Days Go By

“I remember how the meaning of words began to change. How unfamiliar words like “collateral” and “rendition” became frightening, while things like Norsefire and the Articles of Allegiance became powerful. I remember how “different” became dangerous. I still don’t understand it, why they hate us so much.”-V For Vendetta

I haven’t been inspired by Pop Culture recently to write much about it. In fact, what has been inspiring me lately is, without a doubt, my fear for what is happening in this country. Now, I’m a political science major, so I frequently spend time pondering things that seem boring to many people in the world. However, as I am known to connect everything to Popular Culture, I can describe my fears and such in Pop Culture terms. For instance, my roommate and I had a very interesting exchange the other night.

We were watching Children of Men, which he had never seen before that night, I was struck by the depiction of the world having gone to hell in a hand basket. My amazement at how our world was moving towards that very scenario led me to say to my roommate that when the world does drop into the inevitable hellhole depicted in that film that I will be the first one in line to say “I told you this shit would happen” to the entire world. How do I see this happening? Easy. If you’ve ever read “1984″ by George Orwell, one can’t help but see that we are slouching towards that particularly horrible Bethlehem. In fact, the idea of “Freedom is Slavery” of doublespeak is, without a doubt, the best description of Bush’s homeland security policies that one can think of. One can find the same level of correlation between the other phrases of doublespeak and the Bush administration, with very little effort. However, I don’t really want to spend all my time whining about the way the world is going to be destroyed, so I’ve decided to accept that this world is fucked. Accept that we’re moving towards a recessions that could easily be the worst to hit this country since the Great Depression. Get involved in politics anyway I can and try to make a difference. It is just vital that I spend a great deal of time trying to stop the descent into hell in anyway I can. And how am I to do that? Well, it isn’t easy. Especially not with somebody like me, who has issues with anxiety and dwelling on things.

Well, I’ve attempted to adopt a view of life that says that “Life isn’t yesterday, life isn’t tomorrow, it is now”. Granted, this is something that is much easier said with the Latin phrase “Carpe Diem”, but I prefer my way. I could also say that it as “One Day at a Time” but that makes me feel both like I’m in AA and on a bad ’70s sitcom, so I’m sticking with my phrase. So, I am doing my best to avoid taking people’s problems on myself, which is something that is hard for me. The reason I want to work in politics and with NGOs is because I do take everybody’s problems as my own and want to make the world a better place. So, here I am, doing everything in my power to help change the world in my own little ways, but accepting that there are things I cannot change. Hell, now that I think about it, my current philosophy on life is best described by the oft-quoted Serenity Prayer of AA.

“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.”

Day to day I hope that I will be able to embrace that thought. I may not be a God-fearing man. Hell, I may not even believe in the deity, but I will say that I do get the sentiment. If only that wisdom will come to me on a daily basis. Until then, I’ll keep living my life, one day at a time. We can each do our little bit to make the world a better place. Whether it be environmentally or socially, or just voting for a candidate that seems to want to make the world a better place and has a plan to do it, we should, each of us, make this world better one person at a time. If every person does one thing, how can it not improve?

Oh, and vote Obama.