(this is the 3rd post in my systematic living series)

Hi.  My name is Bob and I’m a recovering right-wing Republican.

If you knew me a handfull of years ago, you no doubt knew my politics.  I talked about John Kerry like he was an idiot, I thought anyone who was pro-tax-increases was a communist, and I had a 8 foot wide George W. election sign in my front yard (which I replaced every time the neighborhood kids tore it down).  I still think Kerry is an closer to an idiot than a saint, but lots of other things have changed over the past few years and my outlook on politics has changed, quite dramatically, with them.

You see, I’m a person of faith…a follower of Jesus.  I used to think that the obvious outpouring of my faith was to be a Republican.  I never really questioned that.  I think I’m at least a quasi-smart and thinking man, so it’s not like I was being led there blindly.  Many of the arguments and statements made by the party made lots of sense.  I found reason after reason to support my right-wingedness and I could out-argue any Democrat I came in contact with.  Then, one day, things started to change.

I hate to narrow this change down to a single moment because I think it had been a long time coming.  But, to make a longer life-story shorter, when I started reading The Great Awakening by Jim Wallis I was a confident, learned Republican.  I picked it up (without knowing who Wallis was or what the book was really about) because I was tired of the way the American church operated and the cover seemed like it addressed (and sympathized) with my current state of mind.  As I read, I got angry.  As I read further, I became furious.  “How could someone be so stupid” I thought.  “How could a Christian be so politically liberal?”  But for some reason, I kept reading.

I realized by the end of the book that while my anger was directed at Wallis (the book’s author), it was actually more directed at myself.  My way of thinking.  My way of living.  In the process of being so “right” (or Right), I was forgetting that there’s people behind those politics that Jesus loves and that Jesus cares about, regardless of their situation, their beliefs or their politics.

That’s when I started to see through the lies of the Republican Party.  I never realized before how hateful Right wing politics had become.  It totally neglects people for the benefit of The Free Market and lower taxes.  It says “if you don’t work hard you deserve to be poor and miserable”.  But guess what?  Jesus doesn’t think so.  Poor if it’s your doing, maybe…but miserable and living in deep dark despair?  Absolutely not.  I started to realize that even though the Christians I knew weren’t racist or sexist or thought the poor should suffer, they (and I) were supporting politics and policies that were exactly those things.  So, I knew I had to move away from that Right Wing.

So, did I become a Democrat?  Absolutely not.  In my years as a Republican, I saw all the problems with the Democratic party…so that part didn’t take any research.  I now understood why the Left Wing took many of it’s positions on issues (out of compassion for the poor, the minorities, those who are up against the world every day) and I agreed, in principal, with much of what they said. The problem was, it was still politics. It was still a game that they needed to win to stay in power.  They still took advantage of the average American to stay in power, which in the end, was their goal much more than helping those in need.

So there I was.  Searching for a systematic political structure to fit into.  Systematic living was the easy choice when it came to politics but it was the wrong choice. I could be a Republican or a Democrat (or one of the many other fringe parties) but none of my choices were fully right.  Politics (and the parties) could never be completely compatible with who Jesus wanted me to be.

These days I find that it’s really hard to willfully exist outside the political system (just as it’s always hard to exist outside of systematic living).  My Republican friends think I’m a baby-killing Democrat and my Democratic friends think I’m a cold-hearted Republican.  But this is where we all should be living. (I don’t usually presume that everyone should make the same choices I have, but I’m 99% sure that this is exactly where all people should be, or at the very least, where all Christians should be).  I’ve clearly seen both sides and I truly believe much of what they say is right (while much is wrong), and I think that anyone who buys into either fully is an unthinking systematic pawn.

Every time I talk with a Christian Republican and I hear the party-line being spit back at me, all I can see is their ignorance.  They’ve been hoodwinked by the Republican party into supporting Right Wing views because they’ve been convinced that it’s the “Christian party” to belong to. I don’t try and convince them otherwise, because I know that for me it truly took God’s intervention (through many experiences and one tough book) to help me see Truth.  I couldn’t possibly presume that a few words from me could change any minds.

At the same time, every time I talk to a hard-core Democrat (Christian or otherwise) I know that they’ve been fooled into thinking that the Democratic party actually cares about the poor and the downtrodden.  If they’re Christian, they’re often the “cool” Christian who thinks that being a Democrat makes Faith look “hip” to their Democratic posse, which is just as foolish as thinking tattoos or a pierced-nosed follower of Jesus will make Christianity seem less lame.  I let them be as well…there’s no out-arguing ‘hip’.  There’s no convincing them that Democratic leaders only really care about staying in power and are using the poor to keep themselves there.

Buying into any part of this system is counter to who Jesus wants me to be. Sure, we should vote.  We should be involved in the political process (it’s our duty as a citizen) but the second we identify ourselves as a Democrat or Republican, we’ve lost.  We’ve declared ourselves slaves to the systematic politcs that is so sick and clueless when it comes to real people and real issues.

So, next time you’re talking to me about politics, don’t expect me to take either side.  I refuse. I’ll support the individual issues and people that seem like their the most competent to keep our country functional.  So, I’ll see you at the voting booth, but know that I’ll be checking more than one big party-affiliated box on that voting form…I’ll have done my research and will be voting outside the system of brainless and easy politics.

"Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants."

In this first post in a series on Systematic Living, I’m going to, more than once, tackle the issue of the stuff we put in our mouths (for most of us, that’s food).  What we eat in America (and much of the Westernized world) is one of the most systematic things I can think of, and it seems that no one (including myself until a couple months ago) noticed.  We thought we were in control of our own choices.  We thought Americans had the most varied diet of anyone in the world, afterall, we have 45,000 product in our grocery stores, who else has that?

