Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.
George Bernard Shaw
As children, all of us passed through a “why?” stage. In the brain’s pursuit of adjusting to the world, our parents were bombarded with inquiries into the most mundane of things, so that we would learn and understand. They might have hated our incessant questioning, but we grew, listening intensely to their answers, and the world started to make sense.
The voluntary act of learning becomes a forced and mandated one as we enter school. Beyond the problems that might plague the system internally1, the more apparent shift is in who decides what we learn. No longer do we ask as often “why?”, but are rather given some answers wholesale. For many, this shift takes away the appeal of learning2. The few that stick to it learn, slowly, the inadequacies inherent in a system focused on mindless regurgitation of canned ideas.
At some point in life, we forget to ask “why?”. We trust laws as some undeniable truths that suffer no questioning. We obey society thinking it is always the common voice that dictates its principles. We are only letting ourselves to be leashed in a shorter chain every time we forget to ask “why?”.
It is comfortable and reassuring, maybe, to view some things as just being in a certain way. “That is just the way it is”, some say. Confusing laws for moral principles where they retain no relationship. Thinking mash-ups are a form of theft, remixing as just a play on others’ success. Forgetting the undeniable power we still hold — but for how long? — over those pretending to know better than us how things are supposed to be.
It is stale and fruitless the culture where creativity and learning are punished by lawsuits and government surveillance. It is drab and wretched the life where knowledge of other cultures, religions and ideas is understood as terrorism, un-patriotism and violence. And you know you are truly fucked when logic and critical thinking are waved away by the Authorities as if they were just rants.
So, before we can dream, we have to re-learn the “why?”. The “why not?” will be its direct consequence.
I was a wreck when I read some of the responses to the UBC students who got arrested a few weeks back. It took me a while to figure out why I went so bonkers over it, until I realized it was exactly what you describe above. While the whole thing got somewhat out of hand (somewhat being an operative word!) - the bonfire, surrounding the police car - they were actively critiquing (possibly sloppily, but still) something really important: what kind of campus is being created, and why, and is it the kind we want?
The outpouring of dismissive, impatient comments from people who were cozily seating at home watching tv (as they grumble about housing prices) still puts my hair on end.
nancy (aka money coach)’s last blog post..Why I clearly state I’m not a financial planner
inaequitas on May 6th, 2008 at 21:00The whole ordeal was rather dubious as far as both sides are concerned, but I agree that a lot of people see activists as “a bunch of hippies” or other such things.
I have toyed with these ideas before: between direct action from protesters — which often equates to violent behaviour, though not necessarily directed at living things — and questionable actions by the authorities, most people that are not familiar with the issues at hand will choose the authorities. In my view, it is all about taking comfort in the evil you know. It takes a lot to really flip the entire populace on some goal.
The impact that protesting has on a given state of things is a whole other matter.