04/29/02
A Bright Future for Revolution, Part 2
In college, I was often the lone voice for certain sides of arguments. Even though I frequently spent hours battling not only professors, but also every vocal student in my classes, I was able to find little reasons to maintain my efforts. Reminding myself that I was right was one such reason. The occasional confession, outside of the classroom, by fellow students that they agreed with me was another. And, of course, it served my ego well that, by battling the PhDed professors, I felt elevated above my own undergraduate position and that I imparted ideas into discussions in which they might otherwise have gone unsaid.
After college, still feeling too young to explore the AM dial, I listened to National Public Radio during my lengthy commute to work because it was the only FM source that featured ideas rather than distraction. After a while, however, the combination of traffic and NPR began to feel like a nightmare — surrounded by a bubble of steel and glass through which I could not pour my beliefs into the flow of ideas. And nobody else was making my points; I never heard what I thought to be obvious rebuttals.
This essay has been published in Just Thinking: Volume I, 10/29/01–10/21/02 and is available in Confidence Place: The Timshel Arts Store.
04/22/02 A Bright Future for Revolution, Part 1 (Art)
04/15/02 A Love-Lit Shelter Sets Me Free (Life)
10/29/01 through 04/08/02 Archives