I have a problem. In the duplex in which I am living in this summer, we have ants. Not a lot, and not all of the time, but we have ants. The problem is that every once in a while, when my roommate or I make coffee, we have a tendency to not wash our mugs out well. They sit there for a few days and soon, the mug is crawling with ants.
It’s not a big problem, but it’s frustrating. The worst part is that I know we could avoid the whole mess if we just disciplined ourselves to wash our coffee mugs out with soap and water every time we used them. It wouldn’t take much time or effort, but we never do it. Instead, we just wait until the ants show up, and then we clean the mug and the counter.
It is a bit silly, but it’s true. So, what does this have to do with you? Well, assuming you don’t have ants in your kitchen, the point of this article is to talk about looking the other way. I don’t mean this in the sense that you look the other way when your co-worker leaves work thirty minutes early without telling the manager; I mean looking the other when you see a problem and you refuse to address it.
To be fair, this habit isn’t limited to just Oklahoma or even to the United States; it’s everywhere. From my apartment to the powers that be in Washington and beyond, people have formed an awful tendency to ignore problems until they become inevitable.
As with all of my articles, I don’t address this message to any specific political party, religious affiliation, or other group. We can all take a lesson from the ants; things don’t get better until YOU do something about it.
The American economy is a perfect example. Capitalism in general is a sticky situation. It hinges on people having faith enough in their economy and themselves to become active members of the economy. The irony is that if the economy is poor, people lose faith in it. Then, people are no longer active members of the economy and things get worse. It seems like a vicious circle, one that we are all becoming very familiar with.
Despite this seemingly endless dance of faith and failure, our economy is quite salvageable, and we don’t necessarily need the government to help us. If everyone (yes, everyone) takes a leap of faith for their economy and starts investing and actively trading money regardless of the economic environment, things will get better. Maybe not infinitely better, but we will see improvement.
I know, I know—it’s not that simple. I whole-heartedly agree, but all the government stimuli and bailouts in the world can’t save us unless WE take a stand and become active members in our economy. We can’t wait for the problem to become inevitable—that future is far too imminent to ignore.
But this article isn’t as much about the United States or its economy as it is about human nature and habit. We refuse to take action unless someone tells us to or we have no other choice. So long as we believe OTHER people are capable of solving the problem, we will do nothing.
The problem with this is that many times, as with our economy, there is nobody else to solve the problem. I’m not suggesting that you organize a town hall meeting to encourage everyone to spend, spend, spend, but you have to take some initiative if you want things to change. Don’t wait around for the government, your parents, or your friends to solve your problems for you, because you will be waiting an awful long time.
If we want be helped, we must first be willing to help ourselves.
I don’t know what is going to become of those ants in our kitchen. Maybe someday, we will clean out our coffee mugs and no longer be plagued by our minor ant infestation, or maybe not. One thing is for sure, though: no one is coming to clean out our mugs for us.
-Joshua Wesneski is a College of Arts and Sciences junior.
JosephTSchmidt 2 years, 9 months ago
I liked this article. Good luck with the ants, and hopefully in the process of taking steps to get rid of that problem, things get even better beyond just the lack of ants. Clean mugs, more attainable to use, no ants, feel-good feelin' about making an easy habit of cleaning those mugs (or at least a, "Ah, no ants.. cool.." feeling), and more. I'd think that your broader example, our economy and the way things are in general, follows that pattern, too. We use money wisely, spend it when we need to (and even when we don't sometimes, of course), and keeping track of our money and mug, versus letting it get dirty and way behind, and then hopefully there won't be any ant-like nuisances to follow. Good deal.
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