Dearest, Generation Taking It In–
I am sporadic in writing here, I know. I confess that I am an information sponge and a news junkie. I am working hard on establishing boundaries with myself. For most of my life I have given too much energy and emotion to the state of the world, and it hasn’t served me very well. In turn, I don’t know that it has helped me to serve those around me well.
For the last two years my main spiritual practice has been to read/listen to the news without anger or overwhelming heart break. I think it has been working, as I am able to do so now for the most part. The consequence has been that I often find I can’t write about what is happening in the world around us, because it requires getting very close to the stories of our age. That closeness is hard to navigate without those emotions, and the added feeling of helplessness arising.
What benefit is there anyway in me sitting here, in a nice cafe, a cup of dark-roast coffee at my reach, writing about the Occupy Movement or Bradley Manning? I confess that when I first started this blog a couple years ago, a friend said, “Well, what are you actually able to say there that isn’t being said somewhere else? All you’re really doing is repeating the news.” I didn’t write here again for I think over a year. When I returned to this site, I was surprised that it was still getting so much traffic, despite the lack of new posts.
I think there must be a benefit to all of us making use of cyber space. Revolutions are now being organized with these tools. It was through my laptop that I was able to interview Tunisians during the Jasmine Revolution, and to share their voices and stories with people here. It is through live stream that we are able to witness the sieges of Gaza, the Egyptian Revolution, and the current Occupation of Gezi, Turkey. We live in a society dominated by corporate control of our press, and it is increasingly those of us doing our work through blogs, twitter, youtube, etc. that major stories are breaking.
I am writing all of this instead of about Obama’s war against whistle-blowers, the Department of Justice’s war on journalists, the impending threat of complete destruction of our public infrastructure because this week, I can’t get too close to those stories. Anyone who has read Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” will understand the dangerous situation we are in, and what these policies really mean. Right now across Europe, which is facing the same austerity measures we are, the people are rallying in anti-fascism protests. That’s what we’re facing, fascism, and that is nothing short of scary.
What happens when we turn that last corner? The war on journalists and whistle blowers is under way; those who expose governmental or corporate crime are being sent to prison. Police forces across the country are beginning to use drones, and poverty, homelessness, student debt and suicide are all on the rise. The violent smashing of the Occupy Movement is only the tip of what those in power are willing to do to hold onto it. As we descend further into a two tiered society, it will become increasingly necessary for those in power to use increased force to keep us in line.
As long as we can log on to our computers and see each other, still writing in dissent, then there is still hope.
In solidarity–
Pv
Letters to My Generation 