Seize the Opportunity for Change

In the wake of Obama’s victory, we must rise together and manifest a cultural shift.

80 comments Sarah Nardi,

Despite today’s euphoria, when Barack Obama takes office in January 2009, he will inherit a decidedly grim reality. He will preside over a culture of overweight, overwrought and overextended Americans who may not have the capacity to sustain the sense of hope on which we are now so happily drunk.

He will have to stride unflinchingly into the economic aftermath brought about by an overgrown model and preach measure and moderation to a country that has long worshipped at the altar of consumption. He will be singularly charged with purifying our toxic collective consciousness, with eradicating the seeds of cynicism, apathy and malaise. Once inaugurated, Obama is Atlas – the weight of the world and its future resting on the shoulders of one man. Now is the time for us to truly rise. To come together as a single entity of disparate parts working to recreate American culture and resurrect the American dream. Our hopes, our dreams and our strength cannot concentrate in the body of one man. It is our job, as cultural creatives, jammers and meme warriors, to truly seize this opportunity for change. This is our window. The world is listening.

We are hopeful, we are strong, we are alive. The future is up for grabs – it's time to make our move. What will we do to carry this momentum forward?

80 comments on the article “Seize the Opportunity for Change”

Displaying 61 - 70 of 80

Page 7 of 8

Shawn Michel de...

09 November 2008 at 12:21 pm
Obama's landslide victory is a solid repudiation of eight years of neoconservative rule. It comes precisely at the moment when it should and when it must: within this century humanity faces die-off if it does not get its collective act together. Despite Obama's victory, I harbor strong doubts that this will occur. His ascension to the presidency only allows me to offer a meager handful of chances to our species, to our world. But I will take that handful over the alternative any day. America is a consumptive, piggish, apathetic, and profoundly slothful nation. Our grandparents, who fought their way out of the Great Depression, would not recognize it today, were they still alive (some still are). We expect everything to be handed to us; we are slobbering subscribers to planned obsolescence, to obesity, to status-seeking, to money. We claim we want change: we voted Obama into office. But what I fear is that we will expect him and his administration to do all the work (impossible on its face) whilst we kick back in our Barka loungers and add another twenty pounds of flab to our asses. Given that recipe, he will fail utterly. If you want real, authentic change, as I've yelled many times on this very site, you must first change yourself. You must learn to think, then you must learn to think for yourself. Three things: authentic change, learning to think, learning to think for yourself. Very, very few, I fear, will bother. It's too much work. It takes courage and the willingness to move beyond the known. It takes discomfort. It takes the rejection of sloth. Game over. So many on this site claim they want change. They mouth big words and post comments and whatnot; but its all bullcrap. They continue with their corporate jobs; they continue being cogs to the machine they claim to hate; they continue supporting suburbia and its culture of death; they IM their friends from the safety of their cute little surburban enclaves, sucking madly on the collective herd teat. They're posers. Are you one? Until you wake to the fact that you are--I mean really wake to it, which forces change upon you--then all your hope and optimism is mastubatory and laughable. Wake up.

Shawn Michel de...

09 November 2008 at 12:21 pm
Obama's landslide victory is a solid repudiation of eight years of neoconservative rule. It comes precisely at the moment when it should and when it must: within this century humanity faces die-off if it does not get its collective act together. Despite Obama's victory, I harbor strong doubts that this will occur. His ascension to the presidency only allows me to offer a meager handful of chances to our species, to our world. But I will take that handful over the alternative any day. America is a consumptive, piggish, apathetic, and profoundly slothful nation. Our grandparents, who fought their way out of the Great Depression, would not recognize it today, were they still alive (some still are). We expect everything to be handed to us; we are slobbering subscribers to planned obsolescence, to obesity, to status-seeking, to money. We claim we want change: we voted Obama into office. But what I fear is that we will expect him and his administration to do all the work (impossible on its face) whilst we kick back in our Barka loungers and add another twenty pounds of flab to our asses. Given that recipe, he will fail utterly. If you want real, authentic change, as I've yelled many times on this very site, you must first change yourself. You must learn to think, then you must learn to think for yourself. Three things: authentic change, learning to think, learning to think for yourself. Very, very few, I fear, will bother. It's too much work. It takes courage and the willingness to move beyond the known. It takes discomfort. It takes the rejection of sloth. Game over. So many on this site claim they want change. They mouth big words and post comments and whatnot; but its all bullcrap. They continue with their corporate jobs; they continue being cogs to the machine they claim to hate; they continue supporting suburbia and its culture of death; they IM their friends from the safety of their cute little surburban enclaves, sucking madly on the collective herd teat. They're posers. Are you one? Until you wake to the fact that you are--I mean really wake to it, which forces change upon you--then all your hope and optimism is mastubatory and laughable. Wake up.

PC

09 November 2008 at 02:28 pm
The article asks what are you going to do to bring this vague concept of change to reality and everyone that posts is either cynical or simply says "yeah! Let’s change! Awesome!" and then moves on with their lives. Here is how we change: 1. Stop going to major American news websites, stop watching them on television 2. Don't buy anything from any company if you don't agree with their ethics and practices. 3. Write letters to your elected officials that states clearly what your concerns about the countries future are 4. Take your money out of the bank If you think that Mr. Obama is going to be killed then go out in the street the day he dies and riot. Coming to this website and posting a comment does nothing for any cause you belong to. You're still being apathetic. Leaving the fate of the world in the hands of any elected official is retarded and if you do such a thing then how can you be upset when they don't come through. Sitting on your couch and whining to your buddies over a bong solves nothing.

PC

09 November 2008 at 02:28 pm
The article asks what are you going to do to bring this vague concept of change to reality and everyone that posts is either cynical or simply says "yeah! Let’s change! Awesome!" and then moves on with their lives. Here is how we change: 1. Stop going to major American news websites, stop watching them on television 2. Don't buy anything from any company if you don't agree with their ethics and practices. 3. Write letters to your elected officials that states clearly what your concerns about the countries future are 4. Take your money out of the bank If you think that Mr. Obama is going to be killed then go out in the street the day he dies and riot. Coming to this website and posting a comment does nothing for any cause you belong to. You're still being apathetic. Leaving the fate of the world in the hands of any elected official is retarded and if you do such a thing then how can you be upset when they don't come through. Sitting on your couch and whining to your buddies over a bong solves nothing.

nickolivolkov

10 November 2008 at 11:52 am
Damn. There are motivators that waste time with blemished rhetoric, then there is the simplistic realist, with a message that only needs a few words to get across. Dig it!

nickolivolkov

10 November 2008 at 11:52 am
Damn. There are motivators that waste time with blemished rhetoric, then there is the simplistic realist, with a message that only needs a few words to get across. Dig it!

Pages

Add a new comment

Comments are closed.
Create new ambiences and psyhic possibilities