Martha Gellhorn - politics is everything

APAvar: Martha Gellhorn. (1984). White into Black. Granta, 10, Travel Writing, 103. Link: https://archive.org/details/granta10travelwr0000unse/page/102/mode/2up

People often say, with pride, "I'm not interested in politics." They might as well say, "I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future." Politics is the business of governing and nobody can escape being governed, for better or worse. In the few fortunate societies where voting is free and honest, most people take the weird view that politics is a horse race--you bet on a winner or loser every so often, if you can bestir yourself; but politics is not a personal concern. Politics is everything--from clean drinking water through the preservation of forests, whales, British Leyland to nuclear weapons and the disposal thereof. If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.