I read this quote in an article on CNN today from a man named David Simon. I don’t know who he is at all, but it inspired me to write:
“America will soon belong to the men and women … who can comfortably walk into a room and accept with real comfort the sensation that … there are no real majorities, only pluralities and coalitions.
“Those who relied on entitlement and division to command power will either be obliged to accept the changes, or retreat to the gated communities from which they wish to wax nostalgic and brood on political irrelevance.”
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As I get older, I self diagnose myself as excessively idealistic. This, I am quite sure, is more commonly referred to as “getting old”; the unwavering process of acknowledging that all of us individuals are just little mice scurrying around the giant thumping feet of the obese beast known as REALITY. Reality of course being a collective creation made by all of us, like a giant uncontrollable Ouija board.
I picture the powerful villain Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas, a giant being controlled by thousands of tiny bug.
That being said, despite crushing blows from the real world, I still consider myself to be an idealist. And for this reason, I think that real, tangible political understandings and implications have (to a degree) always eluded me. And I suspect they always will.
I preface my writings with this warning, I guess, because of what I’m about to say.
As an American just watching from the geographical back row in Belgium, this round of elections has made me excited. Not at all for the re-election of Obama and the dismissal of Romney (that, on the contrary, was very discouraging), but because of the social change that seems to be finally taking root in the majority of the country.
Accepting the diversity of sexual orientations, race, familial origins and religions, pushing against restrictions on abortion and marijuana, making sure that the nitty gritty rules reflect our own personal beliefs… this election cycle, in many ways, has realized the public reaffirmation of some of my own personal ideals and I suspect some of yours as well.
Yes, America has a lot of problems. Everyone has problems (I gorge on Speculoos cream from the jar with a tea spoon in the privacy of my bedroom… I’m doing it as I write this). But at the very least, we can say that we are pushing social change forward. That fat, boarish, sluggish, lumbering, aforementioned beast Reality looks to be speeding up a bit.
If I just introduced you to this ambrosia, I may have just ruined your life.
Take note, Occupy movement: this is how change actually occurs. Showing up. Being decisive about what you believe in and encouraging others to take political action. Sitting around discussing the disparity in the distribution of wealth (or how much The Man sucks) in a hodgepodge of pertinent and impertinent issues in front of some dude’s house isn’t the way to solve your problems. It may be a good start to a solution, but not the solution itself. This advice comes from a man who formally emails candy companies when they discontinue a product, so I know a thing or two about complaining.
Occupy, we get it more than you think.
Maybe it’s just my midday crisis talking, but it’s starting to feel like American citizens are lighting a fire under the ass of Reality, willing it forward at a more rapid pace into the direction it has always been headed towards – social advancement. If you ever question what America’s role in the world is today, if our economic power is waining, if our politic grip is slipping, remember that our role is to be the light of pluralism and social betterment.
I can’t believe I just wrote that…