*takes drag of pretend cigarette*
Well, I have to say it, we’re sorta screwed.
The phrase happily ever after is a staple of fairy tales, romance novels, and Hollywood love stories. As children, everyone recognized this phrase as a promise, listening and hoping for a future of endless joy where conflicts are resolved, love is unwavering, and life unfolds like a dream. But does such a thing exist in reality? Or is it merely an illusion, an unrealistic expectation that sets us up for the inherently inevitable disappointment?
The truth shall set us free, but what happens when a bird is trapped in a cage for too long? The cage is all the bird knows, so it will refuse to come out and will never be free.
The bird is what little we have left here in my suffering, beautiful 100 por 35 island of moving pictures. Between old hands clothed by colored linen, moving and picking through produce fresh from the island; my grandma’s machete cutting through our mata de plátano out back; two trains crossing as they pass through the Martinez Nadal stop; a roaming, lonely coconut as the tide washes in midday on the beach; mi Puerto Rico vive.
After these past elections, to those of us currently living the results (the nightmarish manifestation of it all), it’s important to note that the tides have shifted. The usual suspects are still in power, stripping us of what little we have left; but, there was a significant shift in the balance of our political standpoint as an island, and that’s an important first step. It’s a way to wake us up, to clear the deep fog, because simply and sincerely, how many of us have chosen to turn the other cheek until it’s too late? How many times have we smothered and bleached the truth? Concocting lies to gaslight ourselves into believing we can prosper under a system that doesn’t want us to? Or it seems that way. How many of us actually accept the harsh truth? The fact of the matter is “you can’t handle the truth!” (sorry I just had to.)
My point is that many of us actually can do something about it, but we falter under the uncertainty of being in charge of our future when we’re so used to seeing it be taken care of by the hotshots in the big offices of the Capitol.
The hypotheticals of the boogie man named independence aren’t so hypothetical anymore, the guaraguaos are swarming in a circle and the clock is ticking…
It’s pertinent to stop sugarcoating the situation and underline it in an effort to maintain social awareness… We are substantially in the trenches.
Many politicians and their “political movements,” within the bipartisan wet dream, have been selling the idea of an ideal future — whether it’s economic prosperity, social justice, or national unity and security — which we still haven’t gotten after… how many years? But, I digress. Just like in fairy tales, these promises often overlook the complexities of governance, human nature, and systemic challenges; the nitty and gritty, the down and dirty, the detrimental and bloody. And so, I question, are we chasing an unrealistic happily ever after in politics? It seems like the more we have chased for the big dream, the more our island has deteriorated and suffered at the mercy of figureheads. So, you would imagine that there is no such thing as setting us up for perpetual disappointment and disillusionment? Right?
Media literacy is in a drought of connaissance and we’re relying more on a generative machine to create art, manage critical thinking, and even emote (?!?) rather than on human lives, humanity, empathy, all the imperfectly perfect details. I’m truly at a loss for words on how many devastating and detrimental side-effects of active ignorance are in motion.
Misinformation and anti-intellectualism is on the rise and we’re doing nothing to stop it.
How have we stooped so low? Become so malleable in the face of submission?
This entire crisis I’m splurging onto my keyboard has a couple of reasons beside the obvious socio-political impending doom. One day, I was on my morning Substack scroll and found this exhibition curated by Jose Luis Vicente, a Spanish journalist. The exposition is named “Después del fin del mundo,” which translates to “After the end of the world.”
The exposition — redundantly so — intends to create open discussions about the current climate status of the planet and make the viewer irrefutably aware of the irreparable damage that our actions have caused to the Earth by exposing and exploring the irreversible transition into the Anthropocene era. It’s comprised of eight immersive installations with a collective of artists, philosophers, novelists, objects, plants, architects, playwrights, satellites, and holograms all working in tandem to emphasize how we need human tact and consciousness to progress. And I sat there, letting it sink into the deep pit in my stomach. There is a magnitude to the inevitable crisis and I’m holding silence in between my rib cage to echo out the chaos and let ignorance be a warm blissful blanket to smother and suffocate the lingering fret.
By actively choosing to wake up and smell the poison, the possibility of change becomes more tangible.
So here begins my optimistic tangent, finally.
As of now everything is political — it always has been, but for the sake of the argument, it’s a recent development. It’s highly crucial not to lose hope, because even hope is political in these times.
Hope, kindness, empathy, education, comprehension, I could go on and on… all of these are resistance. The raw and vulnerable aspect of being human aids in the process of redirection and education. Knowledge is power and irrevocably bound; a double edged sword; the less educated people have the higher probability of submission and malleability; see where I’m going with this?
We need to bleed, we need to feel and express and learn.
Our minds are our biggest enemies yet our greatest assets, and we can use that to our advantage and progress.
I feel like I’m typing hysterically as I fire these canons of introspection.
Remember folks:
Neutrality is still a side.
Ignorance is a choice in times like these.
Let us not repeat our history for we might lay out the map for a fate so cruel.
My goal is to expose how detrimentally crucial it is for us to be in the here and now.
Make mistakes, but do better. We are our only chance.