What Question?

"Why engage in political thinking?

One reason for asking this question is that thinking is a peculiarly arduous and discouraging undertaking. Of course, it is often remarked that thinking is hard work. However, one who enters fully into the process of questioning set forth in the following chapters will discover that the difficulties of thinking are far more subtle and exasperating than those of mere hard work.

You will probably find, for example, that the effort of thought at first is completely fruitless; to admit uncertainty, as you must do in order to think, may seem to leave you in a kind of void with no horizons in the distance and no solid ground underneath. Further, you will find yourself annoyingly liable to daydream and persistently inclined to think about other things than the question at hand. Finally, you will discover that the products of thought are intangible and often fragile. Ideas that have taken hours to develop may evaporate owing to a few remarks by a friend. 

A thinking person is exceedingly vulnerable. Such a person must appear before others, not behind the armor and shield of books read and of ideas formulated by others, but in the nakedness of his own thoughts and doubts."  

 ― Glenn Tinder, "Political Thinking: The Perennial Questions"

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Dear Kate,

Ask question.  Make a habit of it.  Good questions, worthwhile questions.  At least one a day, and make an honest attempt to work through it a bit, see where it will take you.

We ask questions everyday, but are they worthwhile? (There, my worthwhile question of the day.)

Of course, we answer.  We ask for direction to get home safe.  We ask for a quote to pay a fair price.  We ask How are you doing? to build rapport and nurture relationship.

Yet, genuine as our questions often are, we rarely have the time and patience for answers that do not serve the purpose of our questioning.

For example, you ask your daughter How are you doing?  And she answers--with a murmur, something that crawls out somewhere between her heart and vocal cord.  She gives you a look of Why-are-you-asking? or What-do-you-care? or even How-do-I-even-begin-to-make-you-understand?  Not the type of answer you are looking for.  Now you are worried.  But you've been worrying for your whole life, not least about your family.  And you genuinely believe you deserve a more genuine answer to your genuine question.  You will need to work through the implications of your daughter's (non)answer, being such a good mom.  You will never get a satisfying (to you) answer, being such a busy mom, with a headful of many other worries and aspirations.

Yesterday I asked you: "How is one to live with the insufficiency, the uncertainty, the ambiguity, the paradoxes of life?  Who can wrestle with all these and still stay purpose-driven, productive, and, most of all, prosperous in this world of scarce resources and competing narratives?"

I wonder if you questioned my questions.

You should.  If you didn't, it means you do not question yourself either.

You see, I asked the questions on behalf of those who see this world as a pool of "scarce resources" that we must "compete" with each other for, most of all by framing "narratives" over everything, so that we can "consume" our fair share of this world before some other "consumers" consume it.  Thus we must be "driven" by our "purpose" to "prosper" by staying "productive"--which means getting results, useful answers to our precise questions, getting ourselves what we ask for.

And this applies not only to our chasing after material goods.  The vanity and power that come with gaining a moral upper-hand in a discussion, in shaping a world as I see right, in filling the Judgement Seat and staying there, is unquestionable rewarding, the rewards tangible, my position admirable, armored and shielded, with no doubt in sight.  Survival of the fittest, the most beautiful story when I make myself fittest to survive.

So let's go back to this very successful mom, juggling her career and motherhood with dexterity, not perfectly, but good enough in her own eyes, the best she could do managing the multiple countervailing forces of life, and her question to her child: How are you doing?  She wants a good answer, short but long enough to ease her worries, about her family, her career, not to add to them.  There's enough shit she needs to handle.  If she could see her daughter is studying (and, studying the right things), well, then the answer mom wants is right there, her daughter, getting her acts together, finally, after all them years of this mom's questioning her the right way.  If the answer this mom could see or hear or feel is not as perceptible or resounding or relatable as her genuine questioning deserves, then, simple enough, something needs to be done.

And let's work on it, together, you and I and the rest of the world, jump ye into my bandwagon, and let's make things work.  Engage each other in some useful deeds, morally-satisfying endeavors, generate together some good results, decent numbers, to cast the doubts away, until we get the answer that we want (which, of course, must satisfy the one true criterion of it being the answer that I want).

But, wait, what was the question again?

Yours, Alex