Growing up in white suburbia produces a mindset that is becoming more unusual to me. I, like many of my peers, was convinced at an early age that America is this mystical land that rests on a platform, superior to all other lands we humbly take pity on. That we live in this utopia where freedom is pumped through our water systems and prosperity is sprouting from the sequoias, ripe for the plucking. Children are misled; words like “freedom” and “prosperity” have become banal guarantees. Kids, what are we “free” from, anyways? These guarantees have lost their real importance as human fundamentals that we are entitled to because we were born, regardless of what politics say or not. Our personal paths in life have been obscured in the path planned out for us, but not by us. Whether one agrees with American ideals or not, the fact is our lives have been hijacked, and it’s weird that this is normal.
Our lives have been hijacked because we think and believe things that aren’t self-produced. We live by guidelines, laws, codes that are said to be normal, that it’s just the way it is. We’ve accepted the axiom that hard work, discipline and education are the treasure trails to success. But who came up with this? Seeing as these aren’t a product of nature or evolution, there must be some man behind these concepts. The idea that hard work and respect will get you far in life didn’t seem odd to me before, but suddenly I’m realizing these “honorable” traits aren’t for personal advancement, instead for blind obedience to the American standard.
I’ve begun to lose my mind. Not in some dramatic fashion or more so than most people I know, but in a more creepy, insidious way. It’s the outcome of breaking from conventional ways of thinking. From the boundless literature of intellectual minds from the past and present, and from talking to others I respect, I know my way of thinking is hardly original. I feel insecure talking about this at times because I wonder if this is common sense and I’m simply just late to catch on. Then I wonder if it’s some esoteric concept only grasped by astute thinkers (ha..ha..humbly spoken, of course). Now I realize what I speak of is only foreign to those that grew up like me, privileged and misguided.
This is a cathartic realization for me. I realize now why I find myself angrier than my non-white friends at the inscrutable and subconscious racism that camouflages within society every day. I sometimes talk with my friends from inner cities about the smoke and mirrors of America and become consumed with rage while they coyly smile and respond nonchalantly. Corruption of our nation and unapologetic lies are yesterday’s news to our minority sisters and brothers. They’re aware of the racism and experience it every day; in ways that most white people have been conditioned to think is trivial. Suburbia grew up with the highest trust in our policemen and considered unquestionably reliable in case of an emergency; while urban communities realistically teach kids to stay away from the police at all costs- not only are they undependable for help, but also out to ensure your demise. For some, this sounds like paranoia or like excuses being made for certain behavior, but those are the ones that have never been ticketed for J-walking or searched because of the brand of clothing you’re wearing. For half of the 20th century, Jim Crow laws were enforced as a way to either disrespect blacks or remove them from our sight and relocate them to jail. Simply because lazy white men were resentful that they couldn’t have slaves do their work anymore. Isn’t this an astounding parallel to today’s circumstances- with our jails at an unprecedented disproportion of blacks to whites, the drastic economic gap between the men with the money and the men who make their money but never see it, or the question of why education costs so much?
I get heat from others who think I talk about this too much or think about it too intensely. Which is exactly the negativity that has brought nothing progressive to the people and kept the hegemony thriving in favor of those undeserving. By not talking about it or questioning what people tell you, we’re handing over our minds while allowing authority to oppress us and our peers. And the reason why America is worse than other oppressive countries is because we wear this mask of benevolence and altruism. We claim to be something that we’re not. It’s outrageously offensive finding out we’ve been tricked since conception, and that we’re still in denial.
1 comments:
You could say that stating that “hard work will get you far in life” is a control system created by man to make sure society goes forward in some fashion. It is a man-made construct to control others. As you state that hard work will gain you respect, this is not necessarily true, it is the product of your work that will gain you this, it does not matter if you work hard or not it is what is shown to the rest of the world that gives this “respect”. You could always ask what is that “respect” is it important for continued success? Does it give you anything personally other than social acceptance? But I digress.
Our society is currently built upon a broad technological base. It is now required to know and master a great variety of machinery such as cars, computers and a variety of other things that in many ways control our society (even language is a technology that is ever evolving). You need to be able to interact with those to a certain extent, the better you interact with those the greater chance you will be successful in your environment. And hence you need to be educated, it’s a very nice circle that feeds upon itself. As you say, we live by guidelines, laws and codes and this is true, we do this to make sense of the world. There is so much information that without some guidelines to how to act/live we would probably run around like some headless chicken. These constructs have been around since the dawn of man, take any religious text and they all show some measure of instruction of behavior to its readers. It has been adjusted and altered over centuries and is a living entity in its own right.
You question things that people hold dear, or values. When this is questioned you are questioning the thing that they “know”. If you had read some of the last writing, the “life lie”, then that would explain some of it. In short it means if you take what someone “knows” regardless if it is true or not away from them they will fight and defend it almost regardless of your arguments. There are ways to go around this but it requires individual knowledge and few are open to such unless they have something invested in it. You push and they fight back. However not talking about it and pressing the points will not make the problem go away, the loss occurs when/if you give up. Keep talking about it and keep writing and putting your thoughts out there so the world can read and hopefully you will reach some people that again reaches others, hoping for a cascading affect.
LH
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