Dear America, actions speak louder than words. Sincerely, the human being formerly content with being a passive consumer.
Honestly, when are we going to figure it out? Are we not all sick and tired of being sick and tired? Or, are we too wrapped up in our own narratives to even take a step back and acknowledge the gravity of the situation? Are we consumed by fear? Are we consumed by passions, pleasures and perversion? Risk aversion? Are we acknowledging reality or just creating diversions? Subconsciously delaying the inevitable while secretly praying for mass conversion?
We idolize revolutionaries like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Che, but when it comes time to speak out like they did, we forget what to say. I understand Rome wasn’t built in a day, but if we Neros are just going to fiddle while it burns, then that’s a tune I can’t play. All that is to say that today is the day. A house divided amongst itself cannot stand — just ask Honest Abe.
If you have no idea what I am talking about at this point, that is fine. I am being intentionally vague. The point of this mental exercise is just to get the question ball rolling. Day after day waves of disaffected malcontents emerge, cut from the same pseudo-anarchical cloth as that of Edgar Allen Poe, Thoreau and Emerson to help shed light on the human condition, and we, the devoted pupils, applaud their creativity, acknowledge their validity yet refuse to follow that up with any sort of activity.
Instead we resort to living vicariously through characters carelessly thrown together in board rooms by people who couldn’t care less if the masses ever leave their couches, so long as they remain current on the payments on their houses and make regular donations to their cash pouches.
From time to time (hint: election years), we are stirred to action, yet we almost always opt for creating factions, then insist upon arguing over the petty details of various distractions instead of sitting down and actually trying to make change happen.
But what do we expect? In a world where mass media profits from the schisms we create, it makes sense that divisiveness is what they’d exacerbate. Instead of coming together as a unit, because there is power in numbers, we divide and there we remain, polarized and torn asunder.
We each do one another a huge disservice when we close ourselves to opposing views. We all come from different backgrounds and can’t be expected to always see eye to eye, but we can be expected to treat one another with respect — the kind of respect that acknowledges both the autonomy and emotional character of another human being.
That is the first step, and actions speak louder than words.
The next time you have a visceral response to someone’s position, step back and ask yourself why you feel that way, or consider why they believe what they believe. Maybe even ask yourself if, when you are in a conversation with someone, you are actually listening, or just waiting to talk. If presented with new evidence to a problem, do you change your position, or automatically reject it if it isn’t consistent with what you believe? Have you ever seriously considered the very real possibility that you could be wrong? That perhaps you could actually learn from someone else?
Each day, people all over the world pour their hearts out and attempt to move people. From social media activism to op-eds in a humble student publication, there is always someone there pleading with you to see it their way. Maybe it’s time we granted that wish.
The point to be made here is essentially that, at the end of the day, we are all playing for the same team — yes, I mean humanity — so we must find common ground, and it is clear that this is not an option. I concede that this task is like a mountain in front of us, but the beauty of this country is that we are able to climb it, because if we don’t, the only change we can count on seeing is that of the climate.
