The Problem With Common Liberal Mentality

I am a child nursed by the minds, motivations, and ideas of collective progressive influences. I attended a school whose schooling techniques were devoid of prejudice, unbound by traditional structures and standards, encouraging free thought and debate.

In my first year at this school, I was taken aback by the overarching openness and acceptance of typically overlooked members of society. I was an avid advocate of social justice, and have finally found a place where my ideas could flourish among those who shared similar values and ideas as mine. I was excited to be engaged in such a forward-thinking, objective and unbiased educational system. Especially since at home, I was faced with evenings of Fox News (interchangeable with "faux" news) and bigoted remarks from my Russian immigrant parents, who seemed to believe that open hatred and voicing of ignorance was justified by the first amendment's "Right to Free Speech", and the infamous, "it's a free country".

At school, I could finally be myself. My school newspaper avidly wrote about LGBT issues, immigrant students, and other controversial topics. In English, we read about and discussed abortion, political corruption, racial prejudice, and subject matter by which any stereotypical conservative would become enraged. Of course, that thrilled me and my angst-driven teenage heart. I grew obsessed with argument and the liberal agenda. I was the most confident I've ever been because no one stood in my way or questioned my reasoning. I wasn't even aware of people who thought differently and therefore assumed that they didn't exist. Those who did speak out weren't supported by the evidence our teachers gave us, so therefore their ideas were irrelevant, bigoted and stupid.

About a month ago, I took an interest in economics and business. I started researching people like Jordan Belfort, Andrew Carnegie, Elon Musk, but Belfort, whose history I was exposed to via the movie "Wolf of Wall Street", interested me the most (his story is the most badass). So naturally, I searched for his strategy for success. What I found killed me.

"You are either a creature of circumstance or a creator of circumstance."

Right. My reaction wasn't exactly unjustifiable. For years, I've been defending and identifying with those who have been put down by society, either economically, socially, and even politically. I was taught to speak out against those who claimed that success was attainable for anyone and everyone. Justice was my game. I could talk for ages about white privilege, inherent racism, homophobia and sexism in our society that prevents people from reaching their full potential. And Belfort wasn't exactly a marvelous success story for a raging liberal like myself. He is a white, straight male. He was raised by a middle-class family and went to a good college. He is filthy rich despite having a criminal record and being lousy with infamy. He's a poster child for liberal criticism. For some reason, though, his quotes resonated with me.

For years, I've been a failure. I've been told that I'm an individual with a broad mind and a thirst for knowledge and objectivity. I have so many ideas, and so many people telling me that they're brilliant. But when it comes to executing them, I find myself faced with obstacles:

I wanted to write a book: Couldn't. Didn't have the time or the money to do so. And who reads books nowadays? Who says that MINE would surpass the dwindling interest in poetry and essays and short stories and whatnot? Besides, I'm not even talented or anything. I'm nothing.

I wanted to learn German: Why? I'm a Latin student. I'm already fluent in Russian. I don't have any influences to mentor me or keep me on track. I have better things to do.

I wanted to get good grades in school: Ughhhh. Exhausting. The school system is unfair. I'm not emotionally or mentally inclined to always succeed under such great amounts of pressure. I don't have time to study for everything. My school has a good reputation, I'll ride on that and hope that colleges accept me on that alone. And I'm sort of good at writing, so there's that.

Honestly, I was exhausted from making excuses for my failures. It was getting so regular that I was doing it subconsciously and automatically. Hell, I had to fight myself to write this essay: who's gonna read this? Who's gonna listen to me? What will my parents think, my friends? What do I know?

Belfort made me question everything. I walked into school the next day and found myself so uncomfortably cynical toward everyone because I knew what they were thinking because I thought the same thing just a day ago. I was so embarrassed during routine English class debates because I was surrounded by information tailored to trigger commonly discussed topics from an extremely liberal standpoint and therefore limiting my evidence and support for the other side. In newspaper production, I physically rejected writing about the same. Mundane. Subject. Matter. It seemed to me that the school board and curriculum looked at a list of topics and said "oh, this one is traditionally controversial. Let's write it into the curriculum. And this one was in the news, so let's include that one too, for relevance." Goddamnit, I was pissed off.

And I had every right to be. The one place that I thought I could speak my mind hid under a mere guise of safety and objectivity. I trusted these people to teach me how to speak my mind and educate me on the world, and instead they sheltered me and deluded me into thinking that it was okay to possess terrible argumentative skills and lack strategy if I had "progressive" ideas, which were really regurgitated and pre-made arguments that surrounded me and everyone. It was betrayal at its finest.

I don't identify as a liberal anymore. I used to function under a semi-socialist mindset because I've been exposed to countless pieces of literature and teachers preaching on behalf of equality and condemning those who have succeeded in the allegedly unfair and corrupt social, economic, and political system as "privileged". Everyone was convinced that because someone happened to be a minority, they shouldn't be expected to succeed like the majority, and I've agreed with that for the longest time. But if you were to tell me that now, I would've spat in your face. I consider myself a minority in some respects. The fact that I'm a minority shouldn't undermine my chances at success, or lower anyone's expectations of me, or exempt me from exercising my potential as a fairly intelligent human being that has every right to exist and prosper on this earth, in this system, as anyone else. If anything, excusing my failures as being because of my gender, sexual orientation, or race is wildly insulting and patronizing. And teaching people to do so to themselves is another level of disrespect and idiocy.

That's not to say that I don't believe that there are individuals who are more inclined to succeed than others due to social or economic status. I am fully aware that the playing field is nowhere near level, and I'm not denying it for the sake of making my argument more simple and clean. But, like Belfort, I believe that some people choose to be victims of circumstance, and others choose to create circumstances. Of course, I could bring up handfuls of rags to riches stories, but those are tailored to inspire hope and motivate, and that's not what I'm trying to do here. This isn't a "be all you can be and listen to no one" message. If it were, it would be an Instagram post, a paragraph long. I fully understand that those who have a roof over their head, clean water and clothes, and proper schooling are far more likely to succeed than someone who lives on the street and has to work to satisfy the foundation of their Maslow's hierarchy of needs. But those who choose to make signs and rally in airports and shred their vocal chords with protest speeches, and afterward come home and cash in on welfare checks and disability funds just because they believe that they're victims of an unfair system... I refuse to support that.

And I refuse to support those who know that there is injustice and don't act on reforming it. Actively. Not just talking about it in English class. Get the means and status to change the things you don't agree with. Stop hiding behind excuses and act, and by "act", I don't mean marching in the streets or writing books about it. There's only one way to actively change things, and that's through success.

Cash in on ambition and forget the fact that you might be undermined because you're different. If you want to be treated like you're "special" and be exempt from basic civic responsibility, then you better have tried everything and anything to make your differences work to your advantage. Be the creator of circumstance. That's all I say. That's all that was said to me, and it got me to finish this damn essay after all.