Politics can be about many things: carrying out the will of the people, reallocating a nation's wealth, the wielding of human power. It can be about personalities, ideas, communication, ideologies, notions, theories. It's a subject, not surprisingly, of consuming fascination for many. Politics and its elements are of concern, also, to spiritual thinkers, especially to the metaphysician looking beyond the material and mortally personal to the spiritual and the divine in order to help his community, nation, and world at large.
Political activity, whether for good or ill, starts with us, the individual. We "play politics" in our own thought— maybe much more than we realize. Are any of us quite guiltless of mentally manipulating personal power and mentally adjusting people and their placement? Are any of us entirely innocent, always, of little Machiavellian schemes on the school board, in the family, or on the church committee? Probably we all have daydreamed about being in control of affairs here or there.
Most of this is perhaps of little consequence. These are tendencies built into unredeemed human nature. But to play a progressive, constructive, healing role as citizens, we must watch the political stage of our own thought carefully. The manipulation of human emotions and thought is as outside the borders of authentic Christian Science as is manipulation of the body.
