If I am right that Obama will fail as a cultural revolutionary leader, then I’d like to propose that he owes some of this failure the fact that he is leading a childish nation, a citizenry composed of a people who, for various reasons, have proudly shut the door on maturity. What exactly I mean by maturity, I’ll get to later.
First, I have to admit that, in theory, a nation composed of adults behaving like children sounds like a great utopia. Because unlike so many adults, children are willing to play, expose their feelings, explore their world, learn new things and connect to others.
The problem for us, of courses, is that this epoch is seeing the vast majority of its citizens skip adulthood altogether, resulting in what I see as a society made up of mostly child-adults. These are the folks who wish to lead fundamentally jejune lives. Individuals who do not wish to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. While I can understand the hesitation – as I am one of these folks – in the end, enough of these people create a citizenry that is made up of tall, adulterated children, and, by definition, a corrupt state. It becomes a lose-lose situation where children make up the majority of the country, but lack the joyful qualities of real babes.
We aren’t crazy for fearing adulthood, though; we see in our parents how the supposed ‘real world’ is terribly demanding – emotionally, physically, spiritually and psychologically. ‘Out there’ things move fast, too fast, and we feel that we’ll have no choice but to join (and become real good at) competing in the rat race. ‘In here,’ at least we can slow things down. And what competition we have, in the form of GPA for example, can at least be private. Plus, what really awaits us out there but debt, marriage, children, responsibility, routine and a world that seems void of Carpe Diem. (We’ve all heard it: “Stay in school for as long as you can.”)
But who decided that adulthood had to be a sad place that’s up-early-newpaper-reading-coffee-sipping-boring-lonely-rushed-money-oriented-consumer-centered-individualistic? Surely we can imagine a world where becoming an adult is something to look forward to? Environmentalist Susan Griffin aptly states, “Let us begin to imagine the worlds we would like to inhabit…”
But this also requires maturing. Which to me means not being afraid of being critical, being committed to one’s own happiness, and to the happiness of others; similarly, it means learning to become in tune with the misery and suffering of other bodies (both at home home, home, and abroad); it means humility. Moreover, the happy adults that I know have retained a child’s sense of play, curiosity and compassion; but they do not pretend to be ignorant. In other words, growing up means assuming the difficult responsibilities of living in a so-called democratic system: As Cornell West would say, a mature citizenry would not be afraid to lay witness to injustice and to speak the Truth to Power with love. Rather, it would awake from its “sleep walk,” and take back our political systems, and values.
Of course, this is easier said than done. In a wealthy capitalistic society that aims to turn citizens into docile and conformist consumers, in a nation that runs on fast food and that prefers facility always, in this context, our fear and unwillingness to mature make perfect sense: maturing is process that it requires courage and hard work.
Personally,because this is my last year in college, I set out to make the best of it. To ensure that nothing could deviate me from a great year, I chose a theme that seemed perfect – “Just Do It.” It’s been fun, and I don’t think I need to tell you what I have been doing, but now, “Just Do It” takes on a different meaning. Perhaps it’s time to just grow up.
