Create Your Wave

It is no secret that I am a progressive, liberal-minded individual. I am, however, no Democrat. Despite this, I would be lying to say that I am not pleased with last night's midterm election results. The United States government has been devouring itself and the greater good of mankind (environment, wealth distribution, war, ect.) for many, many years. I don't, however, think that the gluttony is a result of Republicans, Democrats, or Republicrats; rather, the gluttony is the result of a taciturn, satiated American public that is allowing the government to become a voracious monster. What happened in last night's elections was not, in my eyes, a victory for the Democratic Party -- it was a victory for change. We need change. And we need it now. Excuse that bumper-stickered expression, but in a technological age that has advanced the human race into a global society, the ramifications of bumptious nationalism and raw ignorance have much more potency than they did even 20 years ago. As the most powerful nation on the planet -- at least in terms of wealth, innovation, and technology -- it is our mandate to embrace our anemic planet. We have not been doing that. Instead, corruption has unwound the threads that bind our country's integrity, and as a result of our incredible power, has destabilize the entire planet. Corruption has even infected the meaning of Freedom: "the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint" (Oxford dictionary). After reading that and considering our current plight, it is clear that freedom is not necessarily granted if you are poor, gay, atheist, Native American...

I don't, however, think America or any other governed people have ever been truly "free". The human being is just too fallible. But that should not prevent us from trying. In recent years, freedom has been regressing, not progressing. Most of this effect is the result of the nicely packaged hysteria sold as "9/11". I fear that governments have learned from the Nazi regime, but not in a way to prevent such atrocities from happening again; rather, they have learned how to make the atrocities invisible. Why force away freedom if you can convince the public to vote it away? In our current president's own words, "You are either for us or against us". This is not too dissimilar from "You are a traitor if you don't support the president," which, of course, sounds a lot like the propaganda from a particular 20th Century nationalist government. But that type of rhetoric was precisely the chant following 9/11 and it continues to persist today...or at least until yesterday. I now see a crack, a glimmer of hope -- not a "wave" as many political pundits are dubbing -- but a change nonetheless. The salt in this sweet drink is that the "change" voted on yesterday is likely embodied by more homogeneous, robotic republocrats that will waste time hitting back on the playground while America continues its obscene feast on Planet Earth.

But I am an optimist, especially about the potential of the American people. I urge you to be active in upcoming political endeavors. It is important; it is your mandate. Apathy, while inert in primitive, local villages, is too dangerous in our technological, global village. So please step with care. Don't be duped by what you are sold by your church, your cable television, your gasoline automobile, your "conveniences". Someone, somewhere is collecting your debt in the form of war, hunger, disease, and death. In the cautionary words of Voltaire, "Those that can convince you of absurdities can make you commit atrocities". America is unfortunately being convinced of a plethora of absurdities and committing numerous atrocites. But you can help change that.

And so I leave you with the wisdom of Gandhi as a mantra for our future: "Be The Change You Want To See In The World". Godspeed America.