Ruins of the republic

From the glibly-philosophical department:

If the election results from 2000 and 2004 are any indication, roughly half the people who care about who represents them in the Oval Office do not feel represented by who has been there since January of 2001. (A greater percentage apparently don't care about who represents them.)

And whether we like it or not, we are being represented by others all the time: our elected officials, those in charge at our places of employment, those who claim the same spiritual or political affiliation, people on TV and in movies, and heck, even people who simply look like us in a cosmetic way. It's not that we chose to have them represent us necessarily (and often not at all), but it's an almost certainty that there are people out there who don't know us (as individuals) and are forming an opinion about us based not on knowing us (as individuals) but generalizing from something they saw or heard about involving someone with whom we have a coincidental similarity.

So please try to be good. Even if not for your own benefit, try to not screw it up for others whom others are going to think are like you.

At least until we can get everyone on board with refraining from forming opinions about individuals until one has sufficient familiarity with the individuals to form an opinion. Then you can screw it up for yourself as much as you want.

~

Crap. That was screwing it up for everyone, wasn't it?

[The views expressed are not representative of anyone. Not even necessarily of the one who just wrote them.]