“This is going to be great…”
That’s a raspy voice in the back of my head, I thought to myself.
“This is going to be great…”
What?
The voice droned: “This is going to be great”.
I tried not to let my curiosity get the better of me, but I started wondering, what will be so great?
Maybe I can find a job that’s great after I graduate college?
I pulled out my phone and saw a text from my friend that she applied to 300 software engineering jobs and got ghosted 250 times and rejected after each of 4 interviews. Not so great. I would try to give some constructive advice, but ChatGPT might perform better in that realm.
Maybe AI is what’s great.
Waymo has been on the rise, and every app now has the characteristic multi-star logo indicating that it has AI. A new form of crypto is marketed by the man himself. But is AI really intelligent or advanced pattern recognition with bells and whistles? Maybe ChatGPT knows this one, but it will have to pass the mirror test first.
Maybe I can afford a car after I graduate?
Back onto the phone to check… The first news article, thankfully not summarized with an AI description complete with rocketship emojis, says that tariffs will be imposed in 90 days. But then they aren’t. But then they are.
I might as well pick petals off flowers to see if he loves me not. In the short term, however, the stock market is dismally red, eggs are now seen as a commodity for the wealthy, and people are losing their jobs on the altar of presumed government efficiency.
Maybe we will advance medical care and get closer to finding a cure for cancer?
This one I don’t even have to look at the news for. Funding for science has been slashed, graduate admissions have been rescinded, and dangerous conspiracies about vaccines are being hawked at the highest government level. Measles and polio, once relics of a medical “dark age” are resurging among children.Universities are losing funding for not adhering to political slogans.. The Department of Education is dismantled. No chance this is what is going to be great.
“This is going to be great”, the voice came back, but this time feeling like a cacophony of desperate pleas for approval.
Okay, what else do I have left?
What about bipartisan government from both Democratic and Republican parties? That would be nice to reach some sort of compromise for once. But alas, I look at my phone again, and I see that instead the Democrats and Republicans are fighting over banning trans athletes in sports, instead of having productive discussion about domestic and international affairs.
I’m done.
“This is going to be great.” I feel like I am stuck in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, but instead of feeling grief over a lost love, I am feeling grief about what should have been great. These should be reassuring words that we can follow and everything will be great, but actions speak louder than words (find the musical this phrase came from, it’s relevant).
Will America be great again? It depends. Maybe someone thinks this is all great.
The views expressed in this post reflect the views of the author(s) and not UCLA or ASUCLA Communications Board.
Cover Image via RawPixel
