If you know me, you know I love learning — I believe that knowledge is the most powerful thing a person can possess. After two and a half years as a student in higher education, perhaps due to my major, it has dramatically dawned on me that the more I advance in my knowledge and degree, the subject matter only gets increasingly worse, every time. For that, though I am exhausted, I am forever grateful, because with the world we live in, ignorance may be bliss but it leaves one’s imagination to be motionless. From the politics of race, class, gender, and war to the impacts of climate change and capitalism, I have learned that above all else, this knowledge, that is in the pursuit of understanding the world, its people, and how we, as those people, can be better for each other, is a privilege to learn — when it should be given as a free right.
I took out student loans so that I can learn about the tragedies of the world, how they happen repeatedly without resolution, how the same group of people has been in power for centuries, how those people use the rest of the world’s population and resources to remain in control, and most importantly – how to aim for progress, but to never mistake progress for problem-solving. I read thousands of pages of academic articles that explain the questions in my mind so beautifully and effectively, I attend lectures given by researchers and activists, and after all day of learning about the way the poor and working classes have been exploited and disadvantaged, I realize… this knowledge costs money, yet it was made up by the lives of those who cannot afford it, those who have been denied it. The more I learn in the classroom and the better I understand the politics and the history, the less I feel hopeful or optimistic because I still cannot understand why history has played out like this or why the elite must possess so much capital, militant, and psychological power over people. Yes, I can make sense of the continuity, the laws and policies, and the ideologies — but I don’t believe I will ever be able to grasp the reason why: because to me, no amount of power nor money is worth undignifying someone else.
With my mom at the kitchen table, I’ve described my own utopia of love and light so many times. Finding the words to articulate how disappointed I am at the reality of society, I opt to choose words that sound like warmth, like a bright future, like we have hope left. Academia teaches us what was, what is, and what could be, based on trends — but I’ve found that forward movement is not always progress, and progress rarely solves any problems. If I ruled the world, more than just the daydream world I live in for survival, I would simply have things make sense for the people, for the good of the people.
I often daydream about what our world would look like, about what our lives would feel like, and about how intelligent we could be if we weren’t so bound by the systems I’m paying to learn about*. I envision the Earth to be green and the water to be clean, because we would produce items and food for comfort, health, quality and need, rather than indulgence, profit, cheapness and greed. I fantasize about a government that is run by non-money-hungry people, one that caters to its people with empathy and resources.
If I ruled the world, first and foremost, people would have access to the fruits of their labor and they would have time to enjoy the flavors, in sustainable ways. Sustainable public transportation, community agriculture in the suburbs and cities, to bring back a sense of caring for the planet (and to feed people!). There would be mental and physical health clinics with professionals that are paid by the government, not the patient fees, so that anyone can get help at any time for any reason, without having to worry about anything external. Education would be free, universal, and cater to teaching accurate histories. It would include how to heal and how to be passionate about anything and everything. The goal in life wouldn’t be to be rich, of status, and financially comfortable (because everyone would be, as everyone should be,) rather the goal would be to enjoy life, to create, learn, explore, and simply be.
Why is the planet literally exploding, crying and burning up? Why do people not reach for help, or search for help in ineffective places? Why is it that if you are ill, you must pay to get better? There is one simple explanation: there is no profit for the government in solving these issues — our government, which is full of stock-trading politicians and corporate lobbyists. In the big year of 2022, corporations, and by this I mean their few executives at the top of each one, own the means of mass production. Here’s a crazy number to chew on, of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are for-profit corporations**. Corporations that cut down forests, blow up mountains, mass-produce toxic chemicals into the environment, convince the government to go to war, and exploit every single worker on the line by paying unlivable wages, taking advantage of immigration statuses, mandatory overtime, unforgivable student loans, and toxic working/living conditions. All of this is in the name of making more and more money. It doesn’t make sense to me, it likely never will, my mom knows that if I ruled the world we’d have more respect for ourselves and for each other.
Of course, too, the street signs would be baby pink and the cities would have public restrooms where you don’t have to buy something just to use them. Amongst a few other things, if I ruled the world, my reason why would be because the way we’re living now is going to tire and expire the planet before we’ll even have the collective access to the knowledge to be able to admit it’s toxic. If you know me, perhaps the way my mom knows me, you know I have to step back and look at the bigger picture before I can continue sometimes – now that I have, I will, as we all must. I sincerely wish that your daydreams are always as pretty as mine, so one day when people have the power, we can live in something beautiful.
* This is an incredibly captivating Youtube video that explains “The Story of Stuff”. I really recommend giving it your time!
**(racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, xenophobia, capitalism, and imperialism… the whole deal).