“Eat the Rich” is a great song by Aerosmith… Anyway.
Sometimes I get pretty peeved at “the man.” I get fed up with the way the world is. And I wish I could do more about it, but how can you focus your frustration when there are so many things to complain about, and how can you gather forces when you don’t know who exactly “the man” is? Lately there has been a lot of talk about the Occupy Wall Street movement, which is getting pretty big despite the skepticism of Fox and Friends. But what are Occupiers hoping to change? Big banks aren’t going to redraft their constitution and decrease the pay of CEOs just because people are camped outside their building. The Tea Party movement was successful — they affected some change and got some people in office — because they were corporately sponsored. The puppeteers of the Partiers definitely don’t have a problem with Capitalism, they just don’t want to be told where to put their money.
So I would be more on the side of the Wall Street protestors, although I think they should have started a long time ago, back when Wall Street corruption was the center of everyone’s attention (with all that Fannie May Freddie Sachs whatever). I wonder, why now? And I wonder, what can they really accomplish? A friend of mine said it would make a bigger impression if all those people suddenly withdrew their money from the banks and investments. I don’t know — but I think the world is starting to shift, and maybe the protests are helping to speed up the shifting. Which is something, anyway.
People are comparing the U.S. protests to Libya and Egypt, but our protests will most likely not get that violent (at least, hopefully not) with tanks and rocks and such. And no money and no violence = no abrupt change, usually. But it is good to see the people using their voices; maybe more of us will join in.
But if I could join in, I’m not sure what my poster would say. There are so many things I want to change about the world, and most of those things are so deeply rooted in our society that it would take a lot of digging to yank them out.
I want to change the way we do business, the way we travel, the way we organize our politics, the way we educate, the way we spend our free time, the way we spend our money, the way we think.
Our priorities are f@%ed up.
Economy > Environment
Corporations > People
Efficiency > Hospitality
Men > Women (feminism! woo!)
And I say “we” because I am not an outside judge, because I am a part of the society, a part of the system, a part of the world — because I have to be a part of it, in order to survive.
I read an interesting blog post today (and I never read blogs, but I think I should maybe quit Ebay and surf blogs instead). She was talking about how, realistically, if I take shorter showers and recycle it doesn’t really matter, because the oil will spill regardless, and industries will keep on making millions of plastic doo-dads to be sold at Dollar Stores across the country and then thrown away into the oceans.
That doesn’t mean we should stop caring.
Here are some direct quotes: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/06/forget-shorter-showers-i-dont-think-so/
“Of course, I don’t think that my shorter showers are helping these people directly with their water woes, but my sense of conservation makes me value my own easy access to clean water. And it helps me see water as something precious that everyone on the planet is not fortunate to possess with such ease and reliability.
It teaches me empathy toward my fellow human beings.
To become an activist, one has to put the mask on oneself first before attempting to assist other passengers on the planet.”
Nicely put! So I’m wondering what I can do because I’m not really doing much besides riding my bike (which is more fun anyway) and buying used clothing (which is more fun anyway). I’m going back to college to be a teacher, and the more I learn about the “norms” accepted by our education system, the more I question my choice in career (or choice in country). I mean, it’s not that bad — I really do like that we are leaning away from the authoritarian lecture style to more learner-centered, but we focus WAY too much on standardized tests. And then I found out how companies are making millions of dollars from creating/distributing tests like the ACT and GRE. Which means with so much money backing standardized testing, it makes it a lot harder to question their legitimacy. And maybe you could argue that these tests have a very useful and important purpose in screening “dummies” out of college, but I personally hate them and would like to collect all the placement tests in the country and set them on fire.
Oh man I’ve really digressed. My point is, if I don’t agree with the education system, then I suppose I should either A: stay away from it or B: try to change it from the inside. Woo! Revolutionary. Just kidding, I’m too quiet to be a good revolutionist.
Nothing gets their attention like a play on words
And I can also sneak in my political agenda while I’m teaching my students! Bwahaha. Kidding, again. But I can encourage students to open their minds, yes? To challenge them to re-think their beliefs (and by that I mean everything, not so much religious beliefs). It starts with the minds, man! But I don’t know how many minds I can open if the subject I plan to teach is second language. Ah… I guess I can find a way.
Civil disobedience! It’s so fun.
