Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

That said, the ecstatic busts of genuine decency and cooperative, respectful human solidarity are so precious they justify infinite struggle. From the indomitable inquiring of Socrates, to the maroon colonies of Spanish Florida, the Boogie Down Bronx, and the “Ya Basta!” crying Zapatistas, humans rise up against oppression and for Life. The question, then, is how do we motivate humanity to behave at its best more often? How do we inspire individuals to follow the Golden Rule instead of despots?

I can’t answer this question definitively, of course, only offer suggestions gleaned from wiser minds than I. People need vision more than they need critique. Analysis has its place, of course, but very rarely does a lab report inspire action, and I’ll be shocked the day a Harper’s article launches an Orange Revolution. Seeing a dream differed can prompt an uprising, but the dream must come first.

We need to point out the clear and present danger, but point past it to the reality that’s possible. We need to create that reality in small pockets and steer people to those places. Great social movements are not sarcastic snickers; they are vision quests. Gandhi didn’t only talk of oppression, he spoke of freedom, and created it with local cloth and salt form the sea. The Civil Rights Movement was framed as a moral duty in line with the story of Exodus, members of the movement lived righteously. The Black Panthers wanted autonomy, and they created it with social programs. They asked their communities what they needed and then figured out ways to accomplish those goals. People fight oppression when they have pride and dignity. People revolt when they have a dream of a world after the revolution. We need to help people dream and help people understand their dreams are realizable.

Crisis can be used to pitch humanity into the oppressor’s palm, such as the corporate land grab following Hurricane Katrina. It can also, however, cause humans to rise up and stand as noble family, such as efforts of the Cajun Navy and Common Ground during Hurricane Katrina. Faced with hell on earth, the majority of New Orleans residents didn’t resort to savagery; they carried their grandmothers through knee-deep water to safety and floated injured strangers on air mattresses to higher ground. This is humanity surviving free from the rabid aggression of consumerism and the heavy boot heel of politico-corporate bureaucracy.

Humans are beautiful, amazing, brilliant animals, but they can be tamed and trained just like any other beast. They can be taught to feel scared and alone. They can be grown twisted, intertwined through a fence like ivy. Shrunk and manicured like banzai, beak shorn and feetless like Purdue poultry. We need to reclaim out right to be independent, thoughtful, generous, gentle souls.

The time of criticism is closing. The time to stop asking permission and manifest our better world is here. We can make our demonstrations actualized examples of what the world can be. We can show our neighbors reality’s potential before explaining why the current system stifles. No election can give us freedom. No politician will resurrect halcyon days. We must do for ourselves. We must be the change we wish to see and wait for the government to come ask how it can help.