Brain vomit, more or less
My conversation with Jayleen the other night is still sort of worming around in my brain. We talked about my rather odd dreams of late, of running for political office. President of course comes to mind, but as we talked, I realized that this, like the Followers, is really not about the result and more about what the effort, what the action, does to people.
See, thing is, I don't really care about being in office. I don't really care about becoming a Senator or President or whatever. What I care about is the country, the fact that the government is so out of tune with what people really want. Sure, those with money can get their voices heard loud and clear, but is that really enough? Since those represent a relatively small percentage of the population...
At the same time, those without money and without political voice are usually there because they are lazy, or stupid. And I mean that not offensively, but honestly. The individual is generally decent at managing things, but people in general, the populace, are dumb. Easily led. Easily manipulated. Easily swayed.
So maybe the fact that these people aren't represented is a good thing. Their demands, their desires, are usually so selfish and short-sighted that it ends up harming even themselves in the long run.
But what about the rest of us? Those who don't vote because they are intelligent enough to see how broken the political system in America really is? Sure, the ignorant and unintelligent aren't represented, and may never be. Aren't served very well. But those who recognize that third-party votes are wasted, and thus don't vote to begin with? Don't even try because it's such a lost cause to make your voice truly count, rather than getting washed out in a sea of party-line bullshit?
There may not be a solution. But someone with the guts to challenge the dichotomies and walk in the middle somewhere, someone who could do it well and with the right targeting...someone who wasn't very wealthy and still made a good campaign...I think this person, while not actually getting elected, could help start a shift in the paradigm that extended far beyond their life.
Sound familiar? It should. My desires with the Followers are identical. Not necessarily to see the day when nationwide events are held with Christian rock concerts every night, or to get to the point where I could live from city to city, training different chapters and being something of a modern-day apostle...but to start forming what could someday become that movement, that system.
I want to start a revolution. I want to start a reinvention. I want to be a catalyst for real change, for change that shifts towards the middle of the road rather than always being shoved into one box, black or white, Right or Left, Sinner or Saint. I want to help people open their eyes, open their minds, see the world more for what it truly is...a chaotic mixture of numerous influences, nothing simple or direct or boxed. I want people to have power, to know they have power. For government to be afraid of its people, for leaders to be accountable to their followers.
I can't fix America. Hell, I can't even really fix my own life. And my theories and ideas and beliefs aren't shared by everyone, and may be flawed sometimes anyway...so I have no real answers. What I have is passion and a fairly strong belief that things could be better if enough people rallied together and demanded that they change.
It's happening in Egupt. It's happening in Libya. And the only reason it isn't happening here is likely that we're so comfortable and lazy that we just don't feel the need. The mess we have is good enough, and we are even comfortable just comlaining about it because that unites us in a way. We all hate the gov't for being so messed up, we all hate politicians for being so greedy and corrupt and selfish and sold out. We all hate the President for not doing exactly what we think he should do, even though we voted him into office somehow (in the case of Obama, it was a pretty serious victory, too...I don't think it was a landslide, but it was a sound defeat for McCain. Hours before the polls closed, he had already won).
I have to ask. Where does it all come from? Why do officials keep getting elected and then hated? Why does the system not work?
And more importantly (by exponential degrees of magnitude), what can be done to fix it?
This is what drives me these days...though where it is driving me and to what end, I can't say. I'm working through school, asking questions of those who are willing to listen and help...and waiting for the next step of my life to become more clear. Some would say that I should start working NOW, that I shouldn't wait for whatever is next but make my present and my future more of one thing than two separate things.
They're probably right. At the same time, the truth is I AM working on it. Just not physically. I'm brainstorming pretty aggressively. Watching. Listening. Thinking. Porcessing. And in the case of the Followers, forming a couple connections that may someday soon lead to the start of the second chapter.
Until I have a better idea of what I'm facing politically, I don't want to start forming a political movement, even if the movement is just myself. I need to learn more first.
I don't really get my life. My brain. I'm finding as school goes on and I start digging deeper into some things, I have a lot more mental energy and intelligence than I thought, and I'm starting to wonder how I could control it more. It seems to be going in so many different directions. Makes me wonder if I'll ever really accomplish anything. So much going on at once, nothing is really getting particularly strong focus.
But then, nothing has demanded it yet. Nothing so far has required my full attention. My favorite example of the week: my cultural anthropology mid-term of 5 shot-answer/essay type questions took me 15 minutes, because I had all the answers so strongly already. Because each question just flowed out of me.
I belong in college more than I did at Wal-mart, that's damn certain. I'm starting to look forward to whatever comes after FRCC, something that challenges me more. I hope I can rise to it...I really haven't been rising to FRCC, even such as it has ASKED of me (asked and demanded being different things. I'm surviving my poli sci class just fine, but I'd be excelling if I were actually doing the homework and reading the book and such).
