My sacred duties
The other day when Sana and I went out for lunch after church, I happened to sit next to someone I knew of, but didn’t know that well.
After some pleasant chitchat, the conversation shifted to everyone’s favorite topic: the upcoming election.
(BTW, the email I sent last week titled “my thoughts on the presidential debate” got more engagement than usual. All along it turns out saying nothing is the key to spurring engagement with your readers, but I digress 😉
Actually, this is not my favorite topic. Not even close. I would just as soon have my fingernails torn out by the root than “discuss” such matters.
But there we were, talking about it. This gentleman spouted out the usual, “I don’t like either of them, but I’ve got to go with the lesser of two evils.”
I suspect this is a very subtle way of saying, “I really like Trump, but it’s unfashionable to say so, so to justify my actions among polite company I’m going to call him the lesser of two evils.” I can’t prove this, it’s just a theory.
After listening to his rationale, I chimed in with, “I’m not going to vote at all.”
It turns out that in the arena of presidential politics, there’s a third evil which is even lesser than Trump or Biden according to my new friend. And not voting is it.
This guy had never heard of such an absurdity.
Why of course you need to vote; it’s your sacred responsibility after all!
Is it really?
Let’s think about this for a moment.
If I were a democratic government, and my existence was dependent on the people residing within the confines of my borders to participate in elections, I’d do everything I could to get people to vote.
If enough people within my country chose to not participate in the election, I’d be run out of business. So I wouldn’t care who they voted for, just as long as they do the deed.
If I could somehow if I were to fund 98% of the schools in my country, you’d better believe I’d be using those institutions to further my interests. And first and foremost is preaching the “sacred duty” to vote, which validates my very existence.
The more public institutions such as churches and businesses I can get on board with spreading this message, the better. It’s not as necessary, but I would gladly take as much help as I could get.
Without asking any questions of my friend, I immediately knew a great deal about him based on that one statement. He appears to be good to his family, he goes to church, he makes an honest effort to be a good person.
All around a decent if not enviable life.
But he’s never been challenged to think a legitimate contrarian thought in his life.
The last time I voted in a presidential election was in 2012 when I voted for Ron Paul in the primary election while living in North Carolina. The way I see it, if voting is truly a sacred duty, then to vote for someone I find morally detestable – as tends to be the case with presidential candidates that in all cases goes far beyond sexual proclivities – is immoral in itself. What if the person I voted for turns out to be a mass murderer? Then I’ve been a party to his crimes by casting my vote for him.
I only have so much time on this earth, so I’ve found it’s better to focus on things within my control. So in that spirit, I share the duties which I hold to be truly sacred:
- The Church
- My family
- My business
In that order.
Voting wouldn’t make the top 100 of my life priorities were I to sit down and write them out.
If this offends you, then good. We all need to be challenged in our thinking now and then; and isn’t that really the reason you’re still reading this email anyway?
And speaking of contrarian views, I’ve published a couple of episodes of the Newcomb, With Love podcast featuring a lady named Judy Arnall. Judy writes and speaks on topics regarding parenting and educating children.
The first episode is on the concept of “unschooling”; and the second is on the topic of “unparenting”. Both challenge conventional norms in these highly important realms of life, and if you hear her out, you may find yourself agreeing with her more than disagreeing.
If you find yourself asking where we’re going, and how we got into this hand basket, it begins with how we teach our children. These episodes will challenge a lot of what we believe to be true regarding this.
The podcast on unschooling can be found here: https://jamesdnewcomb.com/arnall1
The podcast on non-punitive parenting can be found here: https://jamesdnewcomb.com/arnall2