by Aswad Walker, Defender Network

Now that we are knocking at Election 2024’s door, this might be a good time to plan out some things right now that can set our families, neighborhoods, communities, and selves up for success moving forward.

UP LIFELONG LEARNING GAME

The fact that is election was even close shows that the hyper-wealthy folk who seek to pimp everybody, regardless of race, social status, and political affiliation, have been masterful at dumbing down society.

And they didn’t do it in a year or two. They played the long game; a small decision here, a cut of a program there, a buying off of elected officials over yonder to vote against the will of the people. And the monopolizing of all information outlets so they could dumb society down on a mass scale, all at once and a little bit at a time… daily.

The result—check out the movie “Idiocracy,” or just Google the summary, and you’ll realize we’re in the middle of it. No understanding of our role in civic engagement. Millions of people absolutely clueless about real history. Thus, roughly half of society is voluntarily pushing for a dictatorship, ignoring scientific experts in favor of dumb-ass opinions and willingly doing the divide-and-conquer bidding of folk who care zero about you.

We’ve got to change the game, flip the narrative, and make learning, lifelong learning, the norm. If not, President Harris will have a monumental and potentially insurmountable mountain to climb.

For Blackfolk, that lifelong learning encompasses everything, of course, but must start with knowledge of self. No one’s going to save us but us. And quiet as it’s kept, as go Blackfolk, so goes this nation and the planet.

COMMIT TO JOY

Moving forward, we can no longer feel guilty for doing things that bring us joy; things that feed our spirits. We’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do. We’ve got issues to deal with, hurdles to clear, and unending assaults on our Blackness, even with Trump’s loss. But doing the hard work we must do if we are to not only survive but thrive. Can’t be done on an empty spirit. We’ve got to make finding, accessing and experiencing joy, part of our daily routine. And also, spreading that joy with others is a must.

RADICAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Those in the know, say the best way to improve your output and accomplishments is to practice what some scholars call “radical accountability.” That means you taking 100% responsibility for everything in your life… even if something you worked to get done didn’t happen because someone you were depending on didn’t do their part. Radical accountability is a way of re-wiring our brains and spirits to recognize the power we have to change our reality, excuses be damned.

EXPAND OUR VISION

Without vision, our people perish. Society, however, is organized to limit, stifle, and even blind you to your innermost, divine vision. Society is set up to get you to take your eyes off the prize, so you only see the problems and challenges of the “right now” and can’t even get a glimpse of the promise and power of the “not yet.” But without seeing it, achieving it is impossible. Make time daily, or at the very least, once a week, to dedicate to envisioning the future you want for yourself, your loved ones, your people, and your planet. Seeing it, really seeing it, is a large part of the journey to realizing it.

(This post was originally published on Defender Network.)