So maybe I lied

about going AWOL for awhile. This is a work in progress. After I finished The Virgin Suicides I was a concerned about what to read next. Taking a look back on that book, it's now one of my favorite books. It was so well written, interesting, just the right length, creative. I really can't put it into words, but if you want a good book, go buy it. I hear the movie is also good. I might go check it out.

So since then, I've drifted from one book to the next. I've started to try to check myself into the presidential election. For those of you who know me, you know that I'm not just tuning in now because of political apathy.... it's more the opposite - I tend to become too involved. In 2000, I was 16 and, perhaps naively, believed certain things were untouchable (checks and balances being one of them). And I'm not saying this from a dark, angry, liberal place in my heart; I think both conservatives and liberals alike can say that Bush v. Gore was an unprecedented (and apparently never-to-be-repeated) role for the Supreme Court.

Needless to say, I took Bush v. Gore a little hard. I made a decision to remove myself from politics (2004 was a painful blip on the radar) and focused more on political theory for the next eight years. Contrary to popular belief, theory and politics are pretty closely interconnected. I need theory for me to figure out what I think the appropriate role of government and policy should be, and then politics can be used to determine the best way to achieve that goal.

After 2000, I thought I didn't want anything to do with politics, that I'd just be satisfied living in the political theory realm, so that's mostly what I studied. Hobbes, Aristotle, Plato, Locke, Mill, Madison, Jefferson, and more all helped me form some idea of what I thought a government should do for its citizens. And, for the most part, I was happy. And then things started happening. In a nutshell, our political reality started to starkly contrast with what I thought our goals as a country should be. In layman's words? The last eight years have made us stray so far from what I think the right path should be that I can't, in good conscience, continue to focus on theory.

So I'm kicking into high gear because I don't do anything half-assed. I think our public education system needs a good look, I think the welfare system and the situation of the poor in this country needs a good look, I think our role in the international economy and how we protect or don't protect our domestic industries needs a good look. So I'm trying to learn world history, sociology, anything and everything to make me think about what issues are important to me and what I want to do about them.

(Please note that while I say I didn't want anything to do with politics, I still voted in elections, so don't worry. I'm not one of those twenty-somethings.)