Reading

I'm currently reading - amongst quite a few other books - Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" (Penguin, 2009, ISBN 978-0141043722), about Abraham Lincolns politically astute rise to power and (when I get to it) his presidency (I know part of the book inspired the film "Lincoln", but I haven't got that far yet). Something that has struck me is how Lincoln acheived the nomination as Republican candidate by (a) not annoying people, and (b) planning to be everybody's second choice.

I'm also struck by the importance of "not annoying" others by the experience of a reformed white supremacist, who said not being hardline against him helped him to change, and the writings of Paul K Chappell, who I've mentioned previously (e.g., here). In “The Art of Waging Peace” (pub. Prospecta Press, reprint 2015, ISBN 978-1632260314 [Amazon]), Mr Chappell - in a section on listening, and how the target is to change the position of enough people, not all people - quotes the following comment by Leslee Goodman on how Mr Chappell was able to change the mind of a pro-war person:

"I had lost patience with one such person after ten minutes of unproductive dialogue. The Chappell showed up. He respectfully engaged my critic for a full forty-five minutes. Their conversation ended with the man thanking Chappell for listening to him and accepting a copy of [his book] The End of War. A few weeks later Chappell ran into the man and learned that he had read the book and had changed his mind about war as a means of ending terrorism."

So . . . outrage - personally satisfying though it is for dealing with the frustrations and trauma of living under bigotry, hate and backwardness - may not help make the world a better place . . .

I'm not ready for that level of objective engagement as yet, but I've decided to work at it :)

Apparently Ms Goodwin's book inspired Barack Obama to get involved with politics. I wonder how my life might have gone if I'd come across something like this as a teenager, or even a decent inspiration instead of living under Queensland's evil "Great Flying Peanut" and his gerrymander . . .

Ah well, I will do what I can with what I have and where I am - beginning right after I and my family all get over the most debilitating flu I've ever experienced :)

It has been interesting seeing the internal political processes in the party I have joined. If I can keep my health together, I'll probably have another go at getting elected to a role in a couple of years. In the meantime, policy committees remain my primary interest.