From a text message I sent my sweetie, a visual artist with a BFA in painting who is approaching her marketing efforts in pet portraiture as if it’s impossible for her to fail, just now. (Did I mention how much I love her?) A bit of background here… We were discussing an incident in the neighborhood where she lives: a 17-year-old child robbed a nearby liquor store at gunpoint and shot it up—no one was injured, fortunately. The police caught the young fellow (presumably drowning in trauma, abuse, and privation) just afterwards and it’s very likely he will be tried as an adult. I remarked that many Blacks don’t get a proper childhood and are forced to grow up far too soon. That, and there are two systems of justice in 🇺🇸: one for whites [and the wealthy], the other for Blacks [and poor people]. She then responded that where I see opportunity, she sees futility for at least another two years. This led me to write the following… [post-scriptum additions are contained in brackets]
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As long as most 🇺🇸s are kept fearful of deep systemic change, your prediction of futility is warranted. [As for me,] I’d rather exercise revolutionary optimism—it’s healthier.
Once we have a vision of what we truly want in a society we can move forward. Alas, we have yet to reclaim the final of the Three Freedoms (as described by Davids Graeber and Wengrow in the book “The Dawn of Everything”) we as humans have lost: the freedom to re-envision society and governance.
My biggest concern is that those who have hoarded wealth and power for themselves intend to take us down with them. We cannot allow that to happen; to do nothing about it and merely trust the institutions that really only serve them seals our doom. Just like your efforts to promote your artwork, we should approach this task with a can’t-lose mentality. ‘Cos all that wealth and power ultimately belongs to us, collectively—always has.
Oh, the things we can accomplish if we succeed! The very thought of it makes my mouth water with anticipation and hope.