"Love is revolutionary because it has us treat ALL people as we would ourselves—not because we are charitable, but because we are One. That is love’s radical conclusion."
Last Christmas evening, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents New York's 14th district, tweeted those words, causing many hearts—ours among them—to swell. We believe in love, above all else. We trust that love is always the answer. We know love to be the ultimate revolution, the ultimate radicality. In a political climate that often appeals to the most base human instincts, we found (and find) it refreshing to spot pols willing to draw unbroken lines between love and conscious policy making.
image source: The Hill
In 2016, for instance, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) made the case for love as a fundamental national value. From a DNC stage in Philadelphia, PA, he stated: "We cannot devolve into a [country] where our highest aspirations are that we just tolerate each other. We are not called to be a nation of tolerance. We are called to be a nation of love. Tolerance says, 'I’m just going to stomach your right to be different... if you disappear from the face of the earth, I’m no better or worse off; [however], love knows that every American has worth and value, that no matter what their background, no matter what their race or religion or sexual orientation... we need each other; that we, as a nation, are better together; that when we are divided, we are weak—we decline—yet when we are united, we are strong. When we are indivisible, we are invincible."
A frequently misheld position is that such rhetoric is soft, toothless, airy-fairy. We couldn't disagree more. There's plenty of evidence to support that being led by the better angels of our nature toward deep interest in the wellbeing of all beings is strong business and pays dividends. As Dr. Christopher Kukk has written: "The health of a society strengthens as the number of people who help each other increases."
So back to that AOC quote.
When we launched zeitgeistic, we knew we'd include Ocasio-Cortez's profoundly moving reflection in our QUOTABLE section. Sure enough, not too long ago, we added a T-shirt, bearing the freshman Congress member's face on the front and her quote on the back, to our ever-expanding catalog. We realize AOC's as polarizing as she is popular, but we see this declaration as non-partisan to its core. She's talking about love, for Pete's sake. What could go wrong, right? Heh heh.
We began social media promotion of the tee, yesterday afternoon. This morning, we discovered responses replete with hate speech—one in the ad thread on Instagram, one as an e-mail, and a handful of others as Facebook inbox messages. Jabs at Ocasio-Cortez's imagined low IQ level, her laugh, her identification as a Democratic Socialist, her age... some blatantly racist stuff, some blatantly misogynistic stuff... What? Really?
What's not lost on us is the stark juxtaposition of AOC's message with the messages we received in this morning's earliest hours. What's not lost on us is that this was how some people decided to begin a new day (interesting choice). What's not lost on us is that humans could stand to be better, do better... raise the frequency, elevate the conversation. What's not lost on us is that a message of love is the most strikingly important message we have to share with a world that seems to have forgotten itself.
We're going to sell some AOC quote tees. Unapologetically. Joyfully. We're going to combat hate with love—in word and deed; we even loved up on some Internet trolls, a few hours ago. How you like us now?
❀ ❀ ❀
RELATED AWESOMEHOOD: Rachel Lears' and Robin Blotnick's inspiring documentary, Knock Down the House, is now streaming on Netflix. ¡Viva la revolución!