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In reply to the discussion: I refuse to let cynicism make me bitter.. [View all]F4lconF16
(3,747 posts)I'm done with incremental change. I don't have the time. I and others my age (and really, many, many others) are going to be here when climate change kicks into high gear.
In the streets, blacks, the homeless and poor, and the mentally ill are getting assaulted on a daily basis. They're being incarcerated for years and years because of worthless drug policies designed to oppress them. They don't have time for incremental change.
I'm sure the thousands (if not millions) of dead and wounded in the middle east that we are responsible for appreciate your optimism. I'm sure they're just fine with the fact that it's taken us over a decade to get our guns out of their faces...kindofnotreally. The children that we have made fear the blue sky they live under actually love us, don'tcha know?
I'll bet that the women who are losing all their protections under the law are just fine with incremental change. Not like all that incremental change is being trashed before our eyes because your incremental change was worse than useless elsewhere.
Our education system, our infrastructure, our social safety nets--those are all falling apart, but hey guys, it's okay! We'll fix it through incremental change. It's worked really well over the last 50 years.
Our political system wasn't devised by the uber-rich owners of capital back in the beginnings of our country's history and specifically designed to oppress and divide the labor class--nah, we have our Founding (and Benevolent) Father (Figure) democracy(tm)!
America!
You go ahead with your incremental change. It's somehow managed to get us almost nowhere except on a few issues, and even those, barely so. I'm not playing this game. You play the game, you lose. They're winning right now. Your incremental positive changes are pathetic in comparison to the total dismantlement of even an appearance of democracy in this country. (And I say that recognizing full well how far we have come on issues like gay marriage--something that even now is being attacked. Sad part is, that's just marriage. Not even equality.)
Every moment you don't take to the streets to fight this, every moment you waste waiting for that next little bit of change is a moment that those with wealth and power are laughing at you.
Call me bitter, call me pessimistic. I don't care. I live in the reality of the world that is literally hell on earth for millions. I live in the reality of a world that doesn't pretend we're somehow going to be just fine when in fact we are deathly ill. I live in a world where I don't have the privilege to say, "Wait." I live in a world where perfection isn't the goal, but human decency is.
I don't have the time. Neither do billions around the globe.
I am not bitter--I'm fucking angry. Really, really fucking angry, and I burn with the smoldering heat of oppression that will eventually ignite a firestorm.
I'm not fighting the symptoms of a sick system. I'm fighting the entire corrupt oppressive system itself.
It's time for a goddamn revolution, and I'm proud to say I will stand in solidarity with men and women around the globe. I will speak up and our voices combined will be heard, like so many movements before us.
Hear us cry,
Enough!