My Manifesto.

I am going to fail.
I am also going to succeed.

The reason I know this is very simple - I take action.
I know I don’t know all the answers, and the best solutions are probably things I never would have thought to think of. There is so much information in the world and time is so scarce that there is no way I could possibly know everything about any one issue; and there are so many issues that even if I could know everything about one thing, I probably wouldn’t know which one to focus on.

Our entire generation is in the same spot though.
We’ve got so many problems to deal with and so many opportunities to seize.

Things that were once specialized fields have become easily accessible thanks to technology. Anyone with the will and a computer can make a poster, design a website, publish their own writing, compose music without playing an instrument, participate in global discussions, read foreign newspapers, blog to strangers around the globe, and more... Technology has made the tools easily accessible enough that anyone can try. So much to the point that if you’re up to date with consumer society you are a renaissance resource. Time magazine even named you the person of the year in 2006 for your amazing work. So congratulations my fellow citizens - we’re the most hyperactive procrastinators and producers the world has ever seen and our potential talent is only matched by our active apathy and indifference and our illogical attachment to old expectations. We need to get the highest GPAs to help us aquire BS BAs to pad our resumes in order to get a 401k, invest in IRAs, pay off the HMOs until we can R.I.P. with the freedom of the deceased. And while we’re busy conforming to the old mold and doing what we’re told there’s problems to address like global poverty, environmental catastrophes, unsustainable production, military facilitated destruction, human rights abuses, technology misuses, economic mismanagement and the lack of education helping us be unaware of the problems left off the list. We should be pissed off.

Our education system is pathetic. I didn’t know the names of the countries in Central Asia until my sophomore year of college when I specifically took a class to fix that problem. I’ll be the first to admit to my ignorance. I do not know the history of anywhere in Africa, Asia, South America or the rest of North America. And yet I posses a degree in History and an Indian identity. And a quick look at what I was wearing today informs me that my underwear was made in Honduras, my bra in Central African Republic, my jeans in China, my sweatshirt in Turkey and a tee-shirt from Pakistan. This is not an exaggeration. All of my clothing today has come from places I’ve never been.

My education regarding our American system of government was only one semester of my senior year, in which every Friday we spent watching movies. Napoleon Dynamite is the thing I remember best from that class - and I never once cut. I remember reading the Greatest Generation and being pissed off at the book because he argues that the generation which grew up during the depression and then fought WWII was the greatest generation any society has produced - and all I could think about was people of the same generation also built crematoriums and designed the holocaust. A generation is defined by time - not location, and because he applauds only a select group he makes himself blind to the issues of the time that forced those people to stand. When citizens see a future of death, destruction, and a lack of freedoms for the living, standing up shouldn’t be extraordinary. Standing up should be normal. And the fact that this is not normal, means our call to action is needed more than ever. 50 years from now I hope our generation doesn’t get false accolades for simply doing what we should, because if we do it means the culture of active citizenship has only been a phase not a lasting social evolution.

If I stand up for civil rights, environmental reform, sound fiscal policies, antiwar efforts, new methods of diplomacy, investment in the arts, open dialogs and human dignity - that should not make me an activist That should make me normal. Our generation normally multi-tasks. We don’t second guess the ability of the average man to text while driving, sing while showering, do work while watching TV, twitter while working and use every application on an iPhone - we’re obviously capable of doing more than one thing at once. And we need to There are over 2.5 billion people on our planet who live without basic sanitation. Climate Change is a global problem and yet the commitment average citizens are asked to make is turning off their lights for an hour. Really? Is that all we need to do?

How is it our generation with all the renaissance talents, tools to communicate, abilities and passions - has failed thus far to cultivate a civic society that utilizes these talents to better itself? We have all the skills to do so, we have the time to do so, but we don’t have the WILL to do so. Somehow our generation has the time to play on their Wiis enough to cause "Wiiitis" an acute version of tennis elbow, and yet we can’t seem to afford time to think about things as basic as our food and where it comes from? There is a “Paradox of Choice” that our generation is confronted with: We have the power to act, the information to act upon, the tools to be heard, and crippling anxiety about the number of issues we must address.

Maybe these issues are too big for one person to affect and as a result students despair and assume they can’t cause change. - but even on a local level there’s so much work to be done On the same issues too. Education reform, for instance. Why? Because I know the school system I’m a part of is focused more on assigning a letter to my ability to present regurgitated information than on aiding me in making new connections. Since September there have been at least three hate crimes in Isla Vista. There are environmental problems and oil developments. Housing prices are ridiculous. University workers aren’t making a living wage. The majority of women have experienced harassment; racism and homophobia are no strangers to our community even though 84% of students voted no on 8. We might look progressive at times but we’ve got a lot to do.

When confronted with the paradox of choice, we must not chose inaction. Although it seems like an easy way to avoid the problem, what inaction leads to is the problems continuing uninterrupted. It would be like buying a home and not doing maintenance for fear of breaking something - you might cause a problem if you act, but give it enough time and the gutters will clog, your roof will leak and you’ll be forced to act to address worse circumstances and pay a higher price. A civil society is not something that can passively exist, it requires active citizenship, and apathy is the greatest danger our generation could possibly face.

So I will stand.
And I will to try to do my part.
And as I stand and plan to take action I know that sometimes I will fail. Sometimes my best won’t be enough. Sometimes I will be tired and frustrated and angry at the things too big for me to change. And that’s okay. Because the alternative to sometimes failing is never trying. And given the stakes, that is an option our generation can’t afford to take. Because like it or not we live in a democracy and a government that is “of the people, by the people, for the people” will be made up of people like you and people like me. And given that we live in a democracy it is unacceptable that we sit by idly. I will stand. Will you join me?