Marching On, Gilet Jaunes et al.

https://1000note.it/accordi-chitarra/one-republic/marching-on/ 

As always, when life and the contradictions within it reach their peak on the mountain of the bizarre, I find solace and a sense of equilibrium in writing. This is especially true as 2018 draws to a close and the promise of starting anew in 2019 dawns on me. There, illuminating the way, Jacques Derrida's words, “What cannot be said above all must not be silenced but written.”

I find comfort in this quote having lived a year that has felt like a fight from the trenches, out on the field and in the air. Living in a country with a malfunctioning multi-currency system where unemployment is soaring, fuel queues are growing, disillusionment is daunting and the nation is imploding from an overinvestment in policies and practices which foster isolation and promote social exclusion- all one can do is march on.

This assault on the senses has challenged my notions on egalitarianism, questioned the necessity for altruism and placed humanism at the pinnacle of the triad. It's been an ego-boost to sound clever when deconstructing complex topics, though it has been much more healing to realise that the human condition affects us similarly whether one is from Zimbabwe or France, whether one is privileged or poor- that is, we all desire to be heard, to be seen and to be integral to the whole. Essentially, none of us wants to end up alone, with regret or inadequacies- we want the security of being superior to our circumstances knowing that in spite of of our flaws, we are enough and that we have the resources to reinforce being enough.

Against this backdrop, the gilets jaunes protests (in Paris over the weekend) have been shocking and the President's silence stunning in the face of ostracised lower-middle class and working-class citizens who demand that their birthrights be prioritised over the pockets and plans of the wealthy. France, the world's pioneer in enlightenment, which espouses"Liberté, égalité, fraternité" as its national motto, has fallen short of its own ideals. The lesson here is that no-one can maintain perfection on a pedestal no matter how illustrious their past, because the present must be dealt with in real-time not just by reflection.

The riot police and armed forces displayed excessive and exceptional brutality towards a populace expressing distress over the burden of inequality that they are unfairly expected to shoulder. The scenes flashing across the screen were strangely similar to a Zimbabwe seen in August this year. The nugget of wisdom I cannot disagree with now is that universally, the way we treat our poor, vulnerable and disenfranchised when they express their genuine concerns is a true depiction of who we are as a society and what we value. Rhetoric, whether poetic or inflammatory, is limited and usually a tool that the powerful use to censor the weak and scapegoat them as deplorable. That which carries the most weight is not found in the eloquence of words but in the actions lived out or actualised.

Reaching the end of my observations, without many answers, an excerpt of the song I have stuck on repeat is this:

Marchin' On- One Republic
Right, right, right, right, left
Right, right, right, right, left
Right, right, right, marchin' on

We'll have the days we break
And we'll have the scars to prove it
We'll have the bombs that we saved
But we'll have the heart
Not to lose it

For all of the times we've stopped
For all of the things I'm not

You put one foot in front of the other
We've move like we ain't got no other
We go where we go we're marchin' on
Marchin' on