I am preternaturally good at reducing any problem to its lowest, common denominator. In Math? Oh stars, no. Not in math. In everything EXCEPTING math. And it occurs to me (finally!) what “my problem” is: Humans do not want this in any form, shape, or way. We are stunningly unwilling to ‘do the work’ of herding change into the chute.
As I sit here and observe “proper form of aging” (i.e., “Go over there, sit in the corner, try not to be too much hassle, and be glad we remember to feed and water you.”), it is comical to me how much of my life I wasted trying to help humans with things they have no interest in knowing any longer than it takes to hand it to someone else for a quick buck.
Do I sound unreasonably angry? Tell you what, talk to me again when you’re nearing 60 and the most any other human on the planet can be bothered to say to you is, “Ok, Boomer.” 1. I’m not a boomer, I’m Gen X, and 2. Moms like me are the reason you’re righteously angry and actually have a slender chance to change the world today.
Who taught you that identity is chosen, not dispensed?
Who taught you how to look around and see things happen and know in your deepest heart what is “right or wrong”?
Who taught you how to think critically, and warned you to be on the lookout for those who try to incite you emotionally?
Who taught you how to raise hell without getting arrested? And how to turn it to your advantage when that fails?
Who taught you where to speak to assure your voice is heard, how to organize and execute?
This list of questions is exponentially longer than I have the patience to type. But we ARE the Generation that, seeing how intractable the culture and society continues to be, went silent, fell back to our families and friends, and had the seeding conversations that brought the harvest that is you, active, conscious, democratic, and engaged, into your majority.
Whether by our active and intentional efforts or by example of inaction and intentional laxity that didn’t go anywhere while we worked with you, our children, we assured the rooting concept of “this is not right” and “when I’m grown….” – you see, such lessons are everywhere and the validation rests in that regardless which of those experiences you have, you generally wind up here, where we are right now, insisting that change happen. Or else? Yeah, I think it may be that we’re at the “or else” moment.
And frankly, those are rare in our world, regardless how agitprop, propaganda, and agenda saturation in a largely overseer media domain make it sound.
Anyone watching can tell when the sentiment meter is pegging red line, as that’s when there is a sudden explosion of polarizing, factioning, and splintering “news” and “lifestyle” stories too curiously prone to wedging discourse from progression for things professing to be “market driven”, and too curiously funded to do other than draw increasing scrutiny.
“You”, the young, are making “them”, the old (nationalistic, authoritative, white supremacist, culture and society), worried.
This is A Good Thing™.
What remains is you successfully oust the dinosaurs working within the rotting corruption that is today’s “system”, or engage locally/regionally and simply outlive them to get to it.
But if you choose the latter, beware the insidious corruption that first presents as “compromise” because it is bad faith and ill motivation (gaining leverage by which to assure you “compromise” in future).
Get comfortable with your problem statement.
Learn the objections you are most likely to encounter and craft rational, logically sound rebuttal to each.
Do not wait for this government to listen…. they have proven they not only do not, but will only use what they can glean to addle, confuse, and distance you from solutions.
Use your critical thinking, ethical standards, and scientific method to craft solutions that can be implemented locally, then regionally, then nationally.
And while you do, register to vote, get your friends and family registered and EDUCATED on the preceding, and start organizing for access and assistance managing the next big hurdle they’re now erecting – voter aversion campaigns to make getting to the booth and proving your right to vote (!!) harder.
I’m going on (likely) permanent hiatus with what passes as “social media”. I’ll still let these posts auto-tweet there, but my days of screaming at the moon and trying to find the language to reach the unreachable are over. A brief foray into Twitter proved to me it’s another walled garden of brain-washing by advertisers and bad actors (state and individual) alike.
Who needs that? Not me. I’ve got my coffee, my cats, and my corner…. (wry grin)