Avatars

Recovering from malaria in these last few weeks has afforded me a bit of time to reread Aristotle's Ethics and Politics. I've always been fascinated by his ultimate premise that the ability for the individual citizen to be truly effective in life depends on his response to the State. These aren't popular sentiments today but I think he's right. He essentially claims that the citizen lives in two realities, encompassed by his or her own pursuits or that of attempting to strive for the greater good, which the philosopher sees as the ultimate goal of all citizens. He reminds the State that, "politics must spend most of its pains on making the citizens to be of a certain character, good and capable of noble acts." But he goes on to summon citizens to the reality that their finest moments should be for the State and for the benefit of others.Nobody talks like this anymore because of an abiding mutual contempt: citizens no longer trust their government, and politicians don't trust citizens. The way we have chosen to deal with this is by creating illusions. Citizens claim to be concerned about their national political fate but then in the end don't vote. Politicians tell people that their opinion matters but then often act as though it is their party, not the citizens, that is the ultimate arbitrator of their actions.In many ways, it's like the hit movie Avatar. The premise is that an individual can embody another kind of entity that isn't truly them. Such a person suddenly becomes a duality, with reality and illusion melding together. Much of what passes as politics and citizenship in Canada these days is based more on image than on substance. As Chris Hedges pens in his Empire of Illusion:

Reality is complicated. Reality is boring. We are incapable or unwilling to handle its confusion. We ask to be indulged and comforted by cliches, stereotypes and inspiration messages that tell us that ... our future will always be glorious and prosperous."

His conclusion? We become "unreal." And so it is with citizens and their representatives. I recently spoke at an event at a university where numerous people wondered why the government didn't do more for Darfur, or to eradicate child poverty. "How many of you voted in the last election?" I asked, to which about 20% of the audience raised their hands. There's the rub. When I asked the remainder why they didn't vote, all they could reply was that politicians are self-serving and that government doesn't work. And yet there they were, asking for government to take on the big challenges that any of us as individuals could never accomplish. In a sense they were living through their avatars: desiring to make the world a better place while their public self ran down the very vehicle they were hoping would solve our major problems.Politicians do exactly the same thing. We learn to throw out the party line even when we know it's not helpful. We blast away at the ideas and policies of the other parties, not because they're necessarily wrong but because they're not ours! We talk about the greater good and the need to better it, when really the only way we plan on doing it is through our party label. We say one thing to insiders and another to citizens. And just like many citizens, we opt out of the complex work of democratic exchange.The last time I wrote on this subject, virtually all the comments agreed with me about politicians and then proceeded to say it has nothing to do with citizens. Well, that's just not good enough. We are failing at both ends of the democratic exchange. We send our avatars out onto the playing field, while deep inside we know we should be doing better ourselves. Democracy awaits, but it won't be healed by proportional representation, first-past-the post, or blind party loyalty. It will be bettered when we start speaking truth to ourselves.