When everything becomes "political"

      Yesterday, Starbucks announced their new "race together" campaign in which they encourage their baristas to engage with their customers on the topic of race relations.   They were told if they wanted to start a conversation on race with a customer they should write the words "race together" on the cup before handing it to the customer.  This seemed like an idea that came straight out of academia because it makes no business sense.  The news articles sent out on Facebook did not take the idea to kindly as many people lamented that the LAST thing in the world they want to do when they buy of cup of coffee is spend an hour discussing race with a 20-nothing who is stuck behind a counter pouring coffee.  What if I don't want to talk about anything at all and I decline their request?   Will the barista take me for a racist and as a result put a little "special sauce" (spit) into my cup?   Do I now have to order my coffee "non-political" as well as "decaf"?    Sometimes you just want a cup of joe and that is all.  

      It seems today everything we do is seen as political in nature.  Where we shop.  What we buy.  What we eat. What we do with our free time.   People want us to constantly think about our actions in terms of political repercussions.   Unions want us to boycott Wal-Mart because so much of their products come from China,  but all I want is to buy some new underwear.   Environmental groups want us to not use plastic bags because it "may" effect "climate change" when all I want to do is make sure my stuff doesn't spill out into the parking lot.   A Hollywood celebrity wants us to contemplate a topic such bullying, or domestic violence in the middle/start of a movie when all we want is to be entertained for 2 hours.   Another group wants my children to talk about the election and why I should vote Democratic at the Thanksgiving table when all I want to do is sit down with my family, make some warm memories and thank God for how he has watched over us the past year.  

      We need to stop the insanity!  Maybe we should delegate the one month before an election as "political-discussion-month" and have ALL the other months declared off limits.   We need to stop badgering people and having "conversations" (which is just a code word for "a debate to shutdown an opposing side")  and just talk to one another about whatever comes up.  Maybe it's just the weather or how you are feeling at the moment, but it's a conversation without an agenda.

     Whatever happened to just polite conversation anyway?   Have we spent too much time on our phones reading stories on political websites that we have forgotten how to initiate them?    Do we need a phone app that knows who we are coming in contact with that can look up their political, religious, and intellectual persuasions and then based on it come up with a list of 3 topics you should discuss with them?   (I could just see it now with pop-ups coming up in your Google-glass). 

     The English used to consider political discussions to not be polite in nature.  Your thoughts were your thoughts and that was all.   You were expected to be informed by books, the newspapers and various public lecturers and then make up your own mind based on the information you were given.  You were not allowed to use your neighbors house party to lecture others on their view political views.  To do so was considered to be in bad taste as you would be hijacking their friendly forum for your own purpose and thereby ruining the event.

    But such is not the case today.

   Maybe we need to bring the English way back into style again and just serve the coffee.