141. What do you mean you are not interested in politics?

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I often hear this statement in conversation. I would believe it of an anchorite or a shipwrecked, but not otherwise. Those who state it mean they are not interested in the political options available to them in the electoral process, that choices are too complex, or that they are disenfranchised by political tricks and lies and don’t feel represented. But politics is much more than the four yearly election of members of parliament and a Prime Minister. Politics is every decision we make as to how we live. We are making political statements when we vote and when we don’t, when we use a local shop or a supermarket, when we buy organic, cycle instead of driving, take a cash payment to evade tax or buy The Big Issue. Every choice we make, every breath we take, is politics. We cannot hide from it and, since we must participate, we must be interested, or give away control of our lives to others, we relinquish the one power society affords us, the power to choose how we want to live our lives

Length: 1,000 characters 

Location: Hereford, UK

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