On the Roots of Power

"And so," I thought to myself, walking down that long road from the train station, "how do the powers that be get to be those powers?" I pondered this question intensely, my mind reeling as the uneven concrete rose and fell under my feet. "Some worked from the bottom to the top, coming in as a mail room clerk or a shoe polisher. But today is not as yesterday, and now even getting in at the bottom floor is an issue for anyone my age, gender, and experience level."

I moved further on, the road becoming gradually flatter underneath me.

"Others used their connections, the people they knew to move into the positions they maneuvered themselves into. But alas, I know no truly influential people these days, having usually fouled relationships with people in higher socioeconomic echelons due to stark disagreements."

Mercifully, the curve of the ground underneath me completely left, giving my tired feet a bit of rest.

"Still others used illegal means, which I have done, but do not wish to do. It's silly to think that I'm not already being watched, given some of the things I've been involved in. Even statistically, I know that being a large black male, I am more likely to get trailed by cops then, say, a soccer mom with a minivan and two kids or a skinny white guy with a suit on in a newer car."

Still I walked, my pace never slackening as I moved gradually closer to my destination.

"So then, what do I do? I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to do, which is applying for jobs. However, it seems that they choose to hire everyone other than me, which I suppose is HR's prerogative. My connections to the bourgeoisie are few and far between, and I don't desire to do anything illegal. Barring fame, I have very few options."

Now the sweat began.

"What are my options? YouTube, maybe? No...my friends, for the most part, don't seem to give much of a damn about anything involving my talents. Furthermore, I'm not exceptional at anything, nor do I desire to make a fool of myself in order to get famous. My writing? Well, I'm good at it, but I'm not sure that anyone would read it and be entertained. My book concept was already turned down by Kensington Books, and they hadn't even read it. Start a business? I have no capital, either liquid or monetary, to speak of."

I wiped my forehead, wondering when it had gotten so warm in March.

"So what am I supposed to do now? I don't have credit, backing money due to bad saving habits, or assets. I'm not extremely marketable in any specific way, and the friends I do have are either far away, unable to help, or uninterested in doing so. Jobs are not interested in hiring me, but I can't rely on my family and friends forever. I'm just...here. In Limbo. Stuck."

I stopped at this, cresting the sharp hill that I had turned up finally and looking at the massive structure that is Menlo Park Mall.

"Well," I said aloud, panting a bit as I let myself rest. "How does anyone with power get said power? They take it."

     My mind raced as I uttered these words to myself, searching all of my morality, reason, and soul to find where this could have come from. True, those who had power all had to do something at some pivotal moment to attain their status, but to simply take authority? How did one do such a thing?
The answer came as clear as day to me in that moment: You just do. You do whatever you have to do in order to get to that power seat. Some played by the rules, but most broke them to get where they were. Countless examples flooded into my brain: Martin Luther King, Jr., Lil Wayne, Banksy, Thomas Paine, Zack De La Rocha, Che Guevarra, Donald Trump...so many people disregarded the laws that those who created the power structure had previously in place. Legends were born of those people, people who saw the norm and did not conform to it.
     It was as my brother had explained chess to me. You see, there are White pieces and Black pieces. White, by the nature of being White, always moves first. This allows White to always be ahead of the game, setting the rules of play in it's own favor. It's just the rules of the game, and it has always been like that, as far as I have found. The challenge, therefore, of being Black is to maneuver seamlessly around the traps, pitfalls, and gambits that White sets up in order to make your side win. You are at a natural disadvantage as Black, but you can use that disadvantage to make White lose. You just have to work harder to do it.
     Equated with the situation America is in, the parallels are palpable. Chess itself is a metaphor for life. "Black" in America is not only people of color, but all people with no money that are trying to make a living for their families. People of all races are affected by the shift, and we all are trying to figure out how to succeed in the face of "White." White, in it's essence, is the power structure as it stands today, including businesses, government, and the sociopathic millionaires that run the country. It puts things in place to prevent you from making upward progress, preferring you be a consumer or a subject of theirs, one of the gears of their machine.
However, if you can fight your way out of the machine, washing yourself of the oil and grime that makes the wheels turn, then what do you do once you get there? Do you become one of the people running the machine, as many of those who have do? Do you try and build another one, one that works better than the one you came out of with new materials? Or do you try to dismember the old machine, saving the greasy gears in order to make a machine that looks different, but acts the same at its core?
     I wondered all of these things, realizing that I was still a greasy, dirty gear, one that doesn't spin, but is still in the machine. Should I break myself out of the machine now, or should I turn with it, slowly climbing through the muck and mire until I can finally poke my head into the sunlight of the privileged?

Do I really want to be here?

On Being Programmed

    Has anyone else noticed that authority figures like businesses and governments don't want you to think for yourself? Consider everything you may or may not have in your home to distract you: phones, iPods, movies, televisions, computers, game systems...all of these serve one purpose: to keep people content. TV feeds you what it wants you to watch, the internet is currently being tailored to cut certain content,and the radio only plays certain songs over and over. It's like we're watching a constant tape, looped over and over again in order to keep you docile.
     On the outside, movies, sports, and music have become so hyped that people will line up outside of a venue to spend exorbitant amounts of money just to watch other people doing things that, in the broad spectrum of things, don't mean anything. Entire industries have been built around "entertainment" around the world, siphoning billions of dollars out of people around the world for decades. The same goes for clothing, highly-processed food, alcohol, sex, religion, tobacco, politics, celebrities, and a slew of other industries that we may or may not know about.
     This cacophony of white noise has deadened our senses, leaving us paralyzed in the worlds we exist in. It is this constant sensory overload that western culture wants us to exist in every day, spending our money aimlessly as we trip along and do what whichever authority figure tells us to do. The powers that be want our money, our blindness, and our silent cooperation. And, for the most part, that's what Westerners tend to give them, unblinking as we worship whatever idol they erect for us. We slip into fanaticism over the dumbest things, going as far as to paint our faces, buy hyper-expensive clothing, wave signs, and even shed tears or commit suicide over things that have nothing to do with us!
     Whatever happened to thinking? Whatever happened to silence? What happened to the person that can sit down, organize their thoughts, and make rational decisions? It seems, reader, that these are becoming more few and far between as time goes on. How many times have you seen a person jump on a bandwagon lately? When you ask said people why they enjoy whatever activity or device, how many can give you a rational answer?
     Here's a perfect example: I used to have a few friends that watched every television program that came on MTV. They liked Four Loko, listening to pop radio, getting wasted and high all the time, tanning until they were orange, and otherwise living like "guidettes." When I asked them why they liked the shows (as well as the alcohol, which tastes like utter shit), they looked at me like I was crazy. "Why DON'T you like them?" was the closest response that I could glean from them, their scraggly, rat-textured hair appropriately "bumped" and dyed. I had to do away with them simply because I realized they didn't have much of a mind left. MTV had brainwashed them into tanned, constantly inebriated, drama-fueling bitches, and everyone in my circle was content with that.

Everyone except me, obviously.

     In the end, people like what they like. They dedicate their time to things that may or may not "mean" anything in the grand scheme of things. I understand that. However, I also understand that all of these things that people fall into are distractions from the problems that are not only happening both here and abroad, but are being caused by the very things they love. They are a temporary escape from personal problems, a repast from areas where people may need personal growth in order to become complete people. They divide attention away from crooked political practices, government officials and their behavior, and the laws they pass to constrict the freedoms of the American people. It makes sense, then, that those in power manipulate said distractions for that purpose, moving the public eye away from themselves so they may keep figuring out how to fleece us again and again.

Lao Tzu and Justice

Hello, all. I know it's been a while since my last post, and I'm sorry for that. I have been covertly maneuvering for a position of power inside the existing structure so that my actions may be more effective and my words may be heard over greater distances. I am hoping that once I am able to gain sustained capital, I will be able to use said capital to actually assist the movement on a greater scale by providing shelter, food, and communications with the outside world that would normally not have it. That is my long term goal, and I hope that you all will support me in it. In the meantime, I will be posting periodically thoughts, stories, and such.

The following is a story that was relayed to me by a friend. I believe it is vital to our movement to share it with you all.


Lao Tzu & Justice

"Lao Tzu was a true revolutionary. He was guided by the inner-light and wisdom. Once, the emperor invited Lao Tzu to be his chief minister.

But he rejected that offer stating, "This will not work out, for it will be hard for us to agree on any issues. You live by the principles and norms set by your ancestors, and I live guided by my conscience."

But the emperor was unable to accept Lao Tzu's rejection and said that he was certain that it would not cause any complications to him. On the very first day of Lao Tzu accepting the responsibility of the chief minister, a theft-case came to the court. The person accused accepted that he did rob from the wealthiest man in town. In response, Lao Tzu pronounced his judgment on the case. He sentenced the thief to six months in prison, but he also sentenced the wealthy merchant (from who the thief stole) to six months in prison.

"What did I steal? I am the victim! Why do I get punished? Are you mad? Has it ever happened in history where the person whose property is stolen was also punished?" the flustered merchant exclaimed.

Lao Tzu explained very patiently,"Truly speaking, I should have given you a bigger sentence than the one I gave to the thief. Since I am very kind at heart, I did not do that. You have amassed the entire city's wealth.Tell me, how did you accumulate so much? Did it all rain down from the sky? Who is responsible for so many people becoming poor and for changing some of them into thieves? It is you. What you have done is the bigger crime. What the thief has done does not appear to be much of a crime to me. Truly, the wealth that you have amassed by making so many people poor so that you can accumulate more and more is a much greater crime."

The wealthy merchant thought Lao Tzu was mad, so he humbly pleaded for an audience with the emperor. Even the emperor, when in crisis, borrowed money from the merchant, and so the emperor gave him audience. When he met the emperor, he explained what had happened at the court. He further cautioned the emperor,"If you allow Lao Tzu in the court to remain longer, you too may some day end up behind bars. He might question how you have amassed so much wealth, and if I am seen as a criminal, you may then be seen as a bigger criminal."

The emperor understood what Lao Tzu had implied earlier and he spoke to him. "I feel what you had said earlier about how we would be unable to come to the same conclusion on issues on coming to agreement to be true. Yes, it would be difficult for us both to reach an agreement on most issues. You are relieved from your responsibility of being my chief minister."
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     So, who belongs in jail, reader? Those of us who may have resorted to less than legal means to earn a living, or those who preside over us, ripping away our ability to survive and outlawing or taxing our ability to gain raw materials to use? Should we imprison those who shoplift and sell illegal things to make a living, or should we imprison those who make it impossible to make money for those who do? Think: if one cannot grow food on land because it "belongs" to the government, cannot shoot or trap small game because of some abstract law attaching heavy fines to it, or afford to go to the store and pay for food because they haven't found a job in this horrible recession, should we fault them for doing what they have to do to in order to survive?

To the Police

To the Police:

     I do not hate you conceptually. A peacekeeping force meant to stop evil people from doing things to harm others is a wonderful idea. However, to be frank, many of you are not that. Far from it, you are a plague upon our freedom as American citizens. You stand around, leering at the frightened people that you are supposed to be protecting like some huge street gang. You walk with your weapons and restraints hanging freely from your belts menacingly as you deprive us of our own. You roll around in your vehicles, flagrantly breaking every traffic law that you enforce and shining your accusatory lights upon gatherings of people, roaming for any sign of "trouble." You look to intimidate, imprison, and destroy people behind your guise of "keeping the peace." You are all wolves, in the end, and you attack in packs at any sign of opposition.
      Do you really think that you can move with total impunity? Do you think because you have a badge and a uniform you have the right to abuse and mistreat those who you are supposed to protect? Is that what you think? Furthermore, are your penises so small that you feel the need to prove how manly you are by beating, pepper-spraying, shooting, and arresting people who aren't attacking you? Young women, elderly people, mothers, innocent civilians, the homeless, peacefully communing protesters...all of these have been victims of your continued onslaughts of "justice." I scoff at you for pretending to care about the interests of US citizens, when indeed, those people are the ones you beat, shoot, taze, and otherwise assault as soon as they do something you don't like.
      I say this: one day the people aren't going to keep on taking what you're dishing out. I don't know how they're going to respond, but I do know that there are people in Philadelphia who are shooting cops on sight due to the civil servants' indiscriminate use of violence against the people. I am not saying that I am one of those people, but I will say that their decision makes sense, given what I've seen from some of you. I am taking more legal means to confront the situation. In the meantime, though, I feel the people's rage beginning to build as you all keep abusing the power bestowed to you by the state. You are children of privilege, ones that were given a responsibility to look after the safety and well-being of those you now oppress. You are not above the law. You are not Judge Dredd. You are supposed to be civil servants, not a pack of wild wolves that attack whatever entities you choose to when they do something you don't like. Your day of reckoning will come. 

On Unification

     Unification is a dangerous thing to those in power. It is the reason why masters separated slaves according to color, size, and shade. This process created tension between the slaves, who saw that the lighter of skin you were, the better treatment you got from the masters. This made darker people hate lighter people, with side effects of that age still plaguing black people today. In a more modern sense, the people in power now do their best to distract us with possessions and things. Corporations continuously bombard us through television, print ads, radio, and the internet with reasons to hate each other, disguising them in superfluous items while pandering to our need to feel "special," "individual," and "exclusive." Falling into the cycle, we place our self-worth in things like money, gadgets, cars, clothes, hairstyles, and anything that we can cling to in order to feel better than other people. They teach us that our individuality stems from these things, and that without them, we would just be "regular."

     However, these things are merely distractions from those other things that these corporations are doing in order to stay on top. For example, how are the old electronics that, say, Apple, HP, or Dell makes being disposed of? Do you think they're being processed, recycled, and used in new machines and gadgets? Nope. They're being shipped to places like China and Ghana, where people pick through the toxic chemicals for precious and semi-precious metals for large "recycling plants." Those people burn plastics, put their hands in acid baths, and inhale things like lead, cadmium, and other carcinogens. All of these risks and health hazards for $1 - $3 a day.

     Another example of this consumerism is the random prices of designer goods. Why is it this pair of shoes costs $180, but these only cost $50? Obviously, the $180 ones cost more to make, right? Not necessarily. A recent article reporting on Jordan sneakers reported that the average Jordan costs roughly $23 to make, with only $4 of that going to the worker assembling it. And if quality is your argument, consider this: I've been wearing a pair of hand-me-down Brahma brand boots for the past few months or so with nearly no visible wear or damage. Before that, I had a pair of Nike ACG boots. The ACGs fell apart in six months. So, what are you paying for, exactly? A name.

     We are being programmed to fight against each other, use each other, and automatically create a caste system based on any arbitrary factor that we decide is relevant. Color, gender, sexual preference, race, economic division...all of these are manufactured by humans to keep one exclusive group above another. Only in these echelons do you see truly equal treatment of all, with everyone in the circle being given highly preferential treatment versus the unwashed mob. Why? They see us like a commodity, like cattle or slaves; the unseen gears of their constantly revolving comfort machine. We take the little bits of money we get from them, then gradually we recycle it back up to bigger businesses, who then redistribute it amongst themselves.

     And the more we are divided, the easier it is for them to keep us doing exactly what they want us to do. Keep working, keep supporting their system, keep paying into their businesses, and die without making any waves. That's the fate those people who take advantage of others in order to make exponential gain want for us.

Don't allow them to control you. Watch where you spend your money, as well as what you spend it on. Grow your own vegetables, avoiding GMOs that are sprayed or engineered with poisons throughout them. If you must smoke, buy from Indian reservations or grow your own tobacco. Watch less television, do more activities, and support companies that don't use subversive means to get ahead of the competition and their consumers. Above all, free your mind from the binds that corporations, the government, and whoever else is in power use to keep you in check.

Every bit of control we wrestle back from the hands of our captors is a step towards true freedom.