There’s a question going around in Twitter’s writing community asking writers how they feel about blending politics with professional media. I have a few feelings about that, and couldn’t figure out where to start on a tweet thread, so I decided to do a word spotlight instead. This is definitely going to be an ‘etymology vs modern use’ post, everyone, and ‘modern use’ comes out the loser.
Etymologically speaking, ‘politics’ is rooted in Greek ‘polis’, which literally refers to a city, state, community or citizens. Fast track that down the etymological timeline and the dictionary defines ‘politics’ in the 1500s as ‘the science of government’, which is the most recent entry before modern definition (left blank).
Honestly, I really like that definition, mostly because it has the word ‘science’ in it. It turns politics from being a cultural voodoo into a rational school of thought relating specifically to governments. Obviously, if that’s the case, then the science of it has been sorely betrayed and abused, especially the last few years.
How does this relate to a question on Twitter?
Because of the use of the word. The original poster was asking earnestly and I’m guessing had been confronted or accused by someone reprimanding them for getting ‘political’. The thing is that the way we use ‘politics’ these days has nothing to do with government and everything to do with daily lives. The word’s become divorced of anything governmental and has been weaponised to distance, other, and shame people with certain lived experiences (and many of them).
I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say that saying someone is ‘blending politics with their [insert profession, hobby, art etc]’ is the same as asking someone of another ethnicity ‘where are you from?’ Whether intended or not, the very question implies that someone’s lived experiences are performative for some unknown reason, out of principle, or otherwise theoretical. It pretends that those experiences are, somehow, a hat someone is wearing just because. It denies a person those experiences, and turns the experiences into a tool (or a weapon) instead of just a life.
Calling someone else’s life ‘politics’ devalues it. It says that since those aren’t your lived experiences, they don’t count.
If we didn’t use the word ‘politics’ this way, maybe people wouldn’t be surprised when a Black American kneels during the anthem to honour murdered Black Americans —
When a lesbian writer talks openly about writing about a lesbian protagonist —
When women in need of abortions object to losing their healthcare —
When trans* people exhibit their fear they’ll be murdered just for going to the bathroom.
These aren’t politics. These are people’s lives.
Stop using politics to talk about someone’s lived experiences. Start using it only when talking about governmental processes, policy, and science. If people can start realising that ‘where are you from?’ is offensive, maybe people can start realising that so is ‘why are you being political’ — when all someone did was live their life openly.
After all, words matter.
Aurichalcum Publishing 