Damn laziness.
Ok, I'm off to bed.
See, thing is, I don't really care about being in office. I don't really care about becoming a Senator or President or whatever. What I care about is the country, the fact that the government is so out of tune with what people really want. Sure, those with money can get their voices heard loud and clear, but is that really enough? Since those represent a relatively small percentage of the population...
At the same time, those without money and without political voice are usually there because they are lazy, or stupid. And I mean that not offensively, but honestly. The individual is generally decent at managing things, but people in general, the populace, are dumb. Easily led. Easily manipulated. Easily swayed.
So maybe the fact that these people aren't represented is a good thing. Their demands, their desires, are usually so selfish and short-sighted that it ends up harming even themselves in the long run.
But what about the rest of us? Those who don't vote because they are intelligent enough to see how broken the political system in America really is? Sure, the ignorant and unintelligent aren't represented, and may never be. Aren't served very well. But those who recognize that third-party votes are wasted, and thus don't vote to begin with? Don't even try because it's such a lost cause to make your voice truly count, rather than getting washed out in a sea of party-line bullshit?
There may not be a solution. But someone with the guts to challenge the dichotomies and walk in the middle somewhere, someone who could do it well and with the right targeting...someone who wasn't very wealthy and still made a good campaign...I think this person, while not actually getting elected, could help start a shift in the paradigm that extended far beyond their life.
Sound familiar? It should. My desires with the Followers are identical. Not necessarily to see the day when nationwide events are held with Christian rock concerts every night, or to get to the point where I could live from city to city, training different chapters and being something of a modern-day apostle...but to start forming what could someday become that movement, that system.
I want to start a revolution. I want to start a reinvention. I want to be a catalyst for real change, for change that shifts towards the middle of the road rather than always being shoved into one box, black or white, Right or Left, Sinner or Saint. I want to help people open their eyes, open their minds, see the world more for what it truly is...a chaotic mixture of numerous influences, nothing simple or direct or boxed. I want people to have power, to know they have power. For government to be afraid of its people, for leaders to be accountable to their followers.
I can't fix America. Hell, I can't even really fix my own life. And my theories and ideas and beliefs aren't shared by everyone, and may be flawed sometimes anyway...so I have no real answers. What I have is passion and a fairly strong belief that things could be better if enough people rallied together and demanded that they change.
It's happening in Egupt. It's happening in Libya. And the only reason it isn't happening here is likely that we're so comfortable and lazy that we just don't feel the need. The mess we have is good enough, and we are even comfortable just comlaining about it because that unites us in a way. We all hate the gov't for being so messed up, we all hate politicians for being so greedy and corrupt and selfish and sold out. We all hate the President for not doing exactly what we think he should do, even though we voted him into office somehow (in the case of Obama, it was a pretty serious victory, too...I don't think it was a landslide, but it was a sound defeat for McCain. Hours before the polls closed, he had already won).
I have to ask. Where does it all come from? Why do officials keep getting elected and then hated? Why does the system not work?
And more importantly (by exponential degrees of magnitude), what can be done to fix it?
This is what drives me these days...though where it is driving me and to what end, I can't say. I'm working through school, asking questions of those who are willing to listen and help...and waiting for the next step of my life to become more clear. Some would say that I should start working NOW, that I shouldn't wait for whatever is next but make my present and my future more of one thing than two separate things.
They're probably right. At the same time, the truth is I AM working on it. Just not physically. I'm brainstorming pretty aggressively. Watching. Listening. Thinking. Porcessing. And in the case of the Followers, forming a couple connections that may someday soon lead to the start of the second chapter.
Until I have a better idea of what I'm facing politically, I don't want to start forming a political movement, even if the movement is just myself. I need to learn more first.
I don't really get my life. My brain. I'm finding as school goes on and I start digging deeper into some things, I have a lot more mental energy and intelligence than I thought, and I'm starting to wonder how I could control it more. It seems to be going in so many different directions. Makes me wonder if I'll ever really accomplish anything. So much going on at once, nothing is really getting particularly strong focus.
But then, nothing has demanded it yet. Nothing so far has required my full attention. My favorite example of the week: my cultural anthropology mid-term of 5 shot-answer/essay type questions took me 15 minutes, because I had all the answers so strongly already. Because each question just flowed out of me.
I belong in college more than I did at Wal-mart, that's damn certain. I'm starting to look forward to whatever comes after FRCC, something that challenges me more. I hope I can rise to it...I really haven't been rising to FRCC, even such as it has ASKED of me (asked and demanded being different things. I'm surviving my poli sci class just fine, but I'd be excelling if I were actually doing the homework and reading the book and such).
Damn laziness.
Ok, I'm off to bed.