Inevitably, however, some new crisis in my country will happen, and I will find myself dealing with a sense of disconnect between the stuff I like thinking about and writing about, and the harsh realities of everyday existence in the world. This morning I woke up to the news about how an ICE agent shot and killed an American citizen in Michigan, a mother whom the president has now falsely accused of being a professional agitator. It's yet another case where video evidence blatantly contradicts the official narrative. It's so typical of what's been happening in the country. And then of course there is the troubling recent event of the Trump administration's illegal kidnapping of a foreign leader all for the admitted purpose of bringing Venezuela's natural resources under American control.
I am not really interested in writing about current events or politics, although I imagine that my political philosophy will come through at different points anyway. But sometimes it feels important to at least acknowledge that I don't actually believe that philosophy is just a casual armchair exercise that has no bearing on real life. I mean, in one sense it is an intellectual exercise. And there's definitely privilege involved in being able to have the time to engage in philosophical thinking.
On the other hand, for me one of the big benefits of thinking through stuff like this, especially on big-picture issues that inevitably relate to questions of life's purpose and meaning, is that it helps me have a little more peace of mind when political and social reality becomes more frightening. It helps me to have a more stable foundation in my personal life.
One aspect of watching my country be taken over by authoritarians that I don't think I've fully grappled with is the fact that even just acknowledging that it is authoritarian is a political statement. It's bad enough to have to watch it happen but then part of the M.O. of authoritarianism is placing pressure on citizens not to name reality for what it is.
None of this changes my love for philosophy, and it doesn't change the purpose of my blog which is to give me an outlet for working out my thoughts on different topics. And I still don't have any desire to become a political or current events writer or blogger. But two core components of my philosophical worldview are moral realism and the necessity of empathy. And on a day like today, sometimes it seems important to take a moment to recognize authoritarianism for the evil that it really is:
- ICE should be abolished
- Immigrants should not be treated as criminals
- Everyone who participated in Jeffrey Epstein's systematic abuse of women and children should be imprisoned and legally prosecuted
- Everyone in the Trump administration should be imprisoned and put on trial for crimes against humanity
- Elon Musk should be severely prosecuted for many things, especially for running a social media platform that is now openly allowing and even encouraging the spread of CSAM
These are dark times, and I don't want my interest in discussions about finitism and theism and free will to be taken as apathy about what's happening in the world. I hope that we will see the end of authoritarianism in America in our lifetimes. One of the comforts that theism provides me is that, if justice is not realized in this lifetime, that does not mean it won't be realized at all.