gandhi?

They say that you can pick your battles, and I have come to understand that we are defined by the adversity that we face, and choose to face. If life had been easy for Gandhi, none of us would ever have heard of him; he was confronted by certain challenges and injustices that he decided to throw himself against. It is not that he was the only man witnessing these things, merely that he was the only one willing to take issue with it at first. He picked his battle, and paid the ultimate price of assassination for it. We are picking our battles as well, but are finding ourselves left in the ever-growing ocean of mediocre and ineffective individuals because we fight the little battles, the personal ones for sustenance and income. Who is fighting the big battles today? Who is our Gandhi?
Does anyone really believe that there is less injustice and oppression in the world now than before? Because there certainly seems to be less protest over it. What we are participating in is not a culture of action, but a culture of distraction. If Gandhi had been able to watch The Sopranos on a semi-regular basis, it’s possible that the thought of activism might never have occurred to him.
I discuss all of this because I feel an overwhelming lack of contentment. Whatever part of the system I am participating in, whatever role I have in the American Dream, is not working for me. It seems to me as though life ought to be worth living for its own sake, but more and more trends are emerging making it seem as though life needs medication to be worth living, as the pharmaceutical industry is exploding. What are we compensating for, in needing all of the Xanax and Ritalin? Is it truly a case-by-case problem, as doctors seem to think, when individuals find it difficult to cope and function in normal society? That would be a logical conclusion decades ago when there appeared to be less people “needing” medication to function. However, it is seeming more and more like everybody is developing a mild case of ADD or clinical depression or anxiety for which they require some narcotic solution. The logical conclusion now, having observed this, is that most of us feel we can’t quite function in society!
So is that our fault? Is the flaw inherently ours for not fitting into this system? If it were just me, I’d probably say yes. But there are so many of us feeling this way that I can only think that the system is the problem, that society is somehow making us feel oppressed. I know that I’m starting to sound like some raving hippie, but I’m not an anarchist (yet) nor do I advocate that we all renounce society and become an army of Alexander Supertramps, refusing to participate in the public. These would be selfish acts of disdain towards our fellow men. I just think we need more activists in this country, more charity, more whistle-blowing, and more scrutiny directed towards our politicians.
At the risk of sounding like an extremist, the entire political-legal system is fucked. Anyone operating under the assumption that the Constitution is like some perfect, divine document is an idiot. It’s got more loopholes than an afghan blanket, and when people find these loopholes, they don’t correct them: They exploit them! Lawyers, politicians, and lobbyists can make entire careers out of this, reaping the benefits of their taxpayers’ ignorance. This is the upshot of our selfish, individual-oriented capitalist system, and so we even come to admire these people because their lack of moral fiber makes them wealthy and successful: So it is we see flawed people prevailing in a flawed system, while virtuous, hardworking men scrape by on minimum wage and are fooled into believing it’s sufficient, even deserved to live as they do.
So where is our Gandhi? Happily watching American Idol?