~Mahatma Gandhi
I thought about this quote for a lot of reasons. It began this morning as I was working out in the hotel gym. Yes, I am at a hotel, with my family, in Tel Aviv. Quite strange being a full blown tourist in Israel. but for another time.
So, I'm on the elliptical watching Russian News (shout out to Sophie Kosar) and they were discussing the Occupy Wall Street protests. America has done all of this. We have tried to ignore it, we have made fun of it, and now there is amazing police brutality from use of pepper spray, arrests, and rubber bullets (especially at the Oakland protests). It's an amazing movement, and I think is starting an important discussion. I hope that they can continue on this momentum, and that we really have a discussion in America about class, privilege, and the growing disparity. Because it IS a problem.
Later on, as we (me, my family, and Rafi our tour guide) walked through the streets of Tel Aviv, I thought of it again. A hundred years ago, Israel didn't exist. It was a backwater province of the Ottoman Empire, with a tiny fraction of Jews living there. Tel Aviv, now a major city, was handing out plots to Jews, a small suburb of Jaffa. Herzl, while inspirational, was considered a nut. While I have many issues with the Zionist narrative, and it's omission of the forcible removal of Arabs from their homes, and persecution Bedouins have faced, it is another movement that dealt with this same process.First ignored, then laughed at, and then fought. And then won.
In many ways this is an amazing and ongoing narrative, filled with so much sorrow, and loss on both sides. While, over 60 years old, these wounds live on. They live on in the stories told to the children, in the distrust on both sides, and a military legacy. While Jews won a state, we lost a chance to develop peacefully, and become part of a region. It's created a very high cost of living, a large military state, and a tired population, ready for a change. I believe that change may finally come.
People, I think, in general have a hard time imagining things that do not exist. It is not merely dreamers, but actors that change our world. And while we look back on people such as Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, and Susan B. Anthony, at the time they did not have such favorable attitudes. To affect change, you're going to face critique, dissent. People do all that Gandhi said. It takes a strong will to achieve greatness.
Then I saw this video (go to 3:45 just to see the finished piece), and began to think about the current counter-culture "hipster" aesthetic. For me, it is certainly a mixed bag. On the one hand, I make fun of the stereotype because some people are merely about the surface of it, appearing as indie as possible. That somehow the right clothes, and music somehow makes you a better person. it doesn't. It's not really critical of the current American social reality: it's just another face of consumerism and materialism.
HOWEVER. laughing at them ignores something important: the importance of your values matching your spending. This is not a luxury everyone has. Some people can't afford to buy over expensive organic cotton USA made American Apparel clothing. While I hate Wal-Mart and all it stands for, it does help some people make ends meet, and I cannot argue with that.
However, I believe we do have a responsibility to understand what we spend and how we support different things. Whether it's the meat we eat, or the clothes we wear, when we purchase items, we support how that companies work, and treats its employees, the environment, and how it makes its products. Ignorance is not an excuse.
Still, we must do more than simply buy. Remember 9/11? We were asked to show our patriotism through SHOPPING. We live in a system that depends on us consuming more and more. It's bad for the environment, our wallets, and I think for our actual happiness. We must move away from materialism, and refocus our lives around the important things. Right now: name the 5 things that make you happy. Are any of them based around money or things? Yes, money is important and we need things such as clothes and food. But we can actively refocus our lives around what actually makes us happy instead of what we are constantly told we are supposed to. So what do you want? What do you want your life to look like? And more importantly: what can you do TODAY?
So congrats on getting to the end of this post. I'd love for this to be the beginning of a discussion. If you can't comment on this, feel free to email me, and we can continue the debate. I love a good dialogue :-)
Much Love,
KAS
I thought about this quote for a lot of reasons. It began this morning as I was working out in the hotel gym. Yes, I am at a hotel, with my family, in Tel Aviv. Quite strange being a full blown tourist in Israel. but for another time.
So, I'm on the elliptical watching Russian News (shout out to Sophie Kosar) and they were discussing the Occupy Wall Street protests. America has done all of this. We have tried to ignore it, we have made fun of it, and now there is amazing police brutality from use of pepper spray, arrests, and rubber bullets (especially at the Oakland protests). It's an amazing movement, and I think is starting an important discussion. I hope that they can continue on this momentum, and that we really have a discussion in America about class, privilege, and the growing disparity. Because it IS a problem.
Later on, as we (me, my family, and Rafi our tour guide) walked through the streets of Tel Aviv, I thought of it again. A hundred years ago, Israel didn't exist. It was a backwater province of the Ottoman Empire, with a tiny fraction of Jews living there. Tel Aviv, now a major city, was handing out plots to Jews, a small suburb of Jaffa. Herzl, while inspirational, was considered a nut. While I have many issues with the Zionist narrative, and it's omission of the forcible removal of Arabs from their homes, and persecution Bedouins have faced, it is another movement that dealt with this same process.First ignored, then laughed at, and then fought. And then won.
In many ways this is an amazing and ongoing narrative, filled with so much sorrow, and loss on both sides. While, over 60 years old, these wounds live on. They live on in the stories told to the children, in the distrust on both sides, and a military legacy. While Jews won a state, we lost a chance to develop peacefully, and become part of a region. It's created a very high cost of living, a large military state, and a tired population, ready for a change. I believe that change may finally come.
People, I think, in general have a hard time imagining things that do not exist. It is not merely dreamers, but actors that change our world. And while we look back on people such as Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, and Susan B. Anthony, at the time they did not have such favorable attitudes. To affect change, you're going to face critique, dissent. People do all that Gandhi said. It takes a strong will to achieve greatness.
Then I saw this video (go to 3:45 just to see the finished piece), and began to think about the current counter-culture "hipster" aesthetic. For me, it is certainly a mixed bag. On the one hand, I make fun of the stereotype because some people are merely about the surface of it, appearing as indie as possible. That somehow the right clothes, and music somehow makes you a better person. it doesn't. It's not really critical of the current American social reality: it's just another face of consumerism and materialism.
HOWEVER. laughing at them ignores something important: the importance of your values matching your spending. This is not a luxury everyone has. Some people can't afford to buy over expensive organic cotton USA made American Apparel clothing. While I hate Wal-Mart and all it stands for, it does help some people make ends meet, and I cannot argue with that.
However, I believe we do have a responsibility to understand what we spend and how we support different things. Whether it's the meat we eat, or the clothes we wear, when we purchase items, we support how that companies work, and treats its employees, the environment, and how it makes its products. Ignorance is not an excuse.
Still, we must do more than simply buy. Remember 9/11? We were asked to show our patriotism through SHOPPING. We live in a system that depends on us consuming more and more. It's bad for the environment, our wallets, and I think for our actual happiness. We must move away from materialism, and refocus our lives around the important things. Right now: name the 5 things that make you happy. Are any of them based around money or things? Yes, money is important and we need things such as clothes and food. But we can actively refocus our lives around what actually makes us happy instead of what we are constantly told we are supposed to. So what do you want? What do you want your life to look like? And more importantly: what can you do TODAY?
So congrats on getting to the end of this post. I'd love for this to be the beginning of a discussion. If you can't comment on this, feel free to email me, and we can continue the debate. I love a good dialogue :-)
Much Love,
KAS
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