The elections from a French Perspective

There is a dreadful atmosphere here at Cornell University. One of my professors said he hasn’t seen the student body this disheartened since 9/11.

This is democracy and we need to accept it, live with it. We reap what we sow, after all. The elites of the east and west coast have their share of responsibilities in the current racial and class divisiveness of the country. While some have access to and participate in the shaping of leading educational institutions, 25% of Americans that start high school do not graduate, and 43% of students who start college will not graduate in 6 years. (To put this into perspective, according to the European Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Denmark’s higher education completion rate is of 81%, certainly due to the fact that every Danish student receives the equivalent of $900 per month from the government for being enrolled in a university, on top of free tuition). Too often, the lack of education plays a major role in explaining the rise to power of populist and fascist figures.

Here, the privileged are furious and swear they are going to leave the country, whereas minorities are scared and feel more marginalized than ever. A good friend of mine and renowned activist on campus left for New York City this weekend to meet with unionized comrades, and is uncertain about coming back next semester. While some protest, others organize, all feeding off of hatred for Trump supporters (and going as far as blaming third party and abstained voters), claiming they don’t represent America. But, I ask myself, don’t they capture America’s heartland at its deepest?

Racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia are not new threats to the country.

In fact, these forms of discrimination have been prevailing in our modern societies, only now they will explicitly form part of the political agenda. The elites have lived in a bubble for way too long — a bubble that was doomed to explode.

Maybe this is a long overdue wake up call. After all, Trump got elected president of the country that sends its wheat surplus as food aid to third world countries only to prevent the wheat prices to drop internally. Trump got elected president of the country that names itself world promoter of peace and democracy, but finances and arms rebel groups in strategic locations to purposefully generate instability and take control of the region’s resources. Trump got elected president of the country that allows civilians to carry guns, when the proper use of guns by police officers hasn’t even been established yet. According to ONE, this is the country that wastes about 141 trillion calories worth of food every day, which adds up to about $165 billion per year, the equivalent of 4 times the amount of food Africa imports each year. From this perspective, Trump’s isolationist ideology, misogynist attitude, and global warming denial are not unrepresentative of the realities of this country.

I fear for France in May 2017, and every other election to come.

I fear for our Earth that simply cannot wait four more years. I fear for the vulnerable whose security has been once again severely compromised. But above all, I fear for humankind who does not seem to be able to learn from the past, dangerously getting closer to an apocalypse, or a flood, such as depicted in William Etty’s painting The World Before the Flood.

But I am convinced that hatred and violence only contribute to the difficulty of our times. Rather, we have to continue to learn and educate. We need to reconnect with mother-nature. We must reconsider the way we spend our days, reinvent the way we as a society consume. Let us rely on each other, help and support one another, and spread love all around us. It is up to our generation to change the system we strongly disagree with. Together, we have the power to shape the world we want to live in.

Each and every one of us needs to participate. Small daily actions shape big long term changes. As Sebastian Junger wrote in his book Tribe, “Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.” Our generation has the opportunity and duty to lead the way towards a peaceful, inclusive, and climate-just future. This is why everyone is necessary. You are necessary. We shall peacefully unite, organize, impact. There comes a time where each of us has to choose between what is easy and what is right. This time is now.

A version of this article was first published in The Cornell Daily Sun.