The web is up for grabs. We are all cartographers now, discovering the nooks and crannies, the inlets and isla’s of this new world. All the old rules and restrictions have come down. They were proved to be worthless. They worked for an earlier era, but only just barely. And now we are all tremendously liberated and absolutely terrified. Can you feel it? I do, all day, every moment, that sense of utter horror at the newness of everything around us. It almost feels like an acid trip, the air is electric and crackling.
Invalidated Assumptions
It shocks me to think that almost all the values that were imparted to me growing up, those principles that were supposed to sustain me through my life have been thoroughly invalidated. Work hard, play by the rules and you’ll prosper. Nope, tried that.
I worked my ass off for years, I played by the rules, did what I was told. It didn’t get me anywhere. Actually it set me back. Because it inhibited my natural tendencies towards liberation, towards unconventional thinking, towards trusting my heart.
Playing by broken rules gets you broken success.
The Future is Up For Grabs
There is something embedded in the American soul, in our character. Whether you have been here for 3 years or 300, we are in this land because we want to participate in a grand experiment. And right now the labaratory is buzzing.
Is it manifest destiny? I don’t know but it feels like. It feels like all at once, the mechanisms of our society suddenly click into place, the gears get greased, and this wonderful experiment rolls on
We might be witnessing the rebirth of that great experiment, the American Revolution.
As anyone who knows history, revolutions must continually move forward, or, by definition, they cease to be revolutionary. I don’t think anyone can make the claim that there have been times that our revolution has ceased to a halt. Heck, most of the founders felt they had failed by the time they expired. But they hadn’t, the country was just waiting to rev up its revolutionary engine again. Andrew Jackson swept into power and, though not without his faults, enabled the country to believe in itself again.
- The Civil War Brought Us Lincoln
- The Gilded Age Brought Us The Progressive Era
- The Great Depression Brought Us FDR
- Stagflation Brought Us Reagan
What will the great recession bring us? Don’t you feel somewhere deep in your soul that America is reinventing itself again? Is social media gearing up to be the instruments and social jelly that unleashes another revolutionary moment?The fervor is upon us. Something is happening. The full expression of democracy is coming, it is building even as we speak. Soon, everyone will have a voice. The tools are in place, they are free. Anyone can use them to change the world.
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I totally agree with this. After being laid off from my job, I had no intentions of going back to work for another organization that basically uses employees as slave labor (really, they all do to some degree). I’d been working on forming my own business on the side for eight months prior to losing my job, and the day I was let go, I knew immediately who I’d be working for next – myself. In fact, the purpose of my business is to cultivate web-based educational tools to help people become autodidacts in their areas of interest. In my opinion, the concept of “higher education” is totally outdated and sub par. The “skills” I learned in college are now outdated a mere five years later, yet the debt is not. Now is the time for people to learn how to use available web/tech/social media resources to learn and to actually produce something! The thing I always hated most about an office is that I was never a producer, only a consumer pushing paper for a distant singular producer. I was always, and still am, far too creative for that. Unfortunately, as I see reinforced on a daily basis, many people lack the creativity and DRIVE to do anything other than work for someone else, even if money and status isn’t the biggest issue at hand. What can I say? These times have great potential for creative, driven folks but, sadly, we are the minority.
.-= Lauren Cannon´s last blog ..laurenthedark: Robel Teklemariam is the Ethiopian Olympic team http://bit.ly/cjD9eX =-.
Lauren
thanks so much for the wonderous comment. It is so true that in times of chaos like these w economic hardships political instability and deep cultural crevices the opportunities seem to limited. But in fact now is when the creatives find a way to start new ventures consider things they might never have if things were hunky dory. Thanks for stopping by. Looking forward to collaborating w u!
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