So I have said it before, and I will again.. I am kinda predictable that way.. the world is burning. Now this isn’t about climate change (Note to self, do blog on climate change) it’s the general feeling that the world we live in is trying to go up in flames. I mean, can you remember a day that you didn’t have some kind of angry person come across your t.v. or your social media feed? Really? You can’t? In the past.. let’s say.. four years.. you can’t think of one person on t.v. complaining, pointing fingers, blaming the world’s troubles on anyone and everyone else? Not one? Man… I wanna be you. You must be in New Zealand or something.
Now, if you read my previous post (if not .. read it now.. goo gooo goooo.. then come back) you know I am all for rising up and being an activist for the things you believe in. This is America. Our rights protect the ability to protest those things we see as wrong. If you want to bitch without being active in the struggle against something then you are in the silent majority. We should really flip that to a silent minority. How amazing would it be if people were more activist than silent. If more and more of us got together and worked together (wear your mask) to get this world moving towards the positive.
Seems in today’s world, people feel activism far too often boils down to blog posts (turns the mirror around), social media posts (makes a note to not get more colorful kettles*) or just ranting to your friend over coffee (man I need to get some friends). Is any of that effective though? Most often, people reading your blog, reading your social media, or who are your friends are already on your side. It is like arguing with people already on your side. And if they are not on your side, most likely, they are just either going to troll you or ignore you. I am not putting down the power of social media. It’s been proven that it can be used as a tool, but that tool needs to lead to actual real world movements.
Could you image Martin Luther King Jr leading a virtual march on Washington D.C.? I mean, what kind of impact would that make? You ranting on your Facebook page may make you grin to yourself, or give you a small release of that pressure valve, but the issue isn’t gonna go away cause you got a few likes. Social media can be powerful. They used Twitter in Egypt to organize protest rallies that toppled the government. Not by the tweets themselves, but by using the tweets to get people to show up in the real world.
Now as you have seen, this post isn’t about one movement, one group, or one view point. I don’t claim to know the best things for the world. I’m just me. My beliefs may be in stark contrast to yours, but that is fine. We are free, in this country, to have those different beliefs. We are meant to. The founding fathers knew that the varied beliefs we share, our differences, would make us stronger when we came together to make the best decisions for everyone. It’s not supposed to be all one way or another. When did we stop believing in compromise? When did it start becoming a “my way or the highway” type of world? We teach children to be the people that, for some reason, we forgot to be.
We NEED to come together, at dinner tables, and townhouse discussions, at the Congressional level, and all around the world.
https://commonsensebywayne.blogspot.com/2020/11/arm-chair-activist.html
https://commonsensebywayne.blogspot.com/
