I am reading this very thought provoking novel right now called Bewilderment where this 9 year old child on the spectrum slowly starts to see the brokenness of the world. I am relating to him as I read about him standing on the steps of the capitol with a homemade poster, trying to make the government pay a little attention to the extinction of animal species. His attempt is futile and he takes it hard. There was a line a few pages back where the narrator, his father, struggles to see his son so hopeless. He says something like, “in the face of the brokenness of the world, more empathy means deeper suffering.”
That stopped me… and I wondered… is that what’s wrong with me right now? Do my friends have less empathy? Is that why they live their lives as if democracy isn’t dying? I wished in that moment that I was more like them.
This one question haunts me 24/7. I rant about it frequently. I get kicked under the table by my wife when I’m sitting at a dinner table with friends and I start explaining how broken our government is and my energy starts rolling downhill like a boulder.
I don’t understand how they can be aware that we’re heading toward autocracy but choosing not to do anything about it. They talk surface stuff while they live day to day as if nothing is wrong. I don’t get it. I suffer. Am I choosing to suffer? Or, am I cursed with empathy like Robbie in the book?
Today as I was wondering for the 5 millionth time why my friends aren’t doing shit to help this failing country, a new thought occurred to me. Actually, a metaphor occurred to me…
We are all SO used to being able to turn on the faucet and get water. We take it for granted. We expect it. We’re entitled to water coming out of our faucets. But, what if it didn’t? What would people do? Really, what would we do? Do we ever consider that someday water may not be accessible? We really don’t. We haven’t had any reason to worry that our faucets will not provide the water we need to survive.
Maybe that’s why no one is doing anything. Maybe they think democracy is like water. Maybe in their brains they think that no matter what, democracy will always flow out of the US government to the American people.
Going back to water, IF water was soon to be inaccessible in our homes, would we want to know? Would we want to be prepared? But, here’s the real question, would we even believe it if we were told to fill up our bathtubs because water was going away?
Here’s another question - if (by some miracle) we all knew and believed that water was going to become inaccessible, would we work together and collectively do anything about it to prevent it before it happened? Or would we just obliviously talk about shit that doesn’t matter and live our lives as if we weren’t about to lose something our lives depended on?
For some reason this water metaphor comforted me for a moment and made me understand my friends and cut them a break for 30 seconds. Maybe they all see democracy as a modern convenience that they’re all entitled to. Maybe in their minds, there will never be one last drop of water from the faucet so it’s equally unfathomable that there will ever be one last drop of democracy in our government.
The last drop of democracy...
The last drop of democracy...
The last drop of democracy...
I am reading this very thought provoking novel right now called Bewilderment where this 9 year old child on the spectrum slowly starts to see the brokenness of the world. I am relating to him as I read about him standing on the steps of the capitol with a homemade poster, trying to make the government pay a little attention to the extinction of animal species. His attempt is futile and he takes it hard. There was a line a few pages back where the narrator, his father, struggles to see his son so hopeless. He says something like, “in the face of the brokenness of the world, more empathy means deeper suffering.”
That stopped me… and I wondered… is that what’s wrong with me right now? Do my friends have less empathy? Is that why they live their lives as if democracy isn’t dying? I wished in that moment that I was more like them.
This one question haunts me 24/7. I rant about it frequently. I get kicked under the table by my wife when I’m sitting at a dinner table with friends and I start explaining how broken our government is and my energy starts rolling downhill like a boulder.
I don’t understand how they can be aware that we’re heading toward autocracy but choosing not to do anything about it. They talk surface stuff while they live day to day as if nothing is wrong. I don’t get it. I suffer. Am I choosing to suffer? Or, am I cursed with empathy like Robbie in the book?
Today as I was wondering for the 5 millionth time why my friends aren’t doing shit to help this failing country, a new thought occurred to me. Actually, a metaphor occurred to me…
We are all SO used to being able to turn on the faucet and get water. We take it for granted. We expect it. We’re entitled to water coming out of our faucets. But, what if it didn’t? What would people do? Really, what would we do? Do we ever consider that someday water may not be accessible? We really don’t. We haven’t had any reason to worry that our faucets will not provide the water we need to survive.
Maybe that’s why no one is doing anything. Maybe they think democracy is like water. Maybe in their brains they think that no matter what, democracy will always flow out of the US government to the American people.
Going back to water, IF water was soon to be inaccessible in our homes, would we want to know? Would we want to be prepared? But, here’s the real question, would we even believe it if we were told to fill up our bathtubs because water was going away?
Here’s another question - if (by some miracle) we all knew and believed that water was going to become inaccessible, would we work together and collectively do anything about it to prevent it before it happened? Or would we just obliviously talk about shit that doesn’t matter and live our lives as if we weren’t about to lose something our lives depended on?
For some reason this water metaphor comforted me for a moment and made me understand my friends and cut them a break for 30 seconds. Maybe they all see democracy as a modern convenience that they’re all entitled to. Maybe in their minds, there will never be one last drop of water from the faucet so it’s equally unfathomable that there will ever be one last drop of democracy in our government.