The Dying Art of Revoltuion
What the fuck is going on?
Maybe it’s my carefully curated close friends, or the bubble my art school provides, but in my circles it seems that most people in the world are aware that the United State’s democracy is under attack, stuck in the mud, and we are moving far too slowly to save ourselves.
I’m not an expert by any means, I’m just a girl that planned to go to school for poli sci before making a sharp turn into film, but I have a finger on the pulse of our culture, and this is what I’ve noticed.
Throughout my twenty years of living, I’ve been part of many crowds crying out for change, typically to little avail. I used to sit in history classes and ask myself the universal question, how could the world let that happen? A question dating back to Eve’s alleged mouth full of forbidden fruit. But I’ve cracked the code. Discovered the formula used to keep the people sedated. You have to make them feel uneducated, unimportant, and above all else, keep them distracted.
A recent example that comes to mind is a conversation I had about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. A new friend was reporting to me that they had spent the day looking into the “conflict”. I asked what they concluded, and was saddened to hear they “ just aren’t sure.” Which is the first ingredient to keep revolt at bay: make everyone feel ignorant and it is tremendously overwhelming. We live in a time of unlimited, honestly unfathomable, amounts of information at our fingertips. And here we are, having felt smartest when we spelled C-A-T for the first time without grownup help. In the face of knowledge, we are choosing ignorance. We are staying naked in the garden of Eden while it's burning down around us. It’s a combination of feeling overwhelmed by the insurmountable resources out there, and essentially being told, “don’t worry about it sweetie.” We have been trained to trust the experts because they know so much, and hey, don’t even sweat trying to catch up with them. But the indisputable truth is you do not need to know the entire history of the Middle East from all corners of the internet to call the eraser of an entire peoples anything less than evil.
Another element found in the disease killing revolution is isolation. The disappearance of third places, teamed up with human connection going digital, is making us feel alone and unimportant. The amount of people who didn’t vote in the last presidential election because it “wouldn’t change anything” could have turned the tide of our political current. It's the same issue that's funneling people down the far right misogyny rabbit hole: loneliness. It’s paramount to remember that one voice can start a chorus. In an age where we can communicate and organize millions of people, we’re choosing to take on the world solo. The internet is perhaps the largest community in the world, and yet we are so obsessed with our individualism within it. We stay forever focused on how our own personal brand can get its fifteen minutes of fame, when we could be moving as one to save lives.
Even with ignorance and isolation, distraction remains the biggest culprit in the dying art of revolution. Distraction provides a temporary comfort which acts as the enabler of silence. And make no mistake, privilege is the breeding ground for this comfort. The prosecuted cannot afford to stretch out on a feathered bed and say, “That's a shame, not my problem.” When the bell is indeed tolling for them.
I can't help but to call upon the enlightenment thinkers in this moment. I typically found myself most aligned with John Locke, believing that we all wanted what was best for each other, which would in turn protect our own liberties. His work went on to influence Rousseau’s Social Contract, “Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will.” That oh so romanticized general will, the dream America was built on, to live freely, and equally. Convereley, we find ourselves staring down the barrel of a Thomas Hobbes social contract, where we feel we must be compliant and keep our heads down in favor of safety in all this fear mongering. We’re getting pelted with unconstitutional policies and we’re freezing under pressure, in the name of comfort.
I’m not joking when I say it really is that damn phone. We go from liking a video about police brutality to laughing at a video of a cat, to buying a deodorant that someone’s advertising in minutes. Our brains are not wired to process new information that quickly in an endless doom scroll. Despite its new form, distraction is the oldest form of suppression, packaged in a new sleek model that now comes in six unique colors. It works the best because it's the one we walk into willingly. Care when it suits you but don’t ruffle your feathered bed for the sake of greater good. Locke rolls in his grave and weeps.
And in case a federal agent has stumbled on to Love Letters, I’m not saying we need a revolution. I’m not not saying it either. At the very least we need to unite, learn, and for the love of all things holy, get uncomfortable.