If you recognize where the previous line of argument is going, you’ll see that this new popular thinking stems much from the writings of Michael Pollan, which is so cliché I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’ve read everything he’s written (almost…).  Pollan is the gold standard in the analysis of this current systematic food system we’re a part of, pointing out that most of that vast variety of 45,000 products in our stores are actual reconstructions of a single ingredient (which will go unmentioned here to avoid some clichés).  The bottom line is, we eat like crap in this country and one of the main reasons is because we don’t look at human history or culture for clues on what we should be eating. Instead, we consciously (or unconsciously) listen to food companies, trends and fads, and most of all….Diets.

In the past, when I’ve talked with people about my “diet”, they immediately (in their minds) use the modern definition when I mean it in the most traditional way.  The modern definition of diet is commonly thought of as:

Of or relating to a food regimen designed to promote weight loss in a person or an animal

The problem is, this definition of ‘diet’ didn’t exist until fairly recently.  The traditional meaning of diet is simply “what I eat on a regular basis”.  As in “I tend to eat a healthy diet”.  So, how does all of this fit into systematic living?

I think one of the reasons we eat such a horrible diet in this country is because we systematize what we eat. None of us feel qualified to actually make decisions about what is healthy for us and what is not.  We feel like there’s SO much variety out there that we need to be a food scientist to determine what we should be stuffing down our gullet.  So, because of this, we prescribe ourselves to the modern definition of “diets”.  We listen to what Dr. Atkins has to say or we read the latest Low Fat publication in order to find out what’s good for us to be eating.  The stupid part is, we KNOW what’s good for us to be eating…it’s so obvious that we miss it.  Let’s do a little test:

If I want to eat something that’s good for me, that keeps my weight down, that gives me energy and that generally keeps me healthy, which should I grab?
A) A piece of fruit  or
B) absolutely anything out of a prepackaged box (seriously, pick anything).
If I want to feel good, stay slim and fit should I eat pounds upon pounds of meat avoiding any vegetable that’s an ‘evil carb’?  Or, should I eat a balance of meat, fresh veggies, a little grain, and a small amount of fruits?

My point is, it’s not that hard. Modern diets (and almost all popular health fads) are attempting to do one thing:  Give us a way not to eat vegetables (while putting money in their pockets).  Think about it…eating plants is one of the most healthy things we can do, yet it’s the one thing we try and avoid at all costs.  The Food Industry knows this, so they try and come up with every way possible for you to be ‘healthy’ eating their boxed products (don’t get me started on the stupid health claims on processed foods) when what you should be doing is grabbing a carrot.

In the end, “diets” are a symptom of a culture that
1) doesn’t want to eat vegetables
2) has been made insecure, thinking they don’t know what’s healthy, and
3) is too lazy to go to a farmer’s market on Saturdays or too cheap to buy fresh fruit instead of fruit-bars.
It’s a system that’s been imposed on us and most people accept it as fact…something they have to live within.  And that’s crazy.

So, to live outside the system means to stop eating what diet books and Food Inc. tells you to. Instead, ask yourself “would my great-great grandmother recognize this as food?”.  If it’s in a box or tube, she wouldn’t.  If you know it’s healthy, eat it.  If the box tells you it’s healthy…grab something that doesn’t come in a box.

The best source I’ve found for people that understand this are not nutritionists, not diet gurus…but chefs. The really good chefs will never tell you to use anything out of a box or can or bag.  They’ll demand only fresh ingredients from the garden, local farmer, or produce section, which is what you should be eating anyway.  Pick up a cookbook, plant a garden, and get yourself out of this dumbed down, systematic way of eating.  Forget “diets” and develop a “diet” that our ancestors would recognize.

Upon (re)starting this blogging endeavor, I realized I had alot to say along one general topic trajectory.  This idea is one that crosses many specific topics but is something that I, personally, have tried to avoid more and more over the years.  Its the idea of “systematic living“.  As many of us make conscious decisions in the direction of our lives (and the beliefs we hold) there’s always a pressure to fit into a systematic way of thinking.  We have an array of “ready made” choices and we’re pressured into choosing one of them and living inside that box.

All aspects of our lives get squeezed, pushed, folded, or jammed into one of these ready made boxes. Republican or Democrat.  Vegetarian or Meat Eater.  Christian or Non-Christian, Atkins or Low Fat, Workaholic or Lazy Freeloader, Hippie or Yuppie.  These pre-defined ways of living help us easily make choices.  It makes it easy to see a piece of meat and decide to eat it or not because I’m either a herbivore or a carnivore.  It’s much too difficult, every time we’re presented with a choice to make an unique decision, rather than give a stock answer determined by our “-isms”.

In my view, systematic living and systematic thinking is one of the biggest problems in Western culture.  We’ve been told that we only have x-amount of options and that we must choose one.  I reject this false choice.  My experience and my soul tells me that the options are infinite and that I’m able to, not only choose from these pre-fab decisions, but that I’m able to mix and match without regard for the system.  I’m able to be a chef with the world at my fingertips instead of a consumer who orders off a limited McMenu.

Is this sounding a little idealistic to you?  Maybe a little naive?  If I was an 18 year old kid fresh out of high school, that might be true.  But the longer I live, the MORE I see this reality of “the man” implementing pre-sets on my life.  My daily addition of knowledge only confirms that society praises group-think and punishes individualism.

So, as these next few blog posts move forward, I hope you’ll evaluate some of your life choices and worldviews along with me.  It’s easy for all of us to think that we’re unique and that our choices are our own…but the insane popularity of chain restaurants, pop culture, and Coca Cola betray you.  They instead tell us how the large majority (including you?) only sees the few options laid out in front of them and chooses one without any second thought.