Status Quo

Wake up goddamn it!

I heard Carlos Santana say, "Everyday is a battlefield, but if you fight with anger in your heart, you're the problem. If you fight with joy, you're the solution." Amen brother! (By the way if you want a source of joy check out "Safiatou" by Herbie Hancock ft. Carlos Santana and the amazing Angelique Kidjo. If that don't make you feel good you have no soul. If you have no soul you needn't read any further. Damn it, this ain't for you.)

Santana hit it on the head, my minions. I would alter the wording slightly, "If you fight with hatred, you're the problem. If you fight with bitterness, you're the problem." In order to fully round out the concept expressed by Santana, it must be combined with an idea expressed by the incomparable Dr. Maya Angelou who said, "If you're not angry you're either a stone, or you're too sick to be angry. You should be angry. Now, mind you there's a difference, you must never be bitter...Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger, yes. You write it, you paint it, you dance it, you march it, you vote it, you do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it." You're goddamn right!

Take a look around, minions. If you're not angry you're either a stone or you're too sick to be angry. That is largely true. We must also include a vast percentage of the population that is too tame to be angry. We've been taught to be passive. "You shouldn't let that upset you. There's nothing you can do about it." Yeah. Right. Why should I get myself worked up about it? There is nothing I can do to change it. I'm only one man. But there is something WE can do about it. We could change things. We should change things. We all agree to varying degrees that things are pretty much fucked. Why aren't we angry? Nevermind doing everything about it. Why aren't we doing anything about it? Because it's too damn hard. Actually, it's not. Together we can accomplish anything, but we've been conditioned to make the minimal acceptable effort in all things. We don't want to rock the boat, because we could lose everything. All of our comforts, and shitty-little possessions, and everything we love could be snatched away if we don't stay in line and silently follow the herd. At least that's what the culture of fear leads us all to believe. We want shiny cars, and giant TV's, and a pretty wife without a thought in her head, and a rich husband with no soul, and perfect little children to whom we can never say "No" that a live in a big, beautiful house that appreciates in value at regular intervals. Right? They're not just wants, they're needs. These are the things you need in order for your life to mean something, and your life has to mean something, at least in everybody else's eyes. You can't do anything to impede whatever forward momentum you might have toward obtaining these things. They're the tangible evidence that you are good. The cost? Doesn't matter. You have to stay in line. You can't rock the boat. You can't object. You can't question.
..."all of your lack of aggression. Pull your skirt back down. Grow a set, man!"-Shawn Carter.

The status quo also seems to mandate that all of the reproducers need to recite the herd's motto, "What about the children? What kind of world are we going live for our kids?" If you're having a hard time reconciling how questions can be a motto, so am I. That's just what a bunch of pussies we've all become. Well, when combined with the fact that nobody bothers to look at the answer. I don't even have kids, and I'm terrified of the world we're leaving my niece and nephews, and all of the generations to follow. A world where the parents haven't told their kids "No." As a result, they never learn to deal with disappointment or adversity. Which means they'll never learn to overcome disappointment or adversity, which you do by fighting. Fighting those feelings of defeat builds the character that is needed to make your world a better place. The character you need to: question authority, to fight injustice, to stand up and shout in defense of reason in the face of an irrational mob, to fight with the joy that comes from the knowledge that we as a species are capable of so much more than this. The joy that comes from the knowledge that you have indeed left behind a generation better than yours, who can leave behind a generation better than their's, and so on until, many generations from now, humanity reaches our fullest potential, and accomplishes all of which we are capable.

Just the knowledge of the fact that such potential exists, and that we have only glimpsed it in: Newton, and Einstein, and Shakespeare, and Davis, and Lennon, and Pryor, and Kinison, and Bill Hicks, and Dr. Angelou, and Dr. King, and Malcolm X, and Beethoven, and Mozart, and all of the genius that has come before us, and has left a better world for us, is enough to fill me with joy I can barely contain. It feels me with joy in spite of the fact that we are falling immeasurably short of achieving this potential. That we're wasting it. We're just giving it all away. That is why we must fight! We must fight with joy of our potential success, and anger about our recent failures, but never bitterness. What other choice is there?

My boy Maynard James Keenan told us, "the only way to fix it is to flush it all away." We better hope he's not right. We better be ready to fight.