Via Basel: Can I Live with Myself Today?
Can I Live with Myself Today?
Or: Reflections on Connection and Avoidance
“Inner Peace” is written on a magnetic sticker I put on my refrigerator in January as “My 2026 Word of Intention”—a tall order for a passionate, inquisitive, and reflective being seeking to be both part of this world and beyond it. I struggle not to be overwhelmed by the injustice and cruelty I witness and read about all around me in my community, country, and world, while at the same time resting comfortably in my home among caring family and friends, blessed with good health at my age, and dealing with the sense of guilt and responsibility it brings. To be frank, while the state of affairs was hardly ideal prior to January, it now feels exponentially amplified—with dishonesty, deceit, and malice sinking to unprecedented depths with no end in sight, perpetuated by our current civilian, military and corporate elite, and permeating every facet of civic life. What is the right, honorable, or just decent way to respond to this inner conflict? A common response is escapism, compartmentalization, or suppression—that is, until it affects people personally in their pocketbooks or health or safety, and even then, they tend to misidentify the offending entity.
Recently, a book recommended by a friend fascinated me in many ways: Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence by James Bridle. It contained so many embedded jewels, spanning an amazing range from how interconnected everything is in the thicket of life to non-binary machines. But one paragraph stood out to me that defines our attitude of avoidance. You guessed it: “Politics”—a word so misunderstood that it raises temperatures and tempers as soon as it is mentioned. Most people avoid discussing it with friends and family, let alone acquaintances and strangers, for reasons ranging from conflict avoidance to keeping the peace or a lack of discussion skills. Please read the author’s definition before you try to deny or distance yourself from it:
“Politics, at heart, is the science and art of making decisions. We commonly think of it as stuff done by politicians and activists, within the framework of national and local government, but really it is the mundane, everyday business of communal organization. Any time two or more people have to make an agreement or come to a decision, politics is at work. For humans politics plays out in all kinds of ways: in parliaments, at the ballot box, in our daily decisions about how we want to live, and how best to assert these ways of life. Every choice we make which affects others is itself political. This obviously includes voting, but it also includes the things we make and design, which shapes the lives of others; our relationship with our partners and neighbors; what we consume, act upon, share and refuse; in short every choice we make that has communal implications. Even if we say that we want nothing to do with politics, we don’t really have that option. Politics affects almost every aspect of our lives whether we want it or not and, by definition, it is the process by which almost anything gets done.”
He then goes on to discuss “more-than-human politics,” which acknowledges and engages with the “more-than-human world.” But that is a subject for another day.
The fact is, even when avoiding the topic of politics, you are making a choice: silence, which can be interpreted as either acquiescence or defiance depending on how you express it. My aim here is not to encourage or discourage dialogue and respectful discussion on this ubiquitous topic, but to alert the reader to the illusion of escaping its effects. Another insight is that politics can be expressed in a myriad of ways—such as through our relationships, consumption, and ways of living, as outlined above by James Bridle. In my opinion, these actions, if exercised individually, thoughtfully, but coordinated collectively, can have the greatest impact on our politics and our lives.
Finally, politics is not a dirty word: it can be a window into our souls shining a light on our true and core values, morals and beliefs.
“The master said You must write what you see.
But what I see does not move me.
The master answered Change what you see.”
From Vita Nova by Louise Gluck 1999 (the epigraph)
“To remain silent and indifferent it the greatest sin of all.”
Elie Wiesel from his memoir, Night.
Basel Al-Aswad, father of EIL founder Christopher Al-Aswad, is a yogi trapped in an Orthopedic Surgeon’s body. His loves in life include reading, writing, hiking, enjoying nature, meditation, and spending time with his large Iraqi family, and now, semi-retired, he is exploring new avenues in medicine, education, public speaking, teaching, and social engagement.
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