A scene from the movie “Waking Life” poses a
question that I think is highly relevant to the UCLA student body:
“So what are these barriers that keep people from reaching
anywhere near their real potential? The answer to that can be found
in another question, and that’s this, which is the most
universal human characteristic: fear or laziness?”
That second question has been running through my mind over the
past few weeks because it seems the more my peers learn about how
the world works, and how messed up it is, the more I encounter the
attitude that they, “just don’t care.”
Or they care, but, “It’s not a priority,”
“you can’t save everybody.” “¦ you get the
picture. And so I had to wonder why? Why is it so hard to motivate,
agitate, and affect people to actually make changes in their lives
as well as the lives of others? If you accept the personal is
political, then this question naturally extends from the first
question in the quote above. People won’t help out others
until they first begin to help out themselves.
For those of us in the “movement,” the one that is
trying to save the world (or at least a piece of it), understanding
the second question is crucial if we ever hope to make forward
progress. It was the masses that ended the Vietnam War, the masses
that brought about civil rights, and it will be the masses that
will stop the United States from invading and bombing one country
after the next.
As UCLA students we make up an elite part of this mass. We are
also part of the most complacent group of this mass, so let me try
and illustrate why.
After watching “Bowling for Columbine,” my old
roommate proclaimed the U.S. was basically going down the toilet.
He put forth some reasons as greed, inequality, racism, etc., and
even had some progressive solutions. Unfortunately, his solutions
involved other people and groups doing things. I then asked what he
himself, with his knowledge and privilege, could do to better the
situation.
He replied, “Honestly man, I’m out to get mine right
now. That may sound messed up, but that’s how it
is.”
My initial reaction was, “Wow, I can’t believe my
friend is so selfish.”
Then I thought it over a bit. All last year, my friend never
mentioned having such a desire for wealth. In fact, the most
excitement he showed was working on a paper for Professor Von
Blum’s Comm175 class (Criticism and the Public Arts). In it
he critiqued Gary Trudeau’s “Doonesbury,”
illustrating how the comic was art in action, how post-Sept. 11,
2001 criticized many of the injustices being committed by this
nation domestically and abroad.
It was a fabulous paper, and his passion for it was obvious by
the way he talked about it, and reflected further in the amount of
time he put into it. Then graduation came, summer passed, and
suddenly he was facing the real world.
And that’s when it hits most of us. That four years at
UCLA has prepared us for just what exactly? A job we don’t
want? A career we don’t like?
Look around you, how many of your friends are doing something
they enjoy? How many of them are really happy?
The future doesn’t have to be so bleak, and it’s for
us to address why we’re in a constant state of conformity. In
my friend’s case, he has his parents’ full support to
do whatever he chooses, yet he’s actively trying to get this
job in investment banking. After talking with another friend, I
realized that his primary motive for this newfound career path
wasn’t greed or selfishness, but fear.
Because we are told day in and day out, especially living in
L.A., that you need the M3, the Gucci watch, and the Diesel jeans
to get that girl. Or you need that degree in business, medicine or
engineering in order to have a stable life. And without all that,
then damn, you had better be worried, because you might end up
alone and miserable.
It is this type of fear that keeps the system of “dog eat
dog” churning. And it is exactly this climate, so prevalent
here at UCLA, that those of us in the movement must confront and
conquer if we ever hope to affect broad change on this campus. Let
me end by saying to all those pursuing their dreams at odds with
their parents or with their peers, that your pursuits are an action
against the status quo, and for this, you should be proud.