From Super Tuesday to Dictators: The Power of Your Voice

I am writing this today, America’s Super Tuesday, 2024. The political battle of our lifetime is in full swing, portrayed by both sides as a fight for democracy, while around the world authoritarians are chipping away at individual rights. Some of these candidates on today’s ballots, not all, but some, want you to listen to them, to buy into their story, to listen to their “truth,” rather than listening to your personal stories.

And this is true, not just in politics but across the influence spectrum. There are lots and lots of people and venues telling you what you should think or wear or buy or how you should vote and how you can make your life better. They are all telling us what, how, where, when and why we should behave and think and vote. They want us to think as they would like us to think. And this is because they have a stake in it. They want our dollars, our votes, our attention, our admiration and our fealty.

So, does that mean that many of those with power and influence and money believe that our experiences, our thoughts, and beliefs are simply at their beck and call and exist only to serve them? In a word, yes. But that is because we allow them to pull us in. Don’t we all have our own beautiful truths, our own beautiful stories to share, our own beautiful perspectives and beautiful minds? When we are told, buy this car and your life will be great, or follow us on social media and you will be cool, or vote for me because only I understand you and can fix your pain, we know better. We really do. We can see the emperor has no clothes but maybe we succumb to those fantasies and follow along.

What if instead, we turned this dynamic upside down? What if we all stood up and testified to our experiences, to our own truths, to our own perspectives and demanded that those influencers, politicians, etc, listen to us? Our lives matter! Our stories matter! Our individual stories matter. Each of us needs to recognize that our individual stories are our truth and we deserve a place where those stories, those truths, are treasured, revered, on view, as the truth of the vox populi. Leaders should come to us, not the other way around. Share your story. Stand up for your truth, for your voice, for your perspective. Share your story. Let’s not be manipulated by those who need us to behave as sheep. Share your story.

It’s not hard. Your story is what you know best. No one else can tell it for you - no politician, no influencer, no multi-national conglomerate. They don’t know what you want or who you are or what you need. It’s up to you and me and your neighbors to speak up, to testify to the truth of our beautiful lives.

Here at History Chip, we aren’t telling you how or what to think, who you are, what you see or how you should act. We are here as a platform for YOU to testify to the truth of your life. Here is the place where you can say who you are, what you have seen, what you have experienced. This is where people can read about real life, about how life happens and what life is like for you and for people all over the world. At History Chip you can read the words of people around the world speaking their own truth.

This is where you can speak your own truth without anyone telling you what that truth should be. This is your place to testify to life as you have experienced it. At History Chip, you have the power to testify, to speak, to tell your story.

To take this a step further, dictators and cult leaders want to tell us what to think. They want to give us a false context for believing in them and following them and to become dependent on them to tell us what to do and how to think. They want us to fall in line behind them based on their own manipulations of truth. They don’t want our stories. They don’t want our truth, rather they want to silence it. In contrast, at History Chip, we want to embolden each person to testify to their truth, not be told what is valuable or true or right. We want to foster self-respect and empowerment in each person to believe in the value of their own life, their own lived experience.

This is democracy - trusting in the lives and stories of every human. Especially in this crucial election season, we need to remind ourselves that we all matter, and our stories matter. When you share your stories, you stand for your own truth. Your stories matter and we can’t wait to read them. We vote for YOU!

~Jean McGavin

Founder, History Chip