This TED Talk found in the Penn State McCourtney Institute for Democracy’s YouTube channel was one of the most genuinely empowering TED Talks that I have seen.
Christopher Been starts off explaining the idea of intimidation with a story of a famous baseball player. He then uses this story as an analogy to the younger generations’ in today’s society and what their viewpoints are on politics. This idea struck me as within the first two minutes of the talk I was impacted. Been continues this idea to show that the organization and norm put around politics today is too intimidating for new voters that they just do not want to be involved all around. While he spoke, I was astonished but also in large agreement because although I could never put words to my thoughts, politics are very intimidating at my age. Whether this is due to the specific elections that I have been around to experience or whether its the increased coverage on politics today, I am intimidated as an 18 year old in the United States. But this is not the case for just the U.S., which amazed me.
Been furthers the notion with statistics that show how countries all around the world have the same intimidation levels about democracy from younger participants that make up a large majority. While he makes these statements, he also shows statistics that prove that these younger generations are interested in getting involved in democracy (i.e. Midterm voting turnout).
As these ideas evolve, an important remark that is made is that democracy is not all about voting. This is an idea that hit the ball out of the ballpark for me. Been explains how democracy is the best set-up for our humanity, in which we are all power hungry and want a voice. While democracy may be the best format, it is far from perfect. To promote this idea, Christopher Been advertises the idea of all of us being “free-citizens” to better our democracy.
Becoming a free-citizen is a concept that I am very passionate about following this talk. While I am new to being capable of fully participating in democracy, I believe that this idea is essential to bettering our society. While it may seem impossible to get our rigid society to conform to the idea of telling the truth, practicing humility of ourselves, and participating in democracy, it starts with people like you and I to make a change.
Although I still want to research this concept, I want to reflect upon the ways that I can be a better free-citizen. First, I think that a major way to gain the ability to tell the truth even if it is not agreeing with your opinion, is to analyze perspectives. I have been known to be a strong activist in analyzing perspectives in literature or research, I think this task is necessary in everyday life too. In this practice of seeing multiple perspectives, I gain more truth towards what is factual or not in politics which also practice humility towards oneself. This second idea ultimately means being okay with not being right. It is the idea of saying that I am wrong in a situation. My biggest example in practicing this so far is seeing that when the pandemic started I was naive to the idea of how bad the pandemic would get compared to now where my concerns fill many parts of my everyday life. Lastly, the third step is getting involved and joining the democracy through engagement. To fulfill this step I try to always watch or attend various different speakers in regards to democracy. Whether I agree with their opinions or partisanship, I always give the benefit of the doubt to others. This not only practices engagement through my participation of these activities, but also adds to perspectiveness.
Overall, democracy is a large concept to be fixed, making it intimidating to many. A concept to combat these ideas is practicing being a free-citizen, something that I will now be trying to do in my everyday life.