137
by cakes
I was asked the question of what is the ray of hope in all of this. I've been thinking about this a lot, reading a lot on the subject, reading and listening to opinions. I have to say, that the ray of hope I found was fucked up and terrifying. This country has a curtain around it, where we can feel proud that we see ourselves as a free and helpful nation, a beacon of light that some have explained it to be. The reality is America has always been evil, and for the most part, power is evil and most nations are inherently evil in that respect. We have a terrible history, that we white wash in our nostalgia. We have gotten very imperialist after the Civil War, and before that we were a slave owning nation. It's fucked up shit, hidden behind this shiny curtain that makes us all feel good. But, this curtain is being pulled back. Some of us suspected it, knew it, ignored it, or experienced its evil firsthand. But our truth is becoming inescapable to all of us now.
Despite all this, the trend has been upward on social progress. Laws are the making of man and those that wield the power. It is also a reflection on who we are. There are peaks and valleys on our rights and freedoms in relation to this. The downward trend has been happening slowly for decades now, and we are on a roller coaster ride to the bottom of a valley. We only read about these in history, this is first hand experience for many, especially those who've taken what they've had for granted. For those that have been oppressed, it is not new and we now stand with them in seeing behind the curtain.
The ray of hope is that what we are experiencing is not a new experience. It is the cycle of power between those that have it and those who do not. Those peaks where things are good, they are ahead of us. They may be years, maybe generations away. If we look back at history as a guide, we know that progress is an upward trend, even if we may not see that trend come back in our lifetime.
Civil rights it is very nascent in the story of human civilization. Shit, we got equality marriage not even a decade ago. I grew up, probably like most of you, taking it all for granted. What we are seeing is the a cultural blow back from a those who refuse to move forward... a blow back still fueled by the ghosts of a civil war over 260 years ago, and a civil rights movement that began over 50 years ago. We've come a long way in our lifetimes, but not very long in the history of civilization.
I don't regret bringing a child into this world. I feel like it is our moral imperative as parents to teach our children to be better than us. Teach them to fight for what is good. Teach them to stand up against tyranny, in any form. It is our moral imperative to not to give into the feeling of powerlessness when the systems of power are trying to crush us. We can let the rubes win by opting out, our we can let our voices be heard, continually, as each new generation emerges.
Its fucked up, it will always be fucked up, but we can't hide the lie anymore.