We are taught to fear what we do not know. We out group and other people until we are comfortable and content in our spaces and at what cost? As change agents, we are expected to walk into a world on fire armed with an arsenal of knowledge. There comes a point when people experience some kind of conflict and have to address the conflict head on or brush it off and let it slide. When do we decide these moments are most pertinent? Do they shape the rest of our lives, personality, character?
Fear is a very debilitating emotion, it paralyzes and causes doubt. Living without fear is impossible. Learning to control our fears and emotions is in fact possible. We can take steps to see things rationally and in control without losing tempers, becoming upset and emotionally compromised. There should be a healthy balance of emotion and logic when dealing with fears. Once that balance is reached, fears are not powerful. They are real, and very real to some, with emotional baggage and consequence.
I think in a lot of ways the generation of parents who raised my generation wanted to lessen the blow of reality and how terrible the world is. There are so many students with anxiety, depression, body image issues, drug and alcohol dependency in alarming numbers. Why? Is there an easy answer? We were taught to fear everything. Matt Shepard was murdered when I was seven years old, 9/11 was at age 10 beginning the War on Terror, I moved from a small town in Wyoming to Houston, Texas at age 13, attempted suicide at 14, was outed as gay at 16 and those are just some of the major events that shaped who I am today. I have learned invaluable lessons from all and cherish those experiences as my history. One thing people do not realize is that the media has hyped so many of these issues in so many aspects that millennials are programmed to fear. Fear not being “cool”, have the newest technology, clothes, best body, best education, job, car, house, watch, hair, looks, Twitter feed, Facebook profile and the list runs on forever. Older generations may have done things the hard way and they learned hard lessons. My generation is taught to find the easy way and exploit it. I am even guilty of this because it is in my nature to look for these. I work hard, I have put in a lot of effort into my education, my life and the people around me. A lot of that is due to the fact that I am afraid. Not of failure, I am afraid of disappointing people, missing an opportunity, a pivotal moment, a chance on love, the new hip buzz word. I am tired and frustrated with how the system of modern culture creates heuristics in my mind so I will not question society and the structure in place. As a culture, we are being told to be complacent in what is handed to us and I, for one, am tired. The government is raising little capitalist-bots to follow suit and fill the mold when we should be breaking the mold into indistinguishable features. Obviously the old ways aren’t working, society is not getting better. We have kids being shot for no reason, public beatings with people video taping it and not doing anything to step in, a government manipulating and exploiting its people while we stand by.
Change starts with ourselves. One person deciding to stand up. It also means that others need to lean on one another as well. This nation needs to stop being divided and start helping each other. Not hand outs, hands up. The opportunity to bring society together again through little actions that ripple into tidal waves. There are a lot of post-apocalyptic films, television shows and pop culture references but the situation is not that impossible. One war, one bomb, one cataclysmic natural disaster and are we fit as a country or world to handle it? Australian wildfires in the early 2000’s, Hurricane Katrina, earthquakes in the Middle East that the news played for a day, Haiti, the Indonesian Tsunami, the nuclear meltdown in Japan. You think this is the worst the world has? We are far from that. Climate Change brings about unforeseen consequences to nature, we are on the brink of another cold war or World War III, Israel and Palestine, continuing acts of terrorism and President Obama stating we are going to take action against islamic regimes. People are naive to think there is not something wrong, and more wrong that they are powerless to do something. What is it going to take? What will make people ready to see what they need to see? Or will it be too late?
I sure hope not, through education, change and a lot of hard work I believe we can tip the scales back. I cannot say how long that will take or what that looks like yet but people really need to start seeing things differently. The American Dream is gone and disappearing every day that we allow the wealthy class to take and take from us without giving back to the United States economy by outsourcing and offshore bank accounts. We rationalize it as good business when it will be the downfall of the greatest economy the world had ever seen. Public education needs to be improved and students need to realize this is not a punishment and education is a way of survival. Implementing steps to make healthy change in how our children think critically is more important now than ever. All ages should take responsibility for what they have control over and then make a difference how they can. It is time to make history, not watch it happen.
