There’s something that isn’t being said a lot, but I think it needs to be talked about. People talk all the time about how great it’s going to be once we get back to normal. I can’t help but think, what normal are they talking about? The 2016 version of normal, where we elected a fascist to be our next president? The 2012 version of normal, where the democrats and republicans couldn’t agree on anything, and shutdowns were an annual thing? The early 2000’s? The 1990’s?
I don’t think there’s a “Normal” we can go back to. Maybe Covid will end. Maybe restrictions we’ll be lifted. Maybe we’ll reach a point where we can go back into crowded spaces and not feel like we’re putting ourselves and our loved ones in danger. But even when we reach the point that Covid becomes a bad memory we don’t talk about, any normal we could go back to will be gone.
So what do we do instead?
I’ve lived on the internet since I was in Middle school. I don’t do social media, but I read, play, and watch everything I can find that looks even remotely interesting. What that’s taught me is that a lot of people want to make the world a better place, but nobody’s quite sure how to do that. Should we allow everyone to say what they want, or limit what they can say so fewer people are in danger? Should we allow for people to upload copyrighted material, or forbid anything that isn’t absolutely original content? How do we advocate for ourselves in a way that people can understand and take to heart? How do we change the world so that it’s better for all of us?
I confess, I don’t know every viewpoint. I just know what I’ve seen people say online, and I mostly just read what makes sense to me and reaffirms my own biases. I’m not ashamed to admit that. I think that the world would be a better place if we found a viewpoint we believe in and stick with it, no matter how stupid it is. The world isn’t built on science or art or business or any other one thing. It’s built where those viewpoints meet. Agreement is what keeps our world together, but disagreement is what allows it to change. I don’t think the problem is that we disagree on so much these days, I think the problem is we don’t know what common viewpoint’s we have. Maybe we don’t have any. But given how many people call themselves democrats, when they have so many different priorities, I don’t want to give up hope in a unified America. Not yet anyway. But if we don’t figure out what we want, and what we will and won’t allow, there’s no chance America as America will exist for much longer.
What I hear most often is that people want a house to themselves close to a school in a neighborhood where their kids are safe. They want a job where their boss can’t fire them without reason that pays enough for them not to have to worry about finances. They want to be able to go to the hospital without breaking the bank. They want to be able to call the police without worrying about somebody getting hurt. They want to be able to educate themselves without going into crippling debt. All of these are things we could achieve but are close to impossible in our current system. And if our system doesn’t work, how long until it falls apart.
Here’s the thing about society. It only exist because we all agree that it should exist and we all agree to follow the rules set by society. The moment we stop following the rules, society is based on nothing. But we keep forgetting that. We keep forgetting that a prison stops being a prison the moment the inmates storm the walls. I realize that organizing a movement to take down society is difficult, and the consequences would be both massive and horrifying, but I keep thinking, is peace worth it? Is peace where nobody’s happy and everyone wishes things were different worth it?
I keep hoping that things will get better. I don’t hold out hope in our elected officials, they’ll never be what we need them to be. I don’t hold out hope for corporations, they work in a system that incentivizes them to be monsters. I don’t hold out hope for republicans, they’re trapped like we are, and they don’t want to admit the ideals they grew up under are harming them directly. Put like that, I guess the reason I hope for revolution is that I honestly see it as the best of the very bad options we have. I know I’m not alone. I confess, I take comfort in the fact that I’m not the only one who hates the way things are right now and wants them to get better, who wants Covid to end, but isn’t entirely sure she wants to go back to normal. What would normal even look like after the past five years? Would it be like the normal we had in 2012, only with people being more afraid to talk about things? I just don’t see us being happy with normal anymore. We want things to change, the big question is, how do we make it happen?
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