Sorry to have misled you. I wasn’t really feeling the stream of consciousness thing. And I think this is a much more interesting idea.
So I’ve been feeling much more powerful recently. A lot of it has to do with Obama. Hope. Change. Progress. There is something so incredibly powerful about what Obama has come to symbolize. In fact, I think that this symbolism is ultimately far more important than what he actually ends up doing in office. He talked in his acceptance speech about how this was a victory for us, not for him. This empowerment of the people is so incredibly valuable and important.
It may just be where I am in my life and the fact that I am becoming an adult, but it seems to me that in the US (and perhaps the world) there has been a recent increase in personal empowerment. This is not unrelated to web2.0 and free culture. The message is that academics and business people with fancy suits are no better or more knowledgeable than the average person. They shouldn’t be the only ones writing our encyclopedias, or telling us how to use our machines. We know stuff. And we can do stuff. Yes we can.
Here’s Lawrence Lessig articulating this idea.
I think the word that he’s missing is “empowerment.”
I honestly believe that the American people are on the verge of something extraordinary and historical here. My generation can become the activists that our parents were. The potential is there, but we’re at a tipping point, and it could go either way. We could simply clean up the empty cans from our Obama victory parties and go back to work in the morning just the same people we used to be, only slightly less pissed off at the government.
Or we could recognize that the time is now, that it’s up to us, not the goons in the white house, to fix this country and this world. We have the power. Yes we can.
But we need to re-prioritize. We have to keep perspective. We have to realize that an hour spent writing a letter, making a video, attending or organizing an event, or engaging a friend or stranger in discussion is much more valuable than an hour spent in the office or doing math homework.
And we need inspiration. We need to keep the momentum going. I believe (though I’m willing to be proven wrong) that Obama’s term as president is going to be anticlimactic. He is a politician, and he will be working within a very slow-moving and broken system which will take years to fix (if it ever does get fixed). But again, that’s not what Obama’s election is about. It’s about the symbolism. We’ve proven that we are out there, and that we can organize and gather around a cause. Yes we can.
So this is not over. We’re not just handing responsibility for our country and our world to the man that we elected and going back to our disconnected and passive lives. Obama can’t fix it on his own. But, oh yes, we can.
So I’m taking my part in keeping the momentum going and giving the world a nudge away from complacency and passivity. With some help, I think I can get us over the edge, into an active, participatory world.
Every day for the next 7 days (and longer, if I can keep it up), I will post one inspirational item. A phrase, a video, a letter, a song…something that really makes you want to get up out of your chair and something. Something that makes you feel powerful.
Won’t you join me?
For today, I have this music video by nickelback. The song isn’t great, but the video is absolutely beautiful.
