our guest speaker

'I couldn't stay until the end of class, so I don't know what happened later....
I found our speaker riveting (no surprise he is a motivational speaker), and tres inspiring,

Getting young folks to vote and get interested in policy is great- although i personally believe we are very much more beyond screwed than voting can ever rectify....but the thing about being so 'screwed' is that there is so much to do, so that their is a virtually unlimited number of ways to help rescue the planet, and our speaker picked what he is good at....

he is also a great example of the fact that it we are so screwed in fact, that I don't even care where your coming from- so long as your doing something,

he, himself describes himself as a "capitalist", and with that fits and does not fit that stereotype in my mind,
because he is doing something, with his time of youth project, that seems like it will give info and therefore power to some kids (from what i saw in class) , while at the same time holds these Dr. Phil-esque ideas of meritocracy and you can 'do-doo-doodley-do it if you tryyyy..' which just reeks of priviliedge no matter how you slice it- particularly as he responded to stephen's assertion of this privilege in such a flippant, disdainful way.....

but the reason that no one else did so sooner- challenge him that is- is because, as he himself noted, his personal politics were not what his presentation was consciously about---although on the flipside of that - he chose to get on the podium and show this side, but still I am not sure it really was his character or life view that was meant to be a point of discussion...

however since it was made one and i felt uneasy after leaving class as his flippant remarks about 'oh yeah- so people in sudan don't have the same opportunities' etc etc...

if that view is so tiresome to him, perhaps the problematic of the result of this thinking can be drawn out, as a life motto - you know 'try your best' type thing, fine. But this 'rags to riches', 'work hard, play harder' type thinking as a world view has the end result of viewing people as just not trying hard enough---which is exactly where so much crazy-making comes from, and is a very harmful view for people in less powerful positions to internalize---as my friend, Simon, who began the "Theatre of the Oppressed" which uses theatre as a mode of social transformation put it: " the poor people, and oppressed people of Hamilton don't even know that they are oppressed"----instead they hold the exact same view as our guest speaker--that you just got pull yourself up by the bootstraps-----which makes the result obvious when you have this thinking and also cannot feed your kids (etc)- that there is something wrong with you- that you are bad, lazy, worthless, stupid, unworthy....the list goes on...

of course, our speaker did not get his view from himself, but that is exactly what our oppressors-rich people that make decisions to 'benefit' (i use quote marks because how does ruining the one planet we live on benefit anyone?) rich people would like us to believe and continue to believe--their slogan? personalize it!

...for goodness sake, don't draw any wider social implications that would take your view of yourself and your own life....so if your poor and go hungry, you better believe you gotta look in the mirror and just get stuck there...

so - good, great for our speaker that this thinking benefits himself and people like him ---people with social networks - that give you free tickets to Octoberfest to get "very drunk", and money and education to access materials to tape "vlogs" whilst also drunk....a mobility in life that can obscure the fact that these liberties and freedoms go a long way to making you feel that you live in a world where you count, a world that on some level works for you- rather than against you,where you make a difference, where you have a voice and support.....and makes it hard to understand how the absence of these make it difficult/impossible for others to have a 'just do it' attitude.....

but a rant like this could go on for days, but amongst the many points, is the one mentioned earlier: I don't have to like you or your world view- after all making friends is not enough to help our situation--what matters is the end result- real world actions in the real world...everything else is secondary...

- the real world- the earth - is primary - it is the main point.

lee