So many of our ancestors were brought here as slaves and indentured servants, even made captive in their own lands, but we call this the land of the free. Here a man cannot own another, cannot take what belongs to another… supposedly.
In generation after generation of free living together we have found ways to make up for our freedom. Is it our nature that makes us find ways to give it up? Is it our ignorance as a society? Some turn to substances: drugs (prescription and illicit), alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, food, etc; some turn to possessions. In our land of plenty, anything is to be had with the right amount of cash or credit. We find ourselves signing contracts of servitude before we’re twenty, indenturing our futures away for the here, the now, and hoping that later we’ll tread our way back to freedom, only to find that it may never end, that we’ll always have the sensation of drowning. We’re forever giving away everything we get into a system that doesn’t care if our legs get tired, doesn’t care if we start to sink.
It doesn’t help that our nation has come to be built on, not the people that’s its sworn to serve, but the companies and investments that keep it afloat, the same companies holding Americans captive.
To be fair, we were looking for a way to enslave ourselves, weren’t we? And they were looking to take advantage.
I confess to having a certain fondness for the movie Fight Club. Some days I wish we could bomb the credit card, mortgage, and student loan buildings, and have all our indentured agreements reset. Of course, that is too dangerous. I don’t condone putting others in harm’s way. But I relate to that sentiment. How many of us are tired of working so a faceless monster can gobble our money back down? We’re tired of signing away our lives. We’re tired of drowning in debt, so we can have the right to shelter, a vehicle to take us to work, an education so we can afford to feed the monster, afford to feed a government that rescues the monster when finally it becomes so bloated from overeating it might finally collapse…. Only to lose our jobs anyway, and all that other stuff we’ve worked so hard to deserve.
We’re tired of being slaves. It’s time to break the shackles. Let’s not be slaves to the American epidemic of greed. The fattest wallets have always sat on top the pile, but who are we to work for them?
The problem with the Occupy Wall Street Movement is that nobody can or will give us what we want. It’s something we have to take. If we do, the fat wallets and the monster are helpless to stop us. This isn’t about occupying Wall Street anymore. It’s about an American Rebirth, for the very humblest of us to be seen, and our needs met. That’s what we want, isn’t it? That’s what we’d be willing to stick together for, right? We need to become the people our government fears.
The first step to fix our very basic of problems, isn’t to blow up any buildings. The answer is much simpler:
Stop feeding the monster.
It preys on us, on our money, on our hard work. Stop feeding it. This is a well kept secret. We are the ones with the power, if we’re willing to use it. The next step is equally sensible:
Protect our own, protect each other.
Are we to idly sit by as our neighbors are gobbled by the monster? That’s not how they did it during the Great Depression. That’s not how we should do it now. Let’s take back what we signed away. Let’s reclaim our lives, and our rights.
There is one caveat: we need to want to be free. It doesn’t make sense to trade one previously mentioned method of slavery for another. We must ask ourselves if we are truly ready to be unshackled. It takes an enlightened society to transcend the boundaries that nature and circumstance have put in our way. It takes enlightenment to ignore a need to be indentured in some way. Let’s remind the land of the free of what really matters. We don’t care about the most money, the biggest credit score, the biggest number in the bank, or the most green paper.
Numbers don’t matter. Paper doesn’t matter.
People matter. Family matters. Community matters. These above all are worthy of defense. The land of the Free needs to remember who it really works for.
In generation after generation of free living together we have found ways to make up for our freedom. Is it our nature that makes us find ways to give it up? Is it our ignorance as a society? Some turn to substances: drugs (prescription and illicit), alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, food, etc; some turn to possessions. In our land of plenty, anything is to be had with the right amount of cash or credit. We find ourselves signing contracts of servitude before we’re twenty, indenturing our futures away for the here, the now, and hoping that later we’ll tread our way back to freedom, only to find that it may never end, that we’ll always have the sensation of drowning. We’re forever giving away everything we get into a system that doesn’t care if our legs get tired, doesn’t care if we start to sink.
It doesn’t help that our nation has come to be built on, not the people that’s its sworn to serve, but the companies and investments that keep it afloat, the same companies holding Americans captive.
To be fair, we were looking for a way to enslave ourselves, weren’t we? And they were looking to take advantage.
I confess to having a certain fondness for the movie Fight Club. Some days I wish we could bomb the credit card, mortgage, and student loan buildings, and have all our indentured agreements reset. Of course, that is too dangerous. I don’t condone putting others in harm’s way. But I relate to that sentiment. How many of us are tired of working so a faceless monster can gobble our money back down? We’re tired of signing away our lives. We’re tired of drowning in debt, so we can have the right to shelter, a vehicle to take us to work, an education so we can afford to feed the monster, afford to feed a government that rescues the monster when finally it becomes so bloated from overeating it might finally collapse…. Only to lose our jobs anyway, and all that other stuff we’ve worked so hard to deserve.
We’re tired of being slaves. It’s time to break the shackles. Let’s not be slaves to the American epidemic of greed. The fattest wallets have always sat on top the pile, but who are we to work for them?
The problem with the Occupy Wall Street Movement is that nobody can or will give us what we want. It’s something we have to take. If we do, the fat wallets and the monster are helpless to stop us. This isn’t about occupying Wall Street anymore. It’s about an American Rebirth, for the very humblest of us to be seen, and our needs met. That’s what we want, isn’t it? That’s what we’d be willing to stick together for, right? We need to become the people our government fears.
The first step to fix our very basic of problems, isn’t to blow up any buildings. The answer is much simpler:
Stop feeding the monster.
It preys on us, on our money, on our hard work. Stop feeding it. This is a well kept secret. We are the ones with the power, if we’re willing to use it. The next step is equally sensible:
Protect our own, protect each other.
Are we to idly sit by as our neighbors are gobbled by the monster? That’s not how they did it during the Great Depression. That’s not how we should do it now. Let’s take back what we signed away. Let’s reclaim our lives, and our rights.
There is one caveat: we need to want to be free. It doesn’t make sense to trade one previously mentioned method of slavery for another. We must ask ourselves if we are truly ready to be unshackled. It takes an enlightened society to transcend the boundaries that nature and circumstance have put in our way. It takes enlightenment to ignore a need to be indentured in some way. Let’s remind the land of the free of what really matters. We don’t care about the most money, the biggest credit score, the biggest number in the bank, or the most green paper.
Numbers don’t matter. Paper doesn’t matter.
People matter. Family matters. Community matters. These above all are worthy of defense. The land of the Free needs to remember who it really works for.
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