Humour me for a moment.
Let's say we live in a world where obsessing over politics and world issues makes sense.
How would this play out?
Naturally, we'll start sorting our friends and family as either with or against us. In this bureaucratic process, some relationships will be terminated.
No big deal.
To continue with this enemy-hunting process, we go online. Where we must spew our views on controversial topics, this helps us to smoke out our enemies and get supporters' likes.
And when we uncover our political enemies online, we must debate them until they convert to our views. No matter how many paragraphs, petty comments, or ad hominem attacks we write. We have to be devoted to winning the argument.
Yes, this takes time.
Yes, this requires too much emotional energy.
Yes, this brings out the monster in us.
But this is the price to pay for our cause.
Let's take a break from this imaginary world.
Caring too much about politics and world issues is emotionally exhausting. Yet, how many people blindly fall into this pattern?
If we are going based on the internet, it is a lot. And whenever I run into this crowd, I shake my head in disappointment. Not because I hate politics but because they neglect the things that matter in their lives.
To help show you what does matter, I will show the problems of caring too much about politics and world issues:
You neglect what you can do in your life.
You care too much about external things in general
You feel powerless
You neglect what you can do in your life.
Many of these world issues get us emotional. And sometimes, these emotions get us to join protests to get our voices heard.
This is all nice and dandy.
But why don't we apply that same emotional energy to our lives? It baffles me how people can neglect their lives yet show more passion for issues that are way above them.
Not to denigrate those worthy issues worth speaking up for. But we have to be honest with ourselves. We will show more passion for worldly and political matters than our lives. Heck, we will understand these world issues better than we understand ourselves.
If we take an honest audit of our lives.
We'll realize that we have okay or poor relationships.
We'll realize we are not living up to our potential.
We'll realize that we don't have much substance in our lives.
And this is a problem.
Caring too much about external issues blinds us from our most important point: ourselves!
On to the second point
Caring too much about external things
When this happens, we turn into mini monsters. If you don't believe me, re-read the situation in the intro.
External issues naturally make us hostile to opposing views. Our emotions get so involved that we can't help but compete with our political enemies. And this is just a waste of emotional and mental energy. No matter how much we argue or win debates, your prowess will not change those world issues.
We should redirect that energy from pointless debating to ourselves.
Making sure our life priorities are straight.
Because this is the one area of our lives where we can feel powerful, unlike with world issues.
World issues make us feel powerless.
A double-edged sword of caring too much about politics/world issues is that you can feel powerless in life.
And it makes sense.
So many things are out of our control, and we can't do anything to change them. Politician X does XYZ. Another politician makes changes that will affect the world.
I don't want to deny that it does suck that we can't change some things. But we can change ourselves, and that is the main thing to focus on. Because if you are doing it correctly, you will have your hands full for a while.
Yet, some people will counter that it's part of a responsible citizen to care about politics/world issues.
Yes, I agree!
Everyone is responsible for caring about their country's politics and getting involved.
Apathy is the disease of the West.
But before we start going crazy, ensure your life is in order and you get your finances, relationships, and life in check. Then, from there, you can get involved.
To be a responsible citizen means to be first accountable for your life. And too many people miss this before getting too involved with politics or world issues.
The most common place to find these people is at college campuses.
One of the most annoying things at university was the political dorks. For instance, I knew this one guy whom we'll call Mustafa.
Mustafa was a law student who came from an affluent background. He was also involved with the Muslim Students Association.
When I say involved, I mean this guy got involved with any issues related to Muslims, whether on campus or the world stage.
Now, this was all cool, but there was one issue.
Mustafa was a complete ass.
And this boggled my mind, how can you care so much about Muslims and their causes. Yet, be a dick to other Muslims.
The lack of self-awareness was astonishing.
Before we go out and get involved with issues, we need to look in the mirror and deal with the most daunting issue staring at us.
Despite all this, I hope you are not getting the message of never caring about politics and world issues.
Not ever caring about politics/world issues
I have to put a warning here since some people might take this advice and go berserk with it.
So, like I said before, get your house in order first. Then, it is your responsibility to care about your country's government. Again, apathy can lead to the rotting of a nation. And as responsible citizens, we should plan to get involved.
We cannot offload our responsibility to politicians.
We must hold them accountable and ensure we do our part to help our countries improve, no matter how small our impact.
Believe it or not, you can make an impact in your lifetime. Just become the person who can do that when the time is right.
And this is the right time to bring up the summary,
Summary
Caring too much about world/political issues can be problematic for three reasons:
You neglect what you can do in your life.
You care too much about external things in general
You feel powerless
World/political issues distract you from focusing on what you can do for your own life.
Caring too much about politics/world issues will leave you hostile and competitive. Wasting energy on matters you can't change.
Due to the grand nature of worldly or political issues, you can't help but feel powerless at times.
Despite the problems of caring too much about worldly/political issues, we still have to be responsible citizens. Get your house in order first, and then get involved with local politics.
Not ever caring about politics is a mistake. After your house is in order, see how you can get involved with your country's politics.
Did I give you mixed signals?
One moment, I'm saying not to care about politics/world issues. And another I'm speaking to care.
But as you probably understand, there are nuances to all of this. And there is a time and place for everything.
We are responsible for applying our potential in our lives and impacting a world we will eventually leave.
But before getting there, we must get our house in order first. Otherwise, that imaginary world I described earlier in this article will be your reality.