You may not be thinking about politics, but politics is thinking

Hear, O children of vigilance, the words of Kerry Washington, who spoke with clarity and warning: “You may not be thinking about politics, but politics is thinking about you.” In this truth lies the hidden thread of power—that even when one turns away from the affairs of rulers, rulers do not turn away from shaping the life of the people. Whether one acts or is silent, politics moves, weaving laws, choices, and destinies that bind every soul.

For many grow weary of politics, calling it corrupt, distant, or useless. They retreat into their private lives, hoping to escape its reach. Yet politics enters the school their children attend, the wages they earn, the streets they walk, the food they eat. To ignore it is to leave one’s fate in the hands of others. Washington’s words remind us that disengagement is not freedom, but surrender.

History offers proof. When the women of America were denied the vote, many lived quietly, uninterested in politics, believing it beyond their sphere. Yet politics still thought of them, for laws barred them from property rights, equal pay, and even guardianship of their children. Only when suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton rose in agitation did the tide begin to change. By entering the realm they had once been told to avoid, they claimed their share of destiny.

So too in darker times. Under segregation in the United States, countless African Americans could not ignore politics, for politics decided where they could live, where they could learn, and where they could sit on a bus. Even those who sought only quiet lives were crushed by unjust laws. It was through the courage of activists—Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer—that the truth was made visible: politics was always thinking of them, and only by thinking back could freedom be won.

Therefore, let this wisdom endure: no one is beyond the reach of politics. To turn away from it is to be ruled without a voice; to face it is to shape the future with one’s own hand. Washington’s words are not merely a warning, but a summons: to rise, to engage, to claim the right to be heard. For politics will always think of you—better, then, to answer its gaze with courage than to be carried silently by its tide.