Opinion: The Real UFA

by Auden Watts

When I created the UFA's Google Account and started sending out digital registration forms, it ensured several things. It ensured that the UFA could last a very long time and continue even after leadership at UFS graduated. (If not for cyberspace, the UFA would have effectively ended on June 5, 2024!) It ensured that new citizens could join from other schools and even other states. It ensured that we would have simple and effective ways of organizing UFA information and presenting it to citizens. However, in the long run, it also ensured that the majority of UFA-related interactions, both interpersonal and political, would take place behind a screen. It ensured that many UFA citizens would never see each other face-to-face. To an extent, it has relegated a proud and prosperous nation to an online roleplay group. If anything is true about the digital UFA, it's that it is both a blessing and a curse.

I'm not here to argue that you shouldn't read DEMOCRACY! News. I don't want to convince you that reading the UFA websites is a waste of time or that editing the Americonian Wiki doesn't accomplish anything. I'm not trying to say that iMessage group chats or the Discord server are bad ways to communicate with your fellow Americonians. And let me make myself clear, I am in no way suggesting that using an electronic device to vote in UFA elections is a bad thing. I believe that all of these are highly beneficial to our society. However, I believe that spending too much time on these online platforms can distract us from what really matters. 

Allow me to introduce you to the Real UFA™. The Real UFA is not on any website or group chat. It does not consist of zeroes and ones, of posts and comments, or of spreadsheets and numbers. The Real UFA is the interactions you have with your fellow citizens every day. It is the breeze that we feel on our faces as it waves our flags. It is the tokens that we use to purchase a snack or a pencil. It is the greetings and handshakes exchanged by Americonians in a genuine friendship with one another. It is the smiles that we see on the faces of our compatriots as we walk past one another, and the hands we raise in a salute to the nation. Do you miss it already? Maybe the Real UFA never felt real to you. Maybe you don't believe the UFA is anything other than an online club. But maybe, just maybe, you're one of the lucky few that experience this feeling every day.

Online UFA platforms are an incredibly useful way of providing and storing information about the Real UFA. But they are not the thing itself. So next time you feel like having an argument in the group chat, spare everyone's notifications and wait until you are united in the real world. Don't take this as a call to be less engaged in the UFA, take it as a call to become engaged in more meaningful ways. Hang up a flag on your locker, start a business that trades in tokens, or tell a friend how much they are valued in person. And for the love of democracy, if you're reading this in the middle of the night, put the phone/computer away, drink some water, and get some geeping sleep!

Good fences make good neighbors. Good doorways make good friends.

✯✯✯

In case nobody told you today:

You're doing great

I'm proud of you

You matter

Have a nice day

Democracy will prevail