Those who know me from my newspaper column in the Chester Village News will recall that I have little patience with New Year's resolutions. I've long believed that, as evolved primates, we remain largely governed by nature's rhythms - which would suggest that the shortest days of the year are a poor time to undertake changes requiring a lot of energy and physical effort.
Thus, the predictable failure of January gym memberships, which run flat contrary to our caveman bodies' inclination to store fat and get more sleep during the winter. (Recent scientific evidence that some of our forebears actually hibernated would only have bolstered my past arguments.) Thus, in my column, I argued for making health-related resolutions at the beginning of the pagan "new year" - at the vernal equinox.
But today, in the waning days of the presidency of Florida Man #1*, I'm going to break a personal rule - to suggest a New Year's resolution to friends who care about the future of this country as a democratic republic in a world which seems, once again, to be tilting toward autocracy. Here it is:
This year, I will learn (or re-learn) a modern language to the point of reasonable fluency.
Now, you can take this suggestion literally, or metaphorically. You can learn a literal language - or learn how people who don't think as you do express themselves about contemporary issues. Either will do. Both would be outstanding.
What I'm suggesting is that we who care about the future of this country - as a government of laws, based on popular consent - need to get out of our bubbles, or silos, or whatever, and learn to communicate with people who don't share our worldview. Those people could be fellow citizens whom we tend to regard as the unenlighted foe - or citizens of other democracies we should regard as potential allies in a global struggle for democracy. Either is fine.
Remaining quietly in one's privileged, middle-class American bubble is not fine.
And the good thing is - adopting this resolution will not be nearly as challenging as losing twenty pounds, or getting in three days a week of cardio. For one thing, it won't be involve a lot of physical effort at a season when we'd prefer to be snacking and napping. Mental effort, yes. But winter's not a bad time for mental effort.
For another thing, it won't be - like health-related resolutions - a form of maintenance work. Americans tend to hate maintenance work, because we are culturally habituated to acquiring new things. That's a feature of late-stage corporate consumer capitalism. (More on that in future posts.) But it's a fact that most of us vaguely resent doing repairs, mowing the lawn, weeding the flowerbeds, or doing the laundry. We're wired for new. We're wired to buy. Maintenance is frustrating. You do it today, you'll have to do it again in a week, or a month, or next year.
I suspect that's another reason health-related New Year's resolutions are so difficult. We dislike maintenance - especially when what we're maintaining is starting to run down - which, for anyone out of their teens or early twenties, includes our bodies. We'd prefer to buy new - which probably explains the growing popularity of evangelical religion in our country. Go to Heaven, get a new body - and one that doesn't require maintenance.
Again, a subject for future posts.
The nice thing about a learning-oriented resolution is that it is - in a very real sense - acquisitive. Learning a new language feels like progress, not maintenance. So maybe - just maybe - learning something new would work as a New Year's resolution.
At any rate, I suggest it's worth a try.
So why a new language?
Well, in the case of an actual language, it's really good for the brain. It's pretty well-established that people who are reasonably fluent in two languages are more imaginative and intellctually flexible than those who are trapped in one. Every language represents a different way of seeing the world. I used to have fun - as a substitute teacher - explaining to French students how reflexive verbs express how the French enjoy an entirely more comfortable relationship with their bodies than our rather detached, vaguely hostile one. That was one of those lessons that really seemed to reach students - and it wasn't even in my field.
But I digress. (Yes, I do that.)
Back at the beginning of this piece, I suggested that learning a language could be a patriotic duty - and I'd like to wrap this up by circling back to that idea.
In 2019, when I was campaigning for Liz Warren, I gradually realized how few of her supporters - mostly privileged, white liberals - had the language skills to communicate with Oregon's substantial Hispanic communities. A year later, after the too-close election just passed, I shared the dismay of many at Joe Biden's loss of support in Hispanic communities - particularly, and perilously, in Florida's Cuban community.
And it occurred to me: If I were a Democrat, at the birth of 2021, I would be starting a Spanish-language project among activists in my local party. Before we know it, 2022 will be here - and the Hispanic vote will be critical to Democrats in holding the House and trying to gain an actual majority in the Senate.
Since it's useless to start learning a new language a few months before the campaign season begins, now is the time - and in most of the US, Spanish is the language - for political activists who want to forestall the Return of Florida Man #1 - or someone like him - in four years.
Now, for those more interested in policy than in ground-game politics, other languages than Spanish could be equally useful. Over the past year, the United States has demonstrated just how far behind the rest of the developed democracies we have fallen. Take a look at the global statistics on Covid-19 (worldometer.com is a useful site), and you'll see just how miserably we have done, by almost every measure.
And yes, a lot of that has to do with Florida Man #1 being in the White House. But it also has much to do with our national allergy to learning from other countries - especially a non-English-speaking countries.
This American affliction of We're-Number-One-ism severely hampers our ability to solve problems. Americans seem to think we have to re-invent every imaginable wheel, when in fact, there is much to be borrowed from the successes of friendly nations. Finland's approach to elementary education. The French approach to health care. The emerging Spanish approach to taming urban automotive traffic. The Dutch approach to including bicycles in the urban transportation mix. The German approach to a whole lot of things (including electing their national legislature).
I should include some ideas from Asia here, but I'm woefully ignorant about Asia's democracies. We could all learn more. Asia is on my list for 2021.
Now, at the top of this post, I referred to the possibility of learning another "language" in a metaphorical sense - i.e., learning to communicate with fellow Americans who see things differently, but who aren't downright hostile to our own points-of-view. They're out there. I'd be willing to bet that half the people who voted for the Florida Man #1 can't stand him.
They just dislike the Democratic Party even more. It would be useful to understand why.
But this piece is getting long - and I've been away from this blog too long to demand an endless read from those I'm trying to win back. So I'll get back to learning metaphorical languages in a week or so.
Meanwhile, please, consider learning a literal second-language. Or, if you can stand the maintenance work, getting back a language you used to know. It's easier than it used to be. The online apps are amazing - and many are free. (If you need suggestions, leave a comment. I'll be happy to recommend some possibilities.)
Think about it. Happy New Year! Bonne Année!
__________
* Florida Man #1: One New Year's resolution I intend to work on is not speaking or writing the name of our out-going President, except when absolutely necessary. He seems to thrive on attention - positive or negative. It feels like using his name is a way of keeping him alive. So I'm starting to refer to him as Florida Man #1. It seems to fit.
