I’m hardly surprised by people who say that. As the semester closes, I thought I might try to examine some of the more philosophical issues this argument raises. There are three reasons to be involved: You have to, you probably ought to, and it’s dangerous if you don’t.

There is no avoiding politics. For many people, politics is synonymous with government. Congress is where politics happens. City councilmembers are politicians. End of story. On that account, it’s easy to see why you might think that politics is irrelevant. After all, if you’re not a nuclear scientist, you don’t care about the intricacies of nuclear physics.

But the model on which that is based is too jaundiced. It can’t explain why we might set up government in the first place. A far more robust picture would be as follows: The myriad ways we regulate human interactions, whether by formal law or unwritten custom, are politics.

Of course the police and the university bureaucracy are political. But politics is just as much present in the organization of the lines at the dining commons at breakfast. As long as we interact with each other, we are always already in politics. In some sense, human beings are built for politics. Aristotle thought that the natural existence of man was a political one. Birds fly, fish swim, and humans politick. Even though we experience politics many times as an intrusion into normal life, it emerges organically from ourselves.

A more sophisticated objection might run as follows: Okay, so maybe I can’t get around it. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. After all, the political process has been a vehicle for war, for the oppression of various minorities, women, the poor, and for the destruction of our air and water and open space.

So, the argument follows, I ought to resist politics, or make an end run around it. I’ll work to change the game without playing it. I find much with which to sympathize in that argument. I used to make it.

But, if all of those problems with politics are true, don’t we need the people who understand the shortcomings the most? Positive change is possible within the political system: Civil rights, the welfare state, environmental regulations, for example, all were brought about basically within the political system. The drawback is that the system only gets pushed forward by the people who see its flaws.

All of that brings me to what I find to be the critical aspect of politics. Nobody really knows anything. Not the president, not Congress and not me. Our view is always partial and limited.

We are boxed in to at least some degree by our upbringing, race, class, gender, and the like. We all work to overcome those limitations, but we can never completely transcend them.

On top of that, our information is always limited. We never fully know what is going on and we never know what the full ramifications of political change may be.

That all has two consequences. First, it means that the only way to have your view fully represented is to participate to some degree. No one can completely speak for you. Second, when you speak do so cautiously.

Sometimes, my column comes under criticism because I openly admit to not having the answers to many questions. But politicians and pundits are, as a rule, as mediocre a bunch as any of us.

The most frightening person is the one who has it all figured out. George Bush has all the answers. Bin Laden has all the answers. And if that doesn’t unsettle you, you haven’t been paying attention.

The fanatics annex politics only when the critical faculties of the electorate are turned off. As long as human beings rule over each other, skepticism is in order.

None of this is meant to say that you are morally obliged to run off to devote your life to some cause or politician. Only do that if you want to be poor and overworked for the rest of your life.

There are plenty of important parts of life that aren’t politics. But at the same time, since there’s no getting around politics, you may as well make yourself comfortable. I hope I helped a little.

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