Whereas…

Originally written: February 24, 2008. Revised: March 12, 2008.

I’m confused, aren’t you?

It seems as though by 2008, we as a human race should have figured things out. Yet, it seems as though what was expected of this era, isn’t so.

Instead, humans have become insane. Insanity, being that we do the same tired things over and over again, only to expect different results.

We seem to have lost sight of what makes us who we are; stopped attributing value to those things that are most tangible to us. Instead, as humans, we seem to have given our identity to someone else to assess; making something that was once tangible to us, intangible to someone who has no proximity.

We as Bozemanites, Americans, and humans are experiencing something of a cultural identity crisis.

As a possible prescription for this ailment, I offer my Manifesto Confundum (in five points).

1. Bozeman has value that isn’t dictated by Big Sky.

Gentrification is diluting Bozeman into a Disney-esque “Montanaland,” where the architecture and attitude seems more like a caricature of its former self.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s “collection” of Gallatin Valley real estate seems to have inflated property value, and subsequently the cost of living. Discouraging anyone from living here who hasn’t already once (or still) owned a home.

However, the value of the Valley does not come from what others want it to be, but from the character of the people that founded this town. Geniality, helpfulness, and trustworthiness were points of integrity imbued in the area, but now lost on the “snow bunny” crowd.

2. America has value that isn’t dictated by banks.

The inability of Citigroup, UBS, and others’ management of their loans, has caused enormous losses in the stock markets, and hurt our currency’s strength.

The federal government seeing an “economic crisis,” pawns the burden of responsibility for this problem on to the consumer, expecting refund checks to somehow reboot commerce. Evidently, it wasn’t the consumer who caused this problem.

However, America’s value is not in the corporation, but the individual’s capacity to imagine, innovate, and create opportunity where there once was none. It is this creativity that is our greatest export, and yet least encouraged in our schools.

3. Women have value that isn’t dictated by their “lover.”

ASMSU’s Exponent made a serious misstep in both their Jan. 31 and Feb. 7, 2008 issues, when they first allowed an unnamed columnist to tacitly endorse rape, and subsequently didn’t retract the column or announce the dismissal of its writer.

What’s even worse, is that some men still think that women are vessels lacking the capacity to choose or consent, and that men must make that decision for them.

However, biologically, women are human too. And as humans they possess the ability to make rational decisions, and appropriately consent.

4. Humans have value that isn’t dictated through oppression but by their shared, transparent, experience.

In 1948, the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights putting into writing what has long thought to been engrained into our ethical conscience.

Slavery still abounds internationally. Sovereign nations are still committing human and civil rights violations every minute of every hour of every day.

However, citizens (especially American) can pressure their respective governments in to penalize offending nations, allowing all to be free.

5. Printed word and image have immortal value that is only dictated by those who share it.

The information age has been upon us since the 18th century, and has peaked in the late-20th with the dawn of telecommunications. Blogs have encouraged written discourse, documenting a collective effort to determine what it means to be human in the 21st century.

However, printed documentation of our existence is still the most accessible, requiring no power source to view, and only a trained mind to interpret.

We must not take lightly the words we write, or the freedom to communicate those words. Yet we must not also engage in self-censorship, and instead speak boldly the words that must be said, shouting when we’re in peril.

I offer this final proposition: to insure a strong value in anything, concrete or abstract, it must be self-made. To safe-keep the value of that which we might create, we must continue to tread lightly, and speak boldly.