Power to the people. But this society is set up to keep the power as far away from the people as possible.
Everywhere we are, there are agencies, institutions, traditions, mores, rules, roles, and expectations that do not serve us. Some of these serve some of us (the white, the well-educated, the moneyed, the male, etc.). And yet, we are made to feel that the problem is our selves, not our situation.
Realizing this, and making the accompanying mind shift, has provided me with a whole string of a-ha moments:
* That failed attempt to learn the guitar in high school? Not actually because I lack musical talent, or don’t have long enough fingers. I was trying to learn on a cheap mass-produced instrument (and mass-produced because everybody has dreams, in high school, of playing the guitar, and almost nobody succeeds, because mass-produced.)
* Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce? Not actually weakness, or moral failings, on the part of the couple. Maybe marriage, not to mention monogamy, not to mention romance, is not right for everybody.
* Hate your job? Of course work is awful. Why else would they have to bribe you to do it? A friend wrote this up for the Wild Rose Collective -- long story short, jobs aren’t designed for workers, they’re designed for making as much money as possible for the people who already have money.
The list could go on and on. Why do you go to school? Use shampoo? Drive a car? Use Facebook? Drink beer? Wear makeup? Wear clothes? Shop where you shop? Buy what you buy? Eat what you eat?
It’s not that this (any of it) is necessarily wrong, or bad, or something you need to give up. Who am I to tell you how to live? That’s not my intent. But who, honestly, is telling you how to live? Who are you listening to? Friends? Teachers? Advertisers? Talk show hosts? Advice columnists? Television shows? I wish for myself and for you, each in our own time, the wisdom and the space to learn to live -- for ourselves, with ourselves, and with each other.
To learn to live -- for it is learned, a skill developed over time, and today an uphill battle. “What I want” is polluted with influences, and more often than not, what I want is counter to my own self-interest. Not only that, it’s a zero-sum game: I not only want that, I want you not to have that. Sorting out what I do, and why I do what I do, is a full-time, lifetime project, and one that takes a good deal of attention.
To learn to live, finally. We’ve made it this far, and we’ve done some pretty big, exciting things: the Great Wall of China, the internet, representative democracy, heart transplants. We’re staying alive, and active, longer than we ever have before. Unfortunately, many of our most important and influential inventions and discoveries are systematically destroying all the good things we have to work with. (“Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources? Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear cut forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don’t ever let them call you a valuable natural resource! They’re going to strip mine your soul. They’re going to clear cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit, unless you learn to resist, because the profit system follows the path of least resistance and following the path of least resistance is what makes a river crooked!”*) It is time for us, as individuals, in whatever small groups we can muster, and as a culture, to stop focusing on all the things we can do, and begin trying to figure out just what it is we ought to do -- not according to some arcane higher power or moral order, but according to what will be necessary for us (and future generations) to continue living on this planet.
And finally -- but why? There will be those readers who question my motivations -- those for whom the system is working. Those who ignore, willfully or not, the warning signs that seem so obvious to me. Those who think I’m a youngster and a radical and that’s a phase I will outgrow (I pray I never stop growing. But let me assure you, I’m quiet, nondescript. I don’t like being the center of attention. I don’t adjust to change easily. I don’t pick fights. If there were anything other than radical that I could reasonably choose to be, I would be that instead. I’ve thought about this a long time and haven’t come up with anything.) Maybe those readers believe I am grinding away at some political axe (What if climate change is false and we clean up our air and water for no reason at all?) I don’t have much to say to these folks. I don’t want to fight.
There will also be those readers who nitpick at the details of my plan: But don’t you know how much carbon dioxide cross-country travel adds to the atmosphere? You claim to be interested in sustainable, healthy spaces but these places you speak of are [inaccessible/not scalable/just weird]. Don’t you know that kids are starving in Africa? To these readers I say: I’m learning. And I’m trying to do the best I can with my limited resources in this beautiful but sadly already-messed-up world. Individual actions are important, and I try to own mine. But the situation as I read it does not allow for me to stay at home, change out my lightbulbs, and be complacent about all the systemic, structural pressures that are destroying my -- our -- world.
And then some will respect my motivations, and trust my judgment on the details, and still say -- but why? How can you possibly expect to actually change anything, no matter how much you do, how hard you work? To these folks, I say, this fear is my own. Sometimes I am hopeless, and I don’t know what to do with it. I worry, after attaining a educational and professional status suitable for starting me down the road to comfortable middle-class respectability, that someday I’m going to screw it up, and thereby screw up the rest of my life. Other days, I worry that I won’t, and will end up living mundanely, with a solid 401(k) but without thought. It’s not a choice I would wish on anybody, but it seems to be the choice I am faced with.
* I heard this from Utah Phillips.
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