That's an excerpt from my partner's grad write-up in his 1988 school
yearbook. He tells me he must have just finished reading the
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and adapted his writing-style,
accordingly. He also tells me it sounds pompous. My partner is anything
but pompous. He's just lost all the confidence he had in highschool; he
doesn't think he can save the world, anymore.
The list of devastating global circumstances facing humanity has played
out even faster than we 80's kids could have imagined, and we feel
helpless. My partner did go on to study physics and engineering,
eventually getting his degree in Computer Science. He now goes to work
every day, finds, fixes and creates bugs in software that is used all
over the world for resource management. Some of this 'resource
management' is towards protecting the ecological welfare of the planet; a
lot of it is simply management for destructive capitalist ventures. My
partner does whatever he is told to do. Then he comes home exhausted,
eats dinner, pets the dog, plays accordion, and goes to sleep, only to
get up in the morning and start again. On weekends and vacations he
sometimes makes adventures to soothe his tired soul; mostly he works at
replacing our old house with less mouldy materials, hoping that at least
his efforts will provide shelter for his family. Dreams of saving the
world went away a long, long time ago. Shelter and survival in the
capitalist world is his current goal.
Does it sound like drudgery? He would say no. Because he's living the
dream we were all fed as children, and in fact he's doing better than
that: He's raising free-thinking unschooled children in a park-like
setting, hoping they'll have the guts and wherewithal to follow their
own dreams in a way he never managed to do.
But wait - that's what his parents were doing too! They sent him to the
best school they could find, where he learned to fly airplanes, wear a
suit, and feel confident that he really could grow up to be a very, very
important person in a scientific field and change the world. But he
didn't. Why not?
No Time Instead of It All (Markus aged 49) |
Why do all of us hope that our children will grow up to change the
world, and not change it ourselves? Somehow we seem to feel that we can
trudge into the capitalist system that requires our compliance and still
raise kids who will magically end up elsewhere. Why on earth would
they? We ask our children to follow their hearts and at the same time we
tell them to follow our culture's mandated path to adulthood. We expect
them to be different and brave and to change the world and save us from
the disaster that capitalism has caused (seriously - if you haven't already, go read that article and watch the video), but we're too afraid to get out of the system, ourselves. They will be, too.
John Lennon wrote in his song Working Class Hero: (full lyrics and song video here)
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Our kids follow our lead. Unless we break this cycle, our children, like
us, will reach adulthood and discover that the only feasible path is
the one their parents took, and they will have children themselves, and
they will hope that their children will save them. And with every
generation the outlook is bleaker, and with every generation we hope the
next will save us.
Capitalism is killing us. Our school system is part of it. Our work
ethic and career paths are part of it. Our diet and housing and
everything that we consider to be essential is part of it. These things
need to change, and we need to change them. Not our children or our
children's children. There is no more time for us to live in fear. And
there is no point hoping that the few brave souls who unschool their
kids or drop out of the system or attend rallies will do the work for
us. There will be no new reality until we all jump on board. We are
killing ourselves with capitalism and we have to stop, now.
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