate, to leave politics to the radicals and tyrants.  They acted, thus, with your tacit consent.  In short, by not troubling yourself to become educated and active, you created everything you now suffer. And you who do participate, who fight for freedom, and the prosperous, orderly world which freedom brings you:  These are your true adversaries, your greatest obstacle.  There will always be radicals, but they will be few.  The truly most destructive force in your politics are the people who stay out of it.