But I dont want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger,
I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.
-the Savage, Brave New World
I never really understood what this quote meant. I only had a vague idea, but it rang true to me.
I watched the movie Milk today, with Ken. Harvey Milk was an amazing activist/politician that was the first openly gay man to be elected to any major governmental office in the United States. The movie depicted Milk's fight for office and for gay rights until the moment of his death, when a former colleague, angered when denied his former office, murdered both the mayor of San Francisco and Harvey Milk. I have a heartache right now, like seriously. I held my breath for far too long and probably came close to breaking a few bones in Ken's hand. The movie was just... amazing. His life was amazing.
I've been thinking about ignorance lately, about how many privileged people in this society choose it as a way of life. Like the Matrix (phil 6H =D ). The choice is subconscious, and it is an easy one to make and a hard one to choose against. It seems that most every element in our popular culture and media encourage the people to choose ignorance. We are encouraged to not think for ourselves, to not feel with all our hearts, because it is too difficult, too passionate, too true of an existence. I have been fighting to choose against ignorance for years, but I haven't quite escaped the desire for the empty 'comfort' that ignorance affords those who choose it.
Harvey Milk lived with a sort of abandon. When he was faced with a decision between running for office for the billionth time (with a very good chance of being elected) and losing his lover, he choosed his cause. It was difficult, but he was devoted. He recieved a postcard before going on stage to speak at a rally that threatened him with death if he were to stand in front of the crowd and speak, but he went up and spoke anyway. I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath, hiding behind my hands and waiting for the gunshots to ring when he finished his speech, still alive. He was devoted.
I have my cause. I have not devoted myself. Camus wrote that there is not one cause that is worth dying for, but I think he's wrong. If I choose ignorance- if I choose decieving comfort- I will not be able to fight for what calls for me, what calls for my devotion, what calls for my life.
At a few parts in the movie, scenes where Milk raised the spirits and hopes of his fellow activists, when they moved thousands of people to stand up and fight for their lives, I was overcome with emotion. I automatically detached from that emotion; I worried that the emotional make fools of themselves by letting that true feeling show. And I chose to cry. There's a fight within me that will not die, I can choose to let this fight loose on my causes, or keep it trapped until it makes its captor its victim.
I need to fight.
I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.
-the Savage, Brave New World
I never really understood what this quote meant. I only had a vague idea, but it rang true to me.
I watched the movie Milk today, with Ken. Harvey Milk was an amazing activist/politician that was the first openly gay man to be elected to any major governmental office in the United States. The movie depicted Milk's fight for office and for gay rights until the moment of his death, when a former colleague, angered when denied his former office, murdered both the mayor of San Francisco and Harvey Milk. I have a heartache right now, like seriously. I held my breath for far too long and probably came close to breaking a few bones in Ken's hand. The movie was just... amazing. His life was amazing.
I've been thinking about ignorance lately, about how many privileged people in this society choose it as a way of life. Like the Matrix (phil 6H =D ). The choice is subconscious, and it is an easy one to make and a hard one to choose against. It seems that most every element in our popular culture and media encourage the people to choose ignorance. We are encouraged to not think for ourselves, to not feel with all our hearts, because it is too difficult, too passionate, too true of an existence. I have been fighting to choose against ignorance for years, but I haven't quite escaped the desire for the empty 'comfort' that ignorance affords those who choose it.
Harvey Milk lived with a sort of abandon. When he was faced with a decision between running for office for the billionth time (with a very good chance of being elected) and losing his lover, he choosed his cause. It was difficult, but he was devoted. He recieved a postcard before going on stage to speak at a rally that threatened him with death if he were to stand in front of the crowd and speak, but he went up and spoke anyway. I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath, hiding behind my hands and waiting for the gunshots to ring when he finished his speech, still alive. He was devoted.
I have my cause. I have not devoted myself. Camus wrote that there is not one cause that is worth dying for, but I think he's wrong. If I choose ignorance- if I choose decieving comfort- I will not be able to fight for what calls for me, what calls for my devotion, what calls for my life.
At a few parts in the movie, scenes where Milk raised the spirits and hopes of his fellow activists, when they moved thousands of people to stand up and fight for their lives, I was overcome with emotion. I automatically detached from that emotion; I worried that the emotional make fools of themselves by letting that true feeling show. And I chose to cry. There's a fight within me that will not die, I can choose to let this fight loose on my causes, or keep it trapped until it makes its captor its victim.
I need to fight.
1 comment:
Milk was beautiful in every way.
For me to praise it with words doesn't even begin to measure up to the inspiration his life has created and affected others.
:)
Post a Comment