Small victories, small victories.
It’s Earth Day today, which ironically coincides with my recent contemplation of world “suckage.” Pardon my language, but as beautiful as our planet is in it’s natural state, the society we humans have built on top of it overall really, really sucks.
Alleviation of such man made suckage most often comes in the form of small victories, such as, say, a court case outcome, while large scale victories—abolition, revolution, the like—are extremely rare. Large victories take even more strenuous amounts of effort to achieve than the small, and they require the sacrifice of the participant’s personal comfort. In a world as individualistic as ours, no one wants to give up what they have grown so accustomed to, no matter how harmful the underlying factors may be; those who do are looked down on as insane. Simultaneously, large victories are so often associated with past cultural shifts that many believe that movements of similar magnitude are not needed anymore; the work was, in their eyes, already done before they were born. Under these circumstances, small victories are enough to satisfy any rebellious blood lust that still lingers.
And as for the people making everything suck in the first place? They’ve just gotten better at convincing the masses to get on their side. Modern society provides just enough comfort to quell the spirit of rebellion in the vast majority. A roof above your head and a cell phone in your hand are all you need to be “okay.”
Actual change takes mobilization and determination in the face of adversity, and despite how fun talking about societal revolution is, we’re simply not at that level of mass mobilization and determination yet. Looking at how tight conformist society has its grip on the populous, we may never reach that goal. Will the majority of the people whose lives have been unjustly ended receive true comeuppance on a societal scale? Most likely not. I’m not trying to be pessimistic; I’m just being realistic.
And I wish it didn’t have to be this way.
But giving up in the face of such adversity is the coward’s option. Take some time out if you need, but leaving the fighting spirit to wither and rot just makes the tyrannical grip tighter for all of us. Keep the memory of your fallen comrades alive. Walk, talk, and breathe in their names. Get out of bed. Do something.
Make Planet Earth proud.
