Don’t Rock The Boat<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I am an OEF\/OIF Veteran and a Child of Reagan.\u00a0 My life has been shaped by previous generations of veterans, and civilians, trying their best to imprint upon me a core lesson:\u00a0 “don’t rock the boat.”\u00a0 The ideas of: good ol’ boy cliques, traditions, personal identities, and people who dare to question all relate to this core principle of ‘don’t rock the boat.’\u00a0 From my perspective, the rallying cry of “take our country back” intentionally leaves off the words “in time” for marketing purposes.\u00a0\u00a0 I did not fight to watch the country continue to decay further and further away from rational thought. \u00a0\u00a0Time is a continuous stream upon which our boat rides.\u00a0 The fight has always been about control of the anchor.\u00a0 Sometimes we progress with time, and others they drop the anchor and time passes us by.\u00a0\u00a0 Not only are we fighting for control of said anchor, but we’re also fighting to not have the entire boat turned around and try to go against the current of time itself.<\/p>\n
Issac Asimov once said \u201cAnti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that\u00a0‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 As far as I know, this has always been true.\u00a0 I grew up with this being true.\u00a0 This has helped mold me into being a life-long learner.\u00a0 We live in an age wherein facts no longer matter to the people who don’t want the boat rocked.\u00a0 If you start asking questions, backed with facts, and it interferes with their beliefs then you are now the problem.\u00a0 You have made yourself the problem.\u00a0\u00a0 In many parts of our large boat, we’ve had whistleblowers come forth with information that the public needs to know about problems contained in the boat we all ride.\u00a0 Instead of being concerned about the boat itself, many people went after the people who dared rock the boat.\u00a0 A few were driven to suicide, others exiled from the country and some locked in solitary confinement.\u00a0 I didn’t fight for this.\u00a0 I did not fight to instill fear into people who are trying to improve the boat we all ride in.\u00a0 That’s what the people who don’t want the boat rocked do, fear and intimidation.<\/p>\n Good ol’ boy cliques are another example of this.\u00a0\u00a0 In some organizations, it’s just negligence.\u00a0 In those places, you can’t get a lot of things done because you simply aren’t one of them.\u00a0 In other places it’s far worse.\u00a0 Money starts to disappear, certain favors are granted without due process and ‘under the table’ become par for the course.\u00a0 Again,\u00a0 people who start asking questions find themselves intimidated.\u00a0 Perhaps it’s a fear of losing their job, or some harm to themselves or property.\u00a0\u00a0 The system protects itself.\u00a0 The boat is not to be rocked.\u00a0 It is an insular system that does not appreciate interlopers and does not seek cooperation from the outside.\u00a0 This is a distinct difference from people my age.\u00a0 We grew up interconnected.\u00a0 We cooperate with people all around the world without a second thought.\u00a0 Language is often the biggest barrier and a surprising amount of people speak some English courtesy of the internet.\u00a0 I didn’t fight for good ol’ boy cliques and self-preservation above all.<\/p>\n Personal identities is another way that people feel the boat gets rocked.\u00a0 It’s another way they try to exert control.\u00a0 You have a different gender identity?\u00a0 Tough.\u00a0 They don’t want to accept it.\u00a0 You aren’t heterosexual?\u00a0 They’re going to fight you tooth and nail.\u00a0\u00a0 How hard did they fight interracial marriage?\u00a0 Some still do.\u00a0 There are entire religions that are mistrusted simply for the actions of a few, yet they ignore the radical factions of their own.\u00a0 There are other religions labeled as ‘mythology’ and are studied as such even though there are still active practitioners today, despite no religion being proven true.\u00a0 If you questioned any of this, you’re rocking the boat and are often met with either vitriol or wanton dismissal.\u00a0 I fought for equal protection for everyone.\u00a0 I fought for the pursuit of happiness for everyone.\u00a0 This includes the very people who don’t like the boat being rocked.<\/p>\n The boat is being rocked, and this is why we live in the age we live in now.\u00a0\u00a0 We are intermingled with people wherein their beliefs and their identities are one and the same.\u00a0 To change or break the former is to automatically to the same to the latter.\u00a0 This is a stark contrast to those like me who bring our beliefs with us and change them as we learn more.\u00a0 We are who we are, and that is more of a fluid concept.\u00a0\u00a0 Fluid vs. Rigid.\u00a0 Rational vs. Irrational. \u00a0Anchor up and gliding with the current of time vs. anchor down and letting time pass us by.\u00a0 Meanwhile,\u00a0 other people are progressing.\u00a0 We do not exist in isolation, and it’s my duty to my country to help pull the anchor up for the good of ourselves and the world we live in.\u00a0 The boat will be rocked, and I will get help from people of all: colors, creeds, religions, orientations, identities, et al.<\/p>\n 22 Jan 2017 (Draft 1)<\/p>\n Monk Anchorwind<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Don’t Rock The Boat I am an OEF\/OIF Veteran and a Child of Reagan.\u00a0 My life has been shaped by previous generations of veterans, and civilians, trying their best to imprint upon me a core lesson:\u00a0 “don’t rock the boat.”\u00a0 The ideas of: good ol’ boy cliques, traditions, personal identities, and people who dare 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