The man got you down? Fuck 'em over with a hug! (How revolutionary...)
This one deserves comment...
I find it interesting that you would have to petition to give people hugs. I love how this video plays out where it is bleak at first, and once you start to smile, the cops stop things.
OK, I was under the impression that all this BS regarding war and Iraq and all of that is about freedom. But it seems to me to be more about Fear and Control (tm). The new book I'm reading (hats off to katiekatiepants), called The Soft Cage (Michael Parenti's son wrote it) talks about the Big Brotherism of our society, how we have welcomed it, and how security, fear, and all these things have lead us down a path of allowing Big Brother to be real in a very 1984 sense. In England, there are CCTV cameras EVERYWHERE. How could we let this happen?
It starts with the simple question that is hard to rebut: If I'm not guilty, what do I have to worry about?
But that's not what this country was founded upon. It was founded upon freedom from governmental oversight. It was about creating a government by the people. Not a separation of society and government, but really a democracy. Even though they missed the mark at the beginning (land owners, white, male, etc.), the spirit of that movement lived on until the Civil Rights Era. Since then, I'm worried that it has been lost. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Parenti's book comes off as a bit paranoid, at this point, but I think that's the point he's making. We've come to accept identification, standards, control in our lives. We allow ourselves to willingly be monitored via cameras, cell phones, etc. and don't even think twice about it. But the revolutionaries, the escaped slaves, the unions, the rioters for justice, the civil rights people... all of those people had freedom. Freedom from debt (they just didn't pay it), freedom from oversight, liberty in its truest sense. I'm not saying these people were perfect, by any means. But they stood up for themselves in a way we don't do... in a way we don't know how. In a way that, today, to us, is extraordinary.
But will I get up off my ass? Will I be uncomfortable in order to make a stand?
Maybe
Today, you can't even give out free hugs without the cops knocking you down. What the fuck is up with that? That's NOT freedom. That's not liberty. That is control. That is fascism. That is 1984.
On another note: your votes aren't being counted. But we accept that, too.
Once I get rich... I will start a movement. Unfortunately, that's what it takes anymore. I had also thought something today: I'm not interested in politics: I'm interested in governance--in civil servitude. I don't want to be a politician: I want to be a civil servant, a governor of the people, a leader for real freedom. Not bomb-brown-people-and-take-their-resources freedom, but give-away-free-hugs-without-having-to-petition-for-it freedom.
And, back to the book thing: I'm also reading the hippy-dippy Enneagram of Freedom by Eli Jaxon-Bear. I always try to read 2 books in tandem now because I'm able to make some pretty cool leaps and connections. I need to delve into this one more, but Parenti's book is about paranoia and security (control), and Jaxon-Bear's is about a metaphysical freedom. I'm sure they're going to cover some overlapping territory, but in unexpected ways.