So, things are really moving on the trip to Africa. We've applied for visas. I'm getting the paperwork for the course finished this week. I've asked to have the last 3o hours rule waved, and it's been approved by several important people. Good things.
I got an email the yesterday from Limerick, too. I haven't officially been accepted, but it looks good. Any thing's better than nothing.
I guess I've been feeling like this blog should be a space for my travel plans only, but I guess that's unrealistic. Once I'm in Ireland there won't be much to say. Maybe it's time to start really blogging. So... here goes?
First, welcome to my friends from Columbia Quaker meeting... if you're out there...
One of the things I've been struggling with in general but particularly in the last few weeks has been the concept of idealism. My friend David is a self-defined pragmatist, and while he shares a lot of my core values, doesn't share my vision of what the world ought to be by the time we leave it. He's a "small government libertarian." He believes in the American Dream. He doesn't understand my persistent hope that socialism could work. He doesn't care to wonder if people are inherently good.
I used to think I was brave for believing in things others thought impossible. Now I wonder if I'm not just hiding behind that facade. I admit it. I am incapable of living out the life I'd hope for. Or maybe I'm just unwilling to live it. Are my trips to Africa and Mexico, my work in community service, my talk of social justice really nothing more than overcompensation?
David and I ask different questions, I guess. But, all the same, I realize that I have a need for that idealistic vision. Maybe this is why going to Meeting has been such a comfort to me. A lot of churches talk a big game about how we ought to act, but they're so afraid of politics (and, I think, justly so) that they don't actually take action as a group. Meeting is a place where we share information about political rallies, peace walks, and attempts to take humanitarian aid to Cuba. What is it about that space that is different? What allows for that idealism? Or rather, what necessitates it?
I'm still processing the events at Virginia Tech this week. I'd like to write about it, but I'm not ready. Maybe a little later?
Tired now...
1 comment:
Well I'm glad I was able to spark internal debate, but I don't think I properly clarified my beliefs.
I oppose Communism or any other idealistic system that does not take into account the feasibility of their plan. And the reason I do so is because I DO care to think about whether people are inherently good, and I've come to the conclusion that
People are capable of great kindness and great evil and which they chose is due in large part to external influences including the system in which they live.
The death camp guards for the Nazis were not a bunch of psychopaths. The were normal men who were told what they were doing was okay. The system they were in encouraged them to become monsters, and they went along because they lacked counter examples.
Why does Abu Ghrab(sp?) happen? Lack of leadership and oversight from the top.
But that does not mean people are inherently evil. They are capable of good as well, but it must be encouraged on a large scale, and there must be a system in place to make sure abuses do not occur.
So when I say I hate communism. I hate it as a SYSTEM not an IDEAL because I believe that system has lead to incredibly cruelty and has corrupted idealism and used it as a force of evil. To use idealism as a tool to destroy the human spirit is as great a crime as I can think of, and it has happened time and time again in communist systems.
To use an example not related to communism, when I spoke in favor of the World Bank, you quickly corrected me that the mission of the World Bank, which we both agree is a noble one, is not necessarily what is going on. Their method of carrying out that ideal has created harm and should be corrected.
So I'm not asking you to give up on your idealism only to examine the methods in which those ideas should be implemented so that they achieve their purpose.
As for your own personal journey, (and I'll try to do this without getting overly emotional and cheesy as I'm not very good at it) I can only say you helped me in a time in my life where I was confused as to my purpose. I mean to the point to where I was clinically depressed.
I can safely say I would have never considered City Year or Americorp if I hadn't known you, which has forced me to consider who I am as a person and what is important to me in life, and I've decided to become an agent of good in the world in whatever way I can.
Your idealism awakened something deep and powerful within me and for that I am profoundly grateful, and if you can have that kind of impact, you've got to be doing something right :P
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