Tuesday, February 24, 2004
One Charismatic Leader
Things are so complicated. My trip to Boston was absolutely fabulous. It was so great to get out of my small college town for a couple days. It was wonderful to see a different skyline, new faces, and to fly. I love flying.
I had this really fascinating discussion with my English Professor. We were talking about social change, specifically with regard to poverty in the USA. There are millions of people living in poverty today. Did you know that? Are you aware of their suffering? Of the corners they have to cut just to make ends meet? Of the hard, endless hours of work that still, for some odd reason, aren't enough to live off of? It's horrid, it's awful, it's dehumanizing, it's real, but it's so invisible.
We talked about the political system. The income and wealth gaps in the country. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. How many times have you heard that already? Well, and what does that mean? We're just not talking about the benjamins. We're talking about health, about living conditions, about (gosh this might get me into some deep water, but...) the extent to which some people can pursue happiness. And how are we going to fix that? We ought to know better than living in a system where we live comfortably off of the sweat of someone else.
The problem is, when people try to start talking about solutions, it's hard to get passed the stage of awkward silence. How are YOU, one person, going to change the system. How are YOU going to make the lives of millions of people better? Is that maybe even an irrelevant question to be asking? I don't know... I hope not. But then again, what can be done? It's easy to toss around ideas like improving the educational system, promoting Medicaid, childcare services, and other necessary social services. But how can we get that done when we need to rely on the government for that stuff? It can take forever! We're talking about mass social change. Total social reconstruction. Tear the fabric apart and piece it back together in a way that makes better sense. I don't know... People just seem so disillusioned these days.
"No," my professor said. She thinks things are on the verge of revolution.
"Woha, are you serious?" I mean, it's not like I walk around the and can see or sense the premonitions of a revolution. People don't seem to be plotting or planning anything major. In fact the poor and unhappy seem to locked down and powerless to amass lots of power, and gosh... doesn't that whole idea of revolution sound kind of Marxist anyway?
"No," she replied, "people are very disgruntled these days. It's in the air. We have reached the point where all it will take is one charismatic leader."
"One charismatic leader..." I repeated hypnotically. Doesn't that sounds so... I don't know... deep?
There you have it... All it will take is one charismatic to change the USA, if not the world. ONE charismatic leader. It could be you. Will you heed the call?
I had this really fascinating discussion with my English Professor. We were talking about social change, specifically with regard to poverty in the USA. There are millions of people living in poverty today. Did you know that? Are you aware of their suffering? Of the corners they have to cut just to make ends meet? Of the hard, endless hours of work that still, for some odd reason, aren't enough to live off of? It's horrid, it's awful, it's dehumanizing, it's real, but it's so invisible.
We talked about the political system. The income and wealth gaps in the country. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. How many times have you heard that already? Well, and what does that mean? We're just not talking about the benjamins. We're talking about health, about living conditions, about (gosh this might get me into some deep water, but...) the extent to which some people can pursue happiness. And how are we going to fix that? We ought to know better than living in a system where we live comfortably off of the sweat of someone else.
The problem is, when people try to start talking about solutions, it's hard to get passed the stage of awkward silence. How are YOU, one person, going to change the system. How are YOU going to make the lives of millions of people better? Is that maybe even an irrelevant question to be asking? I don't know... I hope not. But then again, what can be done? It's easy to toss around ideas like improving the educational system, promoting Medicaid, childcare services, and other necessary social services. But how can we get that done when we need to rely on the government for that stuff? It can take forever! We're talking about mass social change. Total social reconstruction. Tear the fabric apart and piece it back together in a way that makes better sense. I don't know... People just seem so disillusioned these days.
"No," my professor said. She thinks things are on the verge of revolution.
"Woha, are you serious?" I mean, it's not like I walk around the and can see or sense the premonitions of a revolution. People don't seem to be plotting or planning anything major. In fact the poor and unhappy seem to locked down and powerless to amass lots of power, and gosh... doesn't that whole idea of revolution sound kind of Marxist anyway?
"No," she replied, "people are very disgruntled these days. It's in the air. We have reached the point where all it will take is one charismatic leader."
"One charismatic leader..." I repeated hypnotically. Doesn't that sounds so... I don't know... deep?
There you have it... All it will take is one charismatic to change the USA, if not the world. ONE charismatic leader. It could be you. Will you heed the call?
