Zoon Politikon

For those of you who don't know, the Polish president died in a plane crash over the weekend. What I didn't realize was how much it affected those not even living in Poland.

A woman who works at the dining hall is originally Polish, obviously living in the US now. I was talking to her today, and I asked how her weekend was. She said that it was difficult for her because of the death of the president, and what I found was astounding was that she really felt anguish because of his death. I saw that as soon as she brought up the president, her demeanor became suddenly sadder. This was fascinating to me.

To me, the notion of someone grieving over the death of a political figure that one does not have to perfunctorily follow is alien. The US has been racked by overzealous partisanship and extreme polarization, mostly culminating in the fact that if, for example, President Obama were to suddenly die, many people would be glad. Sarah Palin, for one, would likely be ecstatic that he was gone, though she obviously wouldn't make the fact explicit. Even I would have been glad to see Dick Cheney keel over during his tenure in office, though we all know that he technically can't die because he doesn't have a heart. This raises an alarming question for me: are we, as the Greeks described, still the political animal, or have we become the intransigent animal? Even more, have we reduced the actual act of politics to one's religious and/or social beliefs to the point where a politician's actions no longer truly matter?

To end on a somewhat lighter note, here's a good bit of Germany philosophy vs. Greek philosophy:


That's all for now,
Das Flüg