The Femitist

cheguevaraslovechild:

Politics and ‘Living in the Real World’.

Have you ever talked, usually on the subject of politics, to one of those people who tries to excuse the inexcusable by banging on about the ‘real world’ ? You know the sort. They tell you that, well sure, politicians lie and war is hell and in it people get raped and blown apart and others make money off it but hey, thats just the ‘real world’ and if you don’t accept it you’re just seven kinds of naive.

Its interesting, as an aside, that this silly faux-cynical world-view is usually only deployed over inhumanity or criminality that supports their own party or ‘patriotic’ perspective. If the inhumanity were ever to flow the other way, if it was a politician they *didn’t* support who lied or if it was their sister being raped or their parents house being blown apart and dismissed airily as ‘collateral damage’ then oh my , we’d hear a lot about morality then for sure. Its only the ‘real world’ as long as its the kind that suits them.

Well bullshit is what I say. Total and utter bullshit ! Bullshit with sprinkles on it ! That whole ‘anything-can-be-justified’ faux-cynical view of the supposed ‘real-world’ is the product of self-serving and flawed thinking. The ‘world’ that this kind of person talks about is not some kind of inevitability. Think about it. No politician has to lie. No-one has to rape or torture or kill civilians or abuse human rights. No one has to put profit before humanity.

In each and every case these are choices made by people. They could just as easily choose to behave decently and with honor if they were thinking straight and hadn’t been poisoned by the corrosive myth of the ‘real-world’ where anything can be justified if its in your own self-interest. The truth is that there is no inevitability about it. The ‘real-world’ is whatever we choose to make it.

So don’t ever try to patronize me by using the lame ‘real-world’ argument to excuse the inexcusable. We can be better than that.

Ellie