Politic: Having practical wisdom; prudent; shrewd; diplomatic.
Politics: The science and art of political government; factional scheming within a group.
Both of these words derive from the Greek politikos, of a citizen.
I, for one, am having trouble reconciling these two definitions. I live in a country where the national past-time is complaining about the government. Sometimes this is quite justified, it seems to me, and sometimes it appears to be a case of people trying to ferret out the worst, most miserable tidbits of scandal and error and blowing everything up for the sake of enjoying the explosion. There is a famous parable suggesting that each of us would be much improved were we to take a break from inspecting the tiny defects in others to address our own more glaring problems. This is the essence of recovery -- powerless over people, places, and things, and responsible only for our own actions and attitudes.
From time to time I find that I really dislike a certain sports team. I'll watch them play, hoping that they lose. It doesn't make any difference whether or not I like their opponent, just that they don't succeed. This is behavior that is so petty and infantile that I can't abide it. It's a joyless exercise. I have to step away from the box and do something else. If I can't find a positive reason to do something, then I should find something else to do. I'm in for a long and miserable existence if I spend a lot of energy wishing ill on another.
It reminds me all of the times I risked doing myself great harm on the outside chance that I could take revenge on someone I believed deserved my wrath. I would take myself down if I could bring you with me. This is behavior bordering on insanity. It's like blowing up my own house in the hope that the fire might spread to your property. It makes no sense.
Apparently it's quite difficult to look on the bright side of things.
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