OPINION | POLITICS | CULTURE

Awkwardness and Alienation in the Ranks

Can we build a cohesive, love-centered revolution?

These signs appeared one day along a California mountain road I travel often. Photo by author.

Not a Medium member? Read the full article here.

Feeling hopeful and lost

The uncommitted votes, the student encampments, and the massive worldwide protests for Palestine fill me with hope. Generation Z and Millennials have woken up en masse to the fact that the U.S. is a “dying empire led by bad people”.

The growing call to end the military-industrial complex gives me the sense that we might finally transcend the U.S.’s broken two-party system this November. My heart is dreaming and scheming about how we might get a third-party candidate to the White House.

However, lately, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and confused by recent experiences that left me wondering how and if this movement will continue to coalesce and grow. I started writing about this a few weeks ago but found two particular responses to my aspirations kind of shaming and depressing me. So I set the draft aside.

Then last week I tentatively brought up these two incidents in conversation with

Aza Y. Alam

. She shared that she’d had similar experiences and suggested we co-write a piece.