This is Me: Life as a Dreamer
“Things have been tough lately for the dreamers. They say dreaming is dead, no one does it anymore…” — Waking Life (2001) Directed by Richard Linklater
I’m a dreamer in the truest sense of the word. I dream when I sleep, I dream when I wake. I dream when I’m in the shower, I even dream when I should be working. You get the picture, but the question I’ve been asking myself lately is what do I do as dreamer in a world in desperate need for positive change? I find myself stuck between art and politics. Conflicted between fantasy and reality.
There are dreamers that try to evoke change through their art and there are dreamers that try to escape the world through their art. The latter are lost in a fantasy that I can only imagine brings peace. But what is individual peace in amidst desperation of the masses? Is it cowardice to retreat, or defiant to find peace amongst destruction?
But don’t get me wrong, there is no contradiction in being a dreamer and a revolutionary. These are the dreamers that take a more practical approach to create change in the society around them. They are the revolutionaries. At 21 years old Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, said, “peace to you, if you’re willing to fight for it” and Doctor Martin Luther King Jr said, “change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle” these are calls to action from some of the biggest dreamers that have ever existed because they dreamed of a better world. They fought for it and were killed trying. Yet still, the escape that art offers is as appealing as it has ever been.
I’ve spent hours and hours learning about the structure of society, how it works and why. I’ve studied the sociology books, the political theory books and the history books. I wouldn’t consider myself a Marxist, but as a sociology student I feel like I’ve spent more time with Karl Marx than nearly anyone who isn’t a family member. It’s been rumoured that I whisper, “for the working people to be free, they must seize the means of production” in my sleep. But as much time as I’ve spent studying, I’ve spent consuming art and trying to create art. When I feel conflicted I remember when a girl in one of these sociology classes once said something along the lines of, “how can we know about all of this inequality and yet it still exists? What can we do to change it?”… At this point the professor responded with something about us, in the class, being privileged to learn in university and that not enough people take what they learn and engage in trying to positively change the world because they get busy, they have bills to pay, etc. Basically, life happens. The girl responded saying, as earnestly and pure heartedly as you could imagine, that she didn’t want to become that, to be too busy to use what she had learned to bring positive change. At the time, I remember not saying anything but silently agreeing with her. This was a year ago now and this exchange stuck with me, because it was honest, positive and passionate, but it also shames me because I know I haven’t done enough.
I’m made up of so many things, that sometimes I neglect a part of myself and I feel like I’m missing something - this is why I cannot simply escape in dreams, I must act. I can take a vacation in art, I can visit, but it must not become a home. The world needs as many people as it can to help bring about positive change and so save yourself, save the person next to you and tell them to do the same. Dream of a better world and then work to make it happen.
And to the dreamers that might read this “…It’s not dead it’s just that it’s been forgotten, removed from our language. Nobody teaches it so nobody knows it exists. The dreamer is banished to obscurity. Well, I’m trying to change all that, and I hope you are too. By dreaming, every day. Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds. Our planet is facing the greatest problems it’s ever faced, ever. So whatever you do, don’t be bored, this is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things are just starting”. — Waking Life (2001) Directed by Richard Linklater
