I want to open this piece with a poem.
"Indispensable Man"
Sometime when you’re feeling important;
Sometime when your ego’s in bloom
Sometime when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room,
Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul;
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is a measure of how you’ll be missed.
You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you’ll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.
The moral of this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.
By Saxon White Kessinger, 1959
There's always conflict all over the world. Right now, we're in the middle of an oil disaster that spans countries, states, and ideologies. People are calling for the dissolution of Israel, the economy isn't looking so great, and suicide rates have been steadily rising for the past decade. In the gaming world, one of the nastiest break-ups between two groups, Activision and Infinity Ward, has mostly made its way out of the news. So today, I'm going to try and gather my thoughts and get some perspective. What this is, is not a political commentary, as while I certainly believe I've the right to an opinion, I don't believe I've the knowledge to accurately discuss issues such as the Israeli conflict without significant research. So why bring them up? Because we are in the middle of them, because they affect our lives. The poem put up here, however, is also part of that perspective. Yes, it would be a sad and traumatic event if our president died, much as it was a sad and traumatic event for the music community when Michael Jackson died. But we move on at a speed that has ever-increased as we continue to demand more information, as information becomes commodified and our brains are fed to overload. Today, I am not attempting to deny credence to the above piece, but to meld with it an understanding that while no individual is necessary, the past is always calling out to us and we've a responsibility to answer. We have a need to conquer ourselves.
To answer the past, an individual must be able to view many different ideas. That's basic, and as students, we are asked to do such things on a regular basis. But it's strange how, outside of that world of education and learning, how little we are asked to see an argument from different contexts. The process of learning itself has become a matter of grave concern to me, as education has always been a process of propaganda. What that propaganda promotes can be good or bad. There's nothing keeping education from allowing children to learn how to learn. The specificity of education and the process of education using a method that treats people numerically, however, will clearly leave many people out of the process. Some might say that's a blessing, as those outcasts might be able to find something real outside a book and four walls. I encourage that. But lately, school is not a safe place either. The four walls have begun to look like prison cells. That's the unfortunate reality of our time. I have begun to see commercials where people do background checks on others before they meet them. I've seen news pieces where children got sent to detention centers for cursing while on school campus. The idea of locking up bad ideas, the process of fear has become a tangible promotion in our current society and it worries me when it's hard for me to want to help someone for fear of being sued, of bringing a child back to their mother because I might be accused of being a child molester or kidnapper.
Fear has become an operative in today's world. It's not as bad as McCarthy-ism, but it's more prolific and accepted. While I do not condone many of the actions of Israel and their raid, or that of British Petroleum and cleaning up their oil disaster, I am also quite aware that these events will pass. Some will let their hatred seethe and erupt into the news of tomorrow, but most will have a small sliver of understanding that is enough for them to move on. That is, perhaps, what frightens me in today's world. Not the events themselves, but the apathy that is built around them. To not feel that there is a duty that all people share collectively in the faults of a world so interconnected saddens me greatly. In my mind, it seems as though we share a collective vision, yet still we close our eyes.
To understand the problems of today, we must be aware that these are not new problems. There have been oil spills in the past, raids on unsuspecting countries, and global economic plunges. We are at a point in time where more is possible than ever before with less than has ever been required. Hundreds of millions of dollars were raised by cellphones during the Haiti disaster. People can reach out in fascinating ways, musicians gave concerts, adoptions took place. There are opportunities to change always. But even with these stretches, there is also the reality that once the problem fades away, much of that sense of duty fades as well. There is a necessary pride that gets lost somewhere along the way. To be vigilant, to be citizens of the world, we must remember that we are individuals, not indispensable, to take pride, but also remain penitent. There is a sense, I think, that we have lost perspective because of the disconnection of ourselves from reality. It's true that a story can now get to people more freely than ever before. But without a sense responsibility towards those incidents, it seems that we are losing sight of what's important in those stories.
The human condition, in medias res, has not changed since time immemorial. That may be the problem we face today. To transition into vigilance means casting aside our fear. To be aware that we are dispensable. To worry about others more than we worry about ourselves. We have long since cast off the need to live on instinct, yet the immediate response, even in the current generation, is to place blame, rather than to find solutions. I am certainly not free from this danger, as I have, on many occasions, been as quick to place blame as anyone else. But I would like to think that our future lies in being dutiful towards our past indiscretions, rather than attempting to cast them off. To learn from the worst of ourselves and others so that we can become better. To rise out of the muck, despite being dragged down with every step. Eventually a shore awaits, with cool sand that we may dig our ideologies into, which can be reflected by a cool sun. That may be some time long after I have passed, but I would like to hope that, in some small part, I can contribute to something greater than myself, for the sake of myself. The pride of the past does not need to be the pride of the future. We can cast off our despair by realizing that we do not need to be eternal, and that yearning as such is childish vanity. Indeed, if I were to make a quip about mortality, a quote from the immortal character Kaim in the videogame, Lost Odyssey, seems rather apt: "A thousand years is a long time." Release is a freedom as well.