Letter to a 1989 baby
1989 was a turning point. THIS year equates. As we struggle, the past repeating/reclaiming itself, the “political will” transferred to us by our spirited kin, we’re evolving/morphing into the sorts of people that’d actually be invited to participate in/join a “federation” of Earth’s creatures. Or, to un-romanticise it, we’re finally developing consciences and understanding the true nature/value of what it means to be human and to live to protect what you love. It’s as uncomfortable and brutal as a rebirthing or reconditioning experience, and we’re all feeling each other’s collective pain as we have to — we have to go through it.
The existential crisis we love so much isn’t the be all to end all human condition — it’s a product of a departure from a meaning/essence corrupted and obscured from us at the advent of…call it Capitalism. Everyone of age currently on this planet is a product of it. Acknowledging we don’t know anything can be healing. But acknowledging we are only using a small percentage of our brain function/capacity is the opposite — the set-up is beguiling but is all wrong. After living a while beguiling becomes horrifying. The individual has to become collective. Then we reexamine from a collective perspective. A collective consciousness. And then we reach full capacity.
While I hope this doesn’t come off platatudeish or exaggerated, this birthday is serving me a whole lot in literally discovering I have a healthy functioning brain that does fit this reality. That’s because of the fact I am, we are, in a time where the dissonance/force fields are down, the tools are sharp, the will is strong, and ideas and semantics are finally converging to represent our present reality. The opportunity and the danger are both as pronounced as ever. As I’ve observed lots of people writing — “the war we anticipated is not what we expected, it’s on our home turf.” So in other words we’re finally accountable, we’re finally able to exert our pent up political will and castigate the repressive/misguided “freedom” wielding institutions as feverorusly as one has to when presented with a near and eminent threat. And while the most corrupt of institutions/factions of strong-arm governments are actively trying to suppress this rise in united action, in citizen participation, we’re adapting and improving our strategies as the days go by. The same can be said of the top, but as the top engages, my belief is that this highly charged, friction potent, push and pull between the sides will see us converging — where the emergence of a more adept and united social class with more solutions than grievances will give rise to a need for participatory governance. Governments will have to extend their counsel to the third estate. They’ll have reason to by then.
For whatever it’s worth, knowing whatever extra airtime I have here today can be put to good use, please, if you can, donate to the cause you’ve been thinking about donating to but haven’t yet, or lookup the people who’ve been spending their free time educating you these past weeks and donate to THEIR causes, the community groups/businesses feeding and supporting protestors on the ground, the coalitions protecting journalists on the front lines, the advocacy groups fighting for imprisoned political dissidents, the pro bono organisations fighting for repeals of wrongfully convicted persons…Whatever moves us in the direction of true justice and away from the system we’re grappling at untangling ourselves from and reforming. Whatever air you can pump in these groups that haven’t had a chance to surface for it because their hands are tied carving out a future worth living would make sense.
Social capital is worth more than ever. Paying it forward, laterally, and fortifying so that we’re not tinder to the fire trying to burn us in our tracks, is literally a means of survival.
