I know. Your post was so dead-on that it struck a nerve
because it pisses me off that the government is the weather.
Everybody complains but nobody does anything about it, so the
best we can do is watch the weather reports and grab an
umbrella. I was pissed off at school for the same types of
reasons, even way back at 8-9 years old. Felt powerless. At 14,
I read Unschooling, "Why Johnny Can't Read", stuff about
Summerhill by Js Neill, and wanted to change school. Wrote
letters, started a group on the early Internet (1990) for
children's rights, with my main focus on changing or eliminating
school (although I allowed people to have other topics). A
couple of rights organizations followed. The [1]National Youth
Rights Association is one of them, so is [2]Taking Children
Seriously - the founders found each other in my group and split
off to form their own causes that they fight today. So, I feel
successful that I made _some_ change. I still work for change in
my own way. But the uphill battle is hard. Some people work
within official channels and for them, I'm grateful because
there's a lot of mazes to go through for that. Subversive
efforts seem to work best though. I mean, you're right: Educate
people. Let them know they're not alone. It's not that people
"don't know". They know. There's no sheep here. They KNOW IT
SUCKS. Every kid knows that school sucks. They just bend over
and deal with it. Every adult knows that government and
corporations are problematic, that lawyers are a regretful
necessity and other things like that. People AREN'T idiots, even
if they appear to be. So it's not waking people up. It's letting
them know they're not alone. THEN... once you've got them
knowing they're not alone, you discuss to find ways to fix the
problem. You don't have special secret knowledge that few know
about. You don't. Every adult 18 - death knows this stuff at
some level. But once you get people's attention, you gotta go
beyond a pity party at some point. That's all. Sorry for the
rant. It just takes a lot of effort to stay positive about
things I can't do a damn thing about right now, which includes
everything you mentioned and then some. Most of the people that
seem to be "asleep" are just coping as best they can. -- Thanks
man. I keep this stuff bottled up and stay positive because I
don't have much choice atm. When i see people wearing business
suits, white shirts and ties and painted on smiles going to work
each day to support their families, they have my greatest
sympathies because they haven't shot themselves yet. The
greatest heroes aren't always the ones making the rallying cries
for change; it's the unknown ones that try to make the best of
the shit piled around them and keep smiling. They're plenty
awake - so awake they can't afford to close their eyes for a
single moment. So awake at the horrors around them they can't
even speak it and are forced to pretend "it's all ok" for the
sake of others' sanities. The quiet ones make change where they
can.. in the ways that they can. For a kid, maybe all they can
manage is getting their homework finished that night. For an
adult, maybe successfully doing their taxes, or managing to
write a check for their rent or mortgage payment. Do they dream
of overthrowing the school or government? In the quiet moments
when they allow themselves to do so, I have no doubt that they
do. The rest of the time, it's coping 'til you get burnt up and
tossed into the air or stuck in an urn, or buried into the
ground, plasticized, and hoping that SOMETHING you did in your
life _might_ actually have benefited somebody else in the
future.... some little piece carries forward into a future where
they're not there. *sigh* - sorry about that. I'm the nice-guy
who is always smiling and staying positive for the sake of
others, so they can express themselves and be all nutty and loud
without having to worry about the things I have to worry about.
But I know they have their worries too, and I know there's
people worrying about me that I don't know about. We're cogs in
wheels and if we escape one machine, we join another. The fight
is worthy though.
References
Visible links
1.
https://www.facebook.com/YouthRights/?hc_location=ufi
2.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Taking-Children-Seriously/103854562987205?hc_location=ufi
