People are going nuts!
I mean this in the most complimentary and respectful terms.
After weeks, months and years of writing letters to government officials, dutifully voting in every election, holding peaceful protests and signing petitions people have realized that the only good to come out of all their action was to gain the attention and combined efforts of like minded peers. The politicians continue to follow the directives of those who hold far more power than they do, the Big Money; and the Big Money or The Man, shall we say (sorry men) continues to feast like a glutton on the obscene wealth that is supplied to them by the politicians as they take it from the hands of people like you and me. This is trickle UP economics, folks. The few politicians who do seem to have a shred of decency rarely make it past the state or local level because, face it, you don't trickle up to Washington by flying on the colorful balloon of humanitarian ideals...and if you do your balloon is filled with hot air and false promises. Or it will be shot and deflated by the b.b. gun that belongs to the gang of bullies that smashed your pumpkin at Halloween and stole your candy. That gang of bullies known as "The Man" or the "Corporate Machine" or the IMF or World Bank or Bilderbergs or whoever it is you believe pulls the strings around here. We are so out of touch with who really controls things that we are reduced to inventing this sort of mythology to explain the incomprehensible. Like our ancient ancestors we deify or demonize the sources of the perplexing events that kill our crops, flood our towns and steal our babies in the night.
The development of and obsession with our collective mythology has kept us all well entertained for quite some time now. Conspiracy theories, hours spent reviewing the Zapruder film, tracing the genealogies of wealthiest families back as far as written history would take us and even involving extra terrestrials have all become some sort of religion with which we soothe ourselves as we search for answers. I think we have all became bored with our stories and tired of arguing over whose pantheon is calling the shots. I think we have finally decided that it really doesn't matter who the boogyman is, only that we are sick and tired of having our money, our rights, our homes and our basic safety stolen away by that thief in the night, that baby snatching goblin, that thirsty Vampire that keeps draining us and draining us until we feel like a bunch of empty shells. We've tried filling ourselves with entertainment, food, drugs, fashion and all the other crap they leave behind to distract us. We have discovered that lifestyle has left us empty, it never satisfies only pacifies. We have changed our diet and turned of American Idol and walked outside...and in that stark unfamiliar light as our eyes began to adjust we saw what was going on. We saw our streets are empty because, depending on where we live the kids aren't safe to play outside or they're off in daycare so both parents (if they're lucky enough to have two) are off working 60 hours a week just to keep the boogeyman at bay. We saw that there seem to be more and more people pushing shopping carts down our alleys collecting the leftover aluminum that contained last nights pacifier so they can walk to the recycling center and get a few bucks. And we probably noticed our car had been towed because we couldn't afford the gas to move it to the other side of the street or to pay the tickets that piled up on the windshield night after night as we were inside slamming down the beer creating income for the guy with the shopping cart. Well at least we made some contribution to society there, right?
Truth is we have made contributions to society our entire lives and society has basically taken the money and run without even an "I'll call you sometime".
We've known for some time that we can't believe in our government, now we realize we can't even believe in the "bad guys" anymore and we have come to realize that neither exists in the way we once dreamed they did. I have come to realize that it really doesn't matter weather the wealth is controlled by aliens or the Illuminati or some ancient family of inbred assholes, what matters is we have to stop wondering and whining and take the bull by the horns. Maybe it's time to take the advice of the unsympathetic, entitlement hating Republicans and "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps", only not quite in the way we've been doing for the past 50 years or so. Those boots were cheap junk, the kind you buy at Walmart and have to replace every 6 months because the straps break off leaving us to fall on our faces. We kept on getting up, wiping our tears and going out for more cheap-ass boots, but if you look around people are choosing different footwear these days. They're choosing something with a bit more substance and durability and they are taking them to the street in great numbers.
I'm encouraging anyone who is reading this to please find a news source that is not controlled by the mythical "Man" and watch what's going on in the UK, Greece, Orlando Florida U.S. and in all the other places that people are finally putting down the petitions, refusing to go to work and standing up for their rights. And when you do I hope you will consider creating some new boots for yourself.
Here are a few links to get you started (if you haven't already) RT has lots of coverage of the Protests in Greece on Youtube
Peace,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/
http://www.democracynow.org/
http://www.alternet.org/
http://www.politicususa.com/
http://motherjones.com/
http://rt.com/
© 2010-2011 Nanakoosa’s Place, authored by Jennifer Hazard
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