Preview Summary –
- Imagine during our nation’s founding, if folks didn’t bother to see the Revolution through, or skipped the rest of the Constitutional Convention, come what may.
- With government shutdown stalemate some feel their policies are like a rising tide to lift all boats. The problem is when they wanna throw others overboard to let them drown in lack, debt or pain.
- We can’t let our fast & furious lifestyle or the ‘internet of things’ distract us where we’re so plugged-in but at the same time so checked-out.
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“Da Island Guy”
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With each week of government shutdown, many wonder what it would take to break the cycle. These days it’s not clear whether both sides even want to sit down and have a genuine conversation to move America towards a more perfect union. Imagine during our nation’s founding, if folks didn’t bother to see the Revolution through, or skipped the rest of the Constitutional Convention, come what may. That might be what we have in today’s climate of shutdown, finger pointing and PR/fundraising stunts.
To appreciate the inner workings and underbelly of the current moment, we need to understand when two Americas got launch, going back to our founding. There’s been a pattern of struggle that first came about as patriots vs loyalists. Since then, the struggle evolved into abolitionists vs enslavers, union vs confederates, activists vs segregationists, and more recently to inclusive vs conservative. We’re seeing some of this play out today in the redistricting battle of mecca states vs massa states. What makes it more challenging these days is how some use that pattern of struggle to gaslight the nation. The idea of change must begin with and in us not just in trying to figure out whether to vote for a different candidate.
So, is there something we can draw from history to address this predicament? Moreover, is there a disconnect among everyday folks and the ‘Now Generation’? Consider the first 20 years of America’s founding (1776-1796) and the first 20 years and beyond of the civil rights movement (1955-1975). These moments were driven by the civics of things. Before political parties started taking hold in 1796, we had the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights. Even Civil Rights gains happened with a ‘civics of things’ mindset. Plus, when you look at the history of civic engagement and advocacy in America, you’ll find dual strategies like the following:
- Lead-up to Independence; rollout from the Convention.
- Crusade for Citizenship (Civics) in 1957 with Dr. King; Anthem for Action in 1960 with John Lewis.
This might give clues for America’s next chapter. When you look at those periods compared to now, what we’re doing today is like a drop in the bucket. We’ve gotta step-up our game from “flavors of ice cream to nutrients of impact, from calories to protein”. During the civil rights movement, young people were often the catalyst, the bootstrap, the jump-off. So, SAIC turned these dual strategies to engage everyday folks and the ‘Now Generation’ with our #MojoInAmerica (make our journeys one) and ‘Boots on the Ground’ initiatives. As in the 60’s, it’s about content to rally around civic engagement, pop culture to rally around hometown empowerment. This might even help us understand the shutdown cycle. Some might say their policies are like a rising tide to lift all boats. The problem is when they wanna throw others overboard to let them drown in lack, debt or pain. That’s an example of how the pattern of struggle can be used in ways that bring deception, dysfunction and dystopia in society.
So, in the lead-up to America250 we’ve been asking, “What’s America Missing?” The Declaration of Independence begins with, “We hold ‘these truths’ to be self-evident that all men are created equal…” History shows that when ‘these truths’ become missing or misplaced, America gets itself in a bad spot. For example, right out the gate, we know that ‘all men’ didn’t include black men and didn’t include women. Maybe there’re other ‘these truths’ that Americans think are missing today. We might even consider how folks were able to overcome the struggle to achieve a breakthrough, as well as build excellence to live their best life. Based on a different pattern from the influence of the Enlightenment age during our founding, or the civil rights era with Dr. King and others, or even with consumer products like color TV, personal computers, smart phones, etc, a shift in consciousness saw change occur with/in us as a new:
1. Language (or Foolishness)
America was first organized around Articles of Confederation. After a while, there was growing frustration that the 13 Articles were lacking for effective governance. A shift at the Constitutional Convention brought new language with these words, “We the people in order to form a more perfect union.” When PCs first arrived on the scene, they were cumbersome to use. After a while, tech heads responded to consumer frustrations with a new language to make things simpler. Even hip-hop as a genre came with new language. But the pattern of struggle in history shows that other folks instead go with foolishness.
2. Structure (or Sickness)
The ideals laid out in those ‘new & improved’ founding documents provided a broad structure for being a democratic constitutional republic. Governance would be organized around three co-equal branches of government, with checks & balances to keep the system on track and leaders in-line. The structure gained admirers from many nations and has been a model for the birth or rebirth in our social construct/contract. But the pattern of struggle shows others going on a different route based on grievance or hate or divisiveness, revealing a sickness in the soul of America, e.g. Slavery, Civil War, Jim Crow, etc.
3. Focus (or Distraction)
America’s initial focus was on breaking away from British rule by becoming an independent sovereign nation. That also meant rallying around a cause greater than self. This was guided by a simple unifying message, “natural rights in liberty”. Social movements were efforts to have America re-gain focus on the founding ideals. In the time of Mahatma Gandhi, the focus was ‘social uplift for all’ which Dr. King and the movement modeled as ‘non-violent civil action’. With SAIC, it’s about ‘smart civic engagement.’ But history’s pattern of struggle shows how distractions set-in when the focus leans towards ‘race agitation’.
4. Smarts (or Tension)
Whether the shift is in social lanes or market sectors, there’s often new ‘smarts’ with the change. Going from colonies to states, new ‘smarts’ were made possible in governance, with multi-tasking as independent states while becoming the United States. When TVs went from black & white to color to what we have today, new rounds of ‘smarts’ made the visual experience more enjoyable. As PCs and cell phones went from old tech to new tech ‘smarts’ grew too. But history’s pattern of struggle shows when America gains in ‘smarts’ to become more inclusive, there’s tension that some use to gaslight the nation.
Biz players talk about the ‘internet of things’ as linked devices for online/digital communication. We can be lying in bed or chilling on the beach while video chatting with a person some distance away, as well as control household devices from afar. It helps take the stress out of one-on-one interactions, like online dating. What if SAIC works as a link-up around a new language, structure, and focus in ‘smart civic engagement’? We can’t let our fast & furious lifestyle or the ‘internet of things’ distract us where we’re so plugged-in but at the same time so checked-out. Some Americans might be asking, “will you rescue me?”
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Tracks: One Republic – Rescue Me – https://youtu.be/Nym5stAJAt8?si=Lq3IwrcwzMS74yP_
Skip Marley – Change – https://youtu.be/VXbKf-uSmJo?si=BCcOzk2_wnh6wC0a
See America In Color 