As a writer, it’s probably one of the biggest drivers of my internal conversation: this need to talk about a problem. When I first started into the foray of becoming a social writer and found a public digital venue in which to hold these conversations, I was besides myself with excitement. But it was short-lived, because I found that those of us who do want these tempestuous public discussions are told that there are constraints on the methods. Wouldn’t you find it frustrating if you’ve been observing a situation and found that you wanted to share your insights to see if your ideas were feasible or completely off base? But it seems that in order to do so, we all have to admit that there is an identifiable problem. Not such an easy task – getting billions of people to agree.
I’ve been spending my recent time going over many of Richard Wolff‘s books on the dangers that are inherent in capitalism that most of us are told not to speak about. Any time you say something that goes against the norm, you can be sure that you will be insulted by others who are vehement in their protection of status quo. Even when it continues to prove itself to be hazardous to so many’s health.
Professor Wolff spoke with Bill Moyers and mentioned a comment that boils down my need to have a discussion before providing alternate solutions:
So I guess I’m a little bit like one of those folks in the 12-step programs. Before you can solve a problem, you have to admit you got one. And before we’re going to fix an economic system that’s working this way, and producing such tensions and inequalities and strains on our community, we have to face the real scope of the problem we have. And that’s with the system as a whole and at the very least, we have to open up a national debate about it. And at the most, I think we have to think long and hard about alternative systems that might work better for us.
Though the Internet has opened the ability to have a global discussion, it’s still really hard to have a true discussion because words typically have a direction that will not encompass the full circle of your position. They will reflect to the thought process at the time of your writing, but they’ll hardly convey your entire rationale for your raison d’être – unless you’re planning on taking your time to write a book that thoroughly posits your stances. Even recently, I was affronted by an article/opinion claiming the failures of online education because of limited studies, when that venue has had little time to establish itself as the brick-and-mortar schools have had. Yep, people attacked, assuming that I was entirely against the arguments of the statistics. Statistics that can always be manipulated to a one-sided purpose. Trust me – it’s not so hard to do, and we all know it.
The image I chose here was aimed at the conversation on our obsession with status in education. But when you look around, that obsession actually revolves around the way of life that we’re used to. The fear of the unknown bares its teeth on those who refuse to entertain any other alternatives to what they’re comfortable with. Even when it means that they’re eliminating possibilities for improvement to their own life. Talk about a huge limitation to life!
Exactly how is one supposed to accept that this is how we’re all supposed to live our lives? I’d have to be dead inside to just roll over and accept all of the problems of a “proven” system, when there are opportunities to lessen or even eliminate these problems in alternate methods. Why is there only one chosen, when there is so much variability in nature? Many people are feeling just as impatient as I am. That’s not freedom of choice. That’s another form of servitude. And I think that we already have too many of these shackles in our lives, don’t you?
So…exactly how does one go about opening a discussion to admit that we ALL have a problem, without having to put up solutions before the problem has been fully understood? I wish I knew, because I’m back at the starting line again. Though I’m still determined.
Time to move forward…
– thanks to Alternet and Bill Moyers for this necessary discussion. Hopefully it finally grows to its true level of importance in our lives.
