We are riding the line here. There is enough stress and strife building up that we don't know whether to get on board or throw ourselves in front of the train. Government is questionable now, and in some parts of the world, the people are winning. They are tied to the tracks and derailing dictatorships. I think it is amazing to see such efforts to better their lives, and I hope that the trend continues. I hope that the idea of revolution can continue to bleed over onto others.
America is in need of revolution. If we continue the current path then we will find ourselves disbanded to a point of incivility. Everything that this country was built on is steadily burning away into the ether. Our culture is comprised of ridiculous bullshit. Popular culture is obsessive to the point of law suits. We have no identity. There is no individuality. If you don't "like" it on facebook then you are a fool. We heave our money at companies to feel that we are a part of something. We write blogs and tweets and status updates but we don't really talk to each other. We have been branded. We are slaves to an ideal culture that doesn't really exist. Celebrities are iconic only because they are plastered everywhere we turn. We adopt their standards because they are shoved down our throats. All of a sudden, steroids and methadone are okay. They are performance enhancers. Rape only happens when gold diggers are involved. It is okay to hit your girlfriend if you have an album in the top ten or you are a starter for the Steelers. We laugh when Lindsay gets a prison sentence. Our eyes and ears are glued to the news when famous folks fuck up because it makes us feel better. Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Ben however-you-spell-his-last-name, they are the lighthouse. All we have to do is be better than that?
What's worse is that we have allowed ourselves to forget that the celebrities that we focus our interest and disdain upon are just as human as we are. They might have a bit more money and privilege than the lot of us, but what would you do? If you could do anything you wanted, what would it be? I'd love to think that I'd stop working for a bit, but I fall into unrest so easily.
I don't want to lose sight of my previous point. The epitome of the problem lies in our complacent acceptance of what "culture" is fed to us. Behind that "culture" are corporations looking to please demographics, based on generalized studies that apply to about 2% of the population. The government takes these numbers and plugs them into some equations built by a small group of people that have enormous brain power and they come up with a viable solution to all of our problems; the 98% that is left over. Now we see funding for potentially helpful government programs get cut. We see our parks get left behind come spring time when they could use just a bit of improvement. We see taxes get "fairly" homogenized to save face come campaign donation time. We continue to sell ourselves short because we are either too polite or too unwilling to stand up and say "FUCK OFF!"
We work hard, everyday. At least most of us do. And a large percentage that doesn't, wants to. Why should we suffer the lesser when we know we deserve better.
