The Choices We Make

I'm teaching an Intro to Political Science class this semester and recently we've been studying social movements, and, specifically, the American Civil Rights Movement. My own academic and personal research has focused on these topics, so naturally I'm quite enthusiastic about teaching them. What fascinates and inspires me about social movements is the involvement of average people taking important matters into their own hands to influence governments to take action. In the midst of reading and teaching classes on social action and citizen involvement in politics, I've been struck with a dilemma.


I've been pretty down on the US government, and kind of the whole country in general lately. Perhaps I've been watching the news too much, but I think it has more to do with the fact that there are so many terrible things happening that no one seems to do anything about, or the bureaucratic solution seems to create more problems than it solved. I don't really want to go into depth about the issues on my mind right now, but let's just say there are few things that I think are going well. . . actually I can't think of anything that's going well right now in terms of government decision-making. I want to be perfectly clear that I do not blame all the current circumstances on President Bush. The mess I believe America is in has little to do with the decisions of an individual, regardless of how much power he wields. The great bureaucratic machine has much more to do with our daily lives than the President or Congress ever will.


Not too long ago I wrote about Into the Wild and how I envied Christopher McCandless. He had what seemed to be ultimate freedom. He left everything behind. Not because he didn't care about the rest of the world, quite the opposite acutally, but because he was deeply concerned with experiencing life. He was troubled by the social problems that surrounded him and just grew weary of the pain and frustration.

To me this is a very attractive option. I've often harboured dreams of escaping my frustrations by leaving everything behind. These ideas can overwhelm me and I feel the desperation rising in my throat.

Then there's the part of me that knows that nothing will ever be solved by my leaving. It might make me feel better for a while, to ignore the things that distress me, but I could never live that way for long.

My dilemma, then, is this: do I choose to stay and fight for the things that I think are important, or do I turn and leave them behind, knowing full well that any efforts are likely to be unsuccessful.

I was struck with this after reading oral histories of activists in the Civil Rights Movement. They put their lives on the line to gain greater freedom for society as a whole. Many of them joined as the Movement progressed, but a few people took initiative to take action, to make a change.

What I really want is freedom. Selfishly, I want the freedom to live my life the way I want, and to make my own decisions, uninhibited by ridiculous social norms or unwarranted expectations. I know that the choices I make are not isolated, and they have some wider effect.

I don't want to feel so responsible for solving the world's problems. I also know that most people are apathetic or feel hopeless, and if I don't act on my convictions I'm denying my nature.

I can't get the words of Nelson Mandela out of my head, "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."