Our way of foreign policy is rearing its ugly head. Worse, in the public sphere people fear speaking out, in the pocketbook people cannot pay for necessities anymore and in the mind people have been reduced to thinking like cretinous docile servants instead of thoughtful citizens. Thinking has morphed from being what can I do to take back my country to government will never allow me to fight for my country. Thinking has taken on a layer of tolerance that is often blind where people are agreeing to lay down their “arms” and not stick up for the right to survive in America. When the only way you can fight back mentally against a nation is through messages left in Internet forums, through postings on the World Wide Web, through the viewing of Keith Olbermann’s news hour every weekday, through the viewing of documentaries, through the reading of countless academic books, and through the laughter and belittling of an administration that went mad a long time ago by watching Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, or even Bill Maher, America has got a problem.
Politics is not a recreational sport. It can no longer be. You cannot get together for tea or coffee on Sundays and just discuss Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine. You cannot just have a house party to watch a saturated and illogical debate on CNN or MSNBC. You cannot just go stand on corners and hand out flyers that will become city litter or the toilet paper the impoverished man sitting on the corner with a cup will use tonight to wipe his ass. You cannot allow yourself to be institutionalized and vote for the candidate of your “choice” who has the best chance of winning instead of voting for who should win.
You must start being impolite, argumentative, and assertive about gaining respect and dignity in the life you lead in America. You must push other Americans not