The problem is that politics does not respect that wish. But stepping away from politics does not mean politics has stepped away from you. In fact, I sometimes think the deepest form of political power is not the power to make people speak. This is how politics enters our lives – which is why I have very little patience for the claim of being ‘apolitical’. You may dislike politics, avoid political conversations, refuse to vote, refuse to protest, even insist that none of it has anything to do with you.