How many people suffer through a lifelong low-grade malaise instead of living a full-on vibrant life, simply because they did not choose to live their dream?
"It's not my fault. No one told me I should."
Currently we live in a world that too often does not support creativity and independent thinking, but rather encourages conformity and obedience. The system makes it easy to cop out on our dreams and take the safe, easy path. “If you don’t know where you’re going, every path will lead you there.” We’re not taught to have any kind of vision of our own brilliance, and bravely follow it.
But built into this equation is also the fact that we ultimately are responsible for our decisions. No one else. And therein lies the real crux of it. There's also a current trend that says it's okay to blame someone else, anyone else, for everything that is wrong with one's life.
Not taking personal responsibility may be the biggest societal malaise of all. If things go wrong out there in the big, bad world, we can blame the decisions of the politicians. But wait! We put them there. So if it all goes bad, really we only have ourselves to blame for agreeing with and supporting the system.
The governments we have make the gratuitous appearance of serving the people, but lately the self-serving nature of it is seeping through ever-widening cracks. Witness the label "non-essential" applied to so many small businesses during the height of a pandemic. The callousness exhibited in delivering the bureaucratic edicts was appalling.
What was more troublesome to me, though, was the cruel disregard that individuals (some with their own small businesses) displayed for others who were shut down. I saw this complete lack of empathy firsthand. As long as they felt safe, it was okay for someone else's dream to be shattered.
Perhaps change begins with the education system, where we encourage the next generation to embrace their creativity, and not just learning by rote for a society that is shifting dramatically. "Rote" is not going to fix the problems that face us right now. We need creative thinkers who are allowed the freedom to implement new and innovative ideas.
And perhaps more than that, we need more love, empathy, and support between each other on a personal level. If we cannot count on the support of each other to build our dreams, and as well to have empathy and lend a hand to someone whose dreams are temporarily in tatters, then the system will have succeeded in killing our humanness.
Let's not let it do that to us.
© SL Hart 2023
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