Hope in Politics
I just finished listening to a lecture by one of my old profs at SPU. Itunes has this thing called Itunes University that lets you listen to content uploaded by participating schools. Fortunately SPU was somehow one of the launch institutions so I’ve been able to listen to quite a bit of interesting content. Anyway, Dr. Davis, one of my Political Science profs gave a talk on “Hope in Politics.” After moving beyond the obligatory cynical comments at the beginning about how there is no hope for any of us and we are all screwed if not by Social Security then by the slew of health care issues that follow on its heels, Davis settles on the point we only have hope in so far as we think we can make a difference. While it is easy to conclude nothing we do will ever make a difference in the world, and while this seems to be largely supported by the world view of most people who know what they are talking about, the only way we know is to jump in head first and fight for our future. Davis is right on this point. If you look at history, especially current world events, there are only a few people who have truly reshaped the world, Charles Martel, William the Conquerer, Ghangis Khan, George Washington (as the embodiment of the Founding Fathers), Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Hitler, Stalin, Ronald Regan, to name a few. However, one of the essential aspects and something that I believe is fundamental to what drives our economy and civilization is the belief that any of us can be one of these world changers. If you want proof, look no further than the lottery. Millions of people spend billions of dollars a year on lotto tickets with the absolute conviction they will win. Millions of people start new business every year because they are convinced their idea is the next big world changing idea. Every once in a while one of them turns out to be a Bill Gates or Richard Branson. I’ll admit I have certainly fallen under this spell, though not in the sense that I’m blowing spare change on lotto tickets, but in the sense that I’ve always felt like God has something more than minimum wage repetitive 8-5 jobs. I don’t think I’m necessarily destined to be rich, but I believe God is going to use me to make an impact on the world around me. So while it is easy to get cynical and feel like we will never make a difference, we can never give up hope or stop trying, because at that point, we are proving worst fears true.
