Matthew McConaughey on elections: Politics is at a ‘real crossroads’
The Academy Award-winning actor provides insight into his book ‘Greenlights,’ ‘cancel culture’ and whether there’s a political career for him in the future on the ‘Brian Kilmeade Radio Show.’
Matthew McConaughey is once again calling out the culture of latching onto extremes and going against ideas that don’t adhere to one’s perspective.
The actor made his argument during an appearance on SiriusXM’s Joel Osteen Radio and said that people in our country today simply don’t trust each other, don’t trust leadership as a whole and don’t know who to believe in.
“We are screaming at each other from across the chasm. It's not going to work. We all know that's not going to work,” McConaughey told radio host Victoria Osteen while discussing his new memoir, “Greenlights.”
“I get it. COVID, unemployment, cultural revolution, things being politicized, an election year. We needed identity and we were looking for purpose and our purpose had been pulled from us so we've latched on to certain extremes.”
Matthew McConaughey believes people are growing tired of the ongoing clash between conservatives and liberals. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
The “Dallas Buyers Club” performer said in his estimation, people are growing tired of the ongoing clash between conservatives, liberals and those who fall somewhere in the middle with their viewpoints on the world.
He added that if people come together and “shake hands” – albeit figuratively amid the coronavirus pandemic – “we're really starting to have a little buyer's remorse” with the constant schism many are experiencing socially and politically.
“And I think that's a good thing because I'm daring everyone to go, ‘Hey, we got to come back and meet in the middle a little bit here. We got to look each other in the eye and at least agree on a common denominator, set of shared values that we can agree on even if we vote on two different sides of the political aisle,’” said McConaughey.
“Even if we go to a different church, and different dominant denomination, there's a common set of values that we can agree on to at least bind our basic social contracts and expectations for ourselves and each other."
McConaughey pressed that in his view, the path to re-establishing the lost trust among belief systems, people and the leaders in our country is through faith and values and “our expectations of each other.”
“Those things that we can all agree on,” he said. “And that's what I hope for myself and everybody.”
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During his chat with the co-pastor of the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, the Oscar-winner also discussed his upbringing and where his development of faith and his relationship with God stems from.
“When you become friends with yourself, you become friends with God. And when you got God in your life, you've got a friend, and that friend is you,” the author said, adding that getting to that phase of realization “is something that takes daily maintenance.”
Matthew McConaughey discussed his relationship with God during a SiriusXM radio appearance with Victoria Osteen. (Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images)
“I also, in my faith journey have struggled or been always sort of hands in the clay with the definition of words, like humility and the value of that,” he pressed. “I always had trouble with humility because I would lose confidence when I was humble or I would be falsely modest. And then I heard a definition of humility being, knowing that you have more to learn and something about that definition, I was able to stand tall, keep my shoulders back my head up and still be humble and my heart high with that.”
Grappling with vulnerability and when to showcase that aspect of one’s self is an avenue of growth McConaughey said he is still currently working on, despite all of his meteoric success as a Hollywood staple and ambassador for the University of Texas Longhorn sports.
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“This is where what I really love to do in my spiritual journey is, when something's going on, either great success or great strife, we feel like we're the center of the universe. Like it's all just revolving around us. Just us. Nobody else. Completely original and it's all me,” he explained.
“But I like to pop up into the God's eye and have a look that sort of almost that Google Earth view, and have a look at the earth turning and see this, where am I on it? Here we are, here I am and then in that moment where I'm like, Oh, none of it matters… that's when I realized, that's why it all matters,” added the actor.
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McConaughey said being in a “vulnerable spot where you don't matter is where actually the ultimate power, the greatest power comes from.”
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“That for me, is that definition of humility that is clear when my faith is clear,” he added.
The full McConaughey interview airs Dec. 16 at 12 p.m. ET on Joel Osteen Radio.
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