Civic Diary

Civic Geek: The Kids Are Damned Right

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

So let’s talk the Parkland shooting and March For Our Lives.  We’re watching teens band together and inspire others to band with them, to take on our country’s gun laws to stop the school shootings that have destroyed so many lives.

These kids are getting attacked, being called fakes and part of a conspiracy.  They’re being called opportunists.  They’re being called impolite.  They’re being mocked.

They keep going.  More and more are banding with them.

So let me drop my usual civil discussions and rant a bit about these kids.

These kids are not naive about this issue.  They know the score.  They hear about people their age being shot.  They see the news, the guards.  They know – and they know none of the solutions work.

They know what people say and they’ don’t care.  They’re young enough to have not been indoctrinated into our automatic pundocracy and political catchphrases.

They’re not ignorant.  They’re wired, online, paying attention.  Welcome to generation internet.

They’re connected.  They’ve been raised on social media and they’re using it.

No, you can’t intimidate them because they see the state of the world. They know the client is burning and the economy isn’t working for most people.  They know they can’t trust the President.  They know their future is imperiled, and they’re fighting back.

No, they don’t respect their elected officials.  Their elected officials screwed up.

No, they don’t respect the President.  Because they know the President is a sell-out, probably mentally ill, and he damn we’ll doesn’t show respect to anyone else.

No, they’re not polite because politeness doesn’t stop a bullet from a guy who shouldn’t have a gun.

All those dystopias we raised them on?  Turned out they were for real.  They’re fighting back.

And no, they don’t give a damn about the people mocking them and critiquing them and coming up with conspiracy theories.  Because they’re not talking to them, they know they’re lost.

Start learning from them.  They can teach us what we need to know – and what we forgot.

 

– Steve

Civic Diary: Conflict And Construction

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Well, got behind on a lot of these.  So I’m back at it 😉

Anyway, my latest Civic Geek thoughts have been on the issues of conflict in American politics.  Bluntly, a lot of our politics is about looking for enemies.  This tends to be on the “Conservative” side of things (whatever “Conservative” even means any more), but we see it on the Liberal side at times.

Americans often fall for the delusion that if we “just get rid of X” then everything is OK.  Of course this is wrong; it takes a lot of work to make a society run, but ask yourself how many times people fall for this mindset?

If you focus so much on getting rid of something, you never do the work to build a working society.  You don’t improve things.  You don’t fix things.  You don’t try new things.  You don’t grow yourself.

Worse, that even assumes that “Getting rid of X” actually solves the problem.  How many times have people been told “THOSE people” are the issue and of course, the real issue was the bastard telling you to “get rid of those people” while he picks your pockets or sells you out.

So even when “X” is a problem, you have to focus on making sure you have a working society.  In fact, that working society, like a healthy immune system, might prevent any actual bad thing from doing as much damage.  It might keep similar problems from arising.

You have to work to make yourself – and your society – strong.  Preventing actual bad things is done this way, and is far easier than fixing problems after they start.

This is one concern I have in the age of Trump, which in some ways is George Bush II magnified.  Bluntly, I think Trump is the worst president in American History, and we’re going to be paying for the damage for decades.  Trump embodies the “X is the problem” mindset, but dealing with him can lead people to too easily thinking once he’s out of office, everything’s OK.

It isn’t.  If he got there, there’s a problem, which seems kinda obvious.

Good Civic Participation should focus on making a strong social and political system.  Good Civic Participation is about a diverse system that ensures a functional, grounded society, since participation is citizenship.

We’re going to have a lot of lessons in psychology in the years to come.

Civic Diary: Everyday Stuff

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First up, my monthly civic geek roundup. Where am I?

  • First, still doing the local political group. Trying to do more, frankly, but we’ve had trouble coordinating. I do have my posting down to a system.
  • My usual calling and annoying my elected officials of course. Been a bit off on that, but overall keeping at it.
  • I’ve vaguely scheduled a plan to get more into doing Op-Eds and writing newspapers/news sites. There’s a class I can take and a book I found.

Now this month’s thought is on the fact that one big contribution you can make beyond your activism is keeping Shit Running.

This is a massive, MASSIVE, missed part of politics and society in general. Society requires the actions of so many of us, every day, to keep going. It requires driving your kid to school, helping a friend with a resume, cleaning up at your apartment complex, giving a friend a ride. A huge amount of a functional society is Everyday Stuff.

Do not shit on everyday stuff. Everyday stuff keeps things running. Everyday stuff creates ties between people. Everyday stuff is the foundation of so much that we can forget it. Doing it can remind us as well as keeping the whole shebang of society running.

One of the greatest failures in America, of our current crazy, conspiracy-theory-soaked, hating-our-fellow-Americans politics is people forget everday stuff. People are disconnected from action and reaction, from their neighbors, from real human concerns – and their politics are often a mixture of paranoia and abstraction and unawareness. There’s no visceral element except, perhaps, anger.

Ever have one of those friends or family members that seems spun off into their own world? You get the idea. They’re not only lost, they’re often not Getting Stuff Done (or as a much Stuff). They’re abstracted, disconnected – and easily manipulated.

One of my recent experiences – among many – has been having a friend in Puerto Rico. Trying to figure how to help them. Trying to keep in touch. You want hard reality, it’s right there.

So it’s up to all of us to Get Shit Done and keep society going. On top of all our other involvements.

  • Steve