I was listening to NPR today because my classical radio station wasn’t coming in, and that was the only other option, besides Rush Limbaugh, which, although it may be hard to believe, is even worse to listen to than NPR. So the host was interviewing this NPR political correspondant who has covered news from Congress for about 10 years and is now leaving to develop a new project. They were discussing the situation in Washington right now, gridlock, party conflicts, etc…and one of the comments was, “Washington is broken. And we need to figure out how to fix it.” And I was like, “uh…wait, why do we need to fix it?”
For my facebook friends, I recently posted a status update about my frustration in discussing politics with people. My status was this: “It is incredibly frustrating and essentially impossible to have any kind of relevant and productive political discussion between an anarcho-capitalist and minarchist. This is becoming more obvious to me the longer I attempt to engage in such discussions. I think I’ll try to avoid it from now on, unless the other person is ready for a 2 hour explanation on what anarcho-capitalism really is before talking about anything else :)”
That’s how I felt while listening to NPR. They automatically make the assumption that for some unknown reason, we must try to figure out a way for the political parties to work together and continue to govern the nation. It is unacceptable to them to consider any other option. The only thing we can do is talk about how we’ll fix it, but the crucial of whether it is worth fixing or not is completely ignored.
So what can you do? When you’re not allowed to question the presuppositions of the culture, how can progress be made?
