As may have been evident from an earlier post, I’m not a fan of politics. I think that politics is inhuman and contrary to human happiness generally, in itself. I’m not against political corruption primarily, although corruption is bad, too. I’m against politics, as a type of human relationship.
What I am in favor of is neighborliness. I think most people like me (middle/upper class westerner, fairly smart and fairly well educated) have a pretty good sense of what being a good neighbor means and it may be the case that virtually everyone has that sense, too, I just am not familiar enough with most cultures to make the claim. I am, however, certain that knowing what it means to be a good neighbor means is not universal.
Some aspects of neighborliness that are important are simple things like respecting your neighbor’s property, privacy, and autonomy. I don’t try to control my neighbor’s house or car or whatever. Nor do I pry into their lives beyond what parts they’ve invited me into. And I certainly don’t make any attempts to tell them what they can and can’t do with their lives within civilized norms.
I can’t, and won’t, give any sort of definitive list of what makes a good neighbor or bad neighbor. I tend to think that people really can figure that out for themselves and that most folks who aren’t in the thrall of an ideology like marxism, compassionate conservatism, or islam will agree that that neighbor is best who governs least.
All that said, it’s clear that modern politics, emphatically including in the US, is anti-neighborliness. I’m sure I’ll post more on this, but I hope that it’s not too hard to see how US politics, at least, makes it difficult to be a good neighbor.
