Ode

In Aquarius Now she writes, “We have the political freedoms to create the lives we wish to lead and the world we want to live in. But we are passive. We do not make use of our freedom. We have given away the fundamental freedom to visualize and shape our world. We allow actors, advertisers and politicians to dream for us. And a culture that does not dream is not free. We are not citizens but consumers. It is as if we live in a totalitarian society. We refrain from breaking out of our cultural prison for fear we might piss off the guards. Instead of embracing freedom, we seem to be saying, ‘Don’t hurt me and I won’t make any trouble.’“

This apathy Ferguson describes is recognizable. How often do we hear someone sigh that “there’s no point” in mentioning some wrong or other? Only a few people take the trouble to speak out against injustice. Many don’t bother making any effort to limit their waste production, because “my little bit extra doesn’t make any difference.” The lumbering, anonymous collective has anesthetized the feeling of individual responsibility. That anesthetization stands in the way of Ferguson’s plea for the reinvention of humanity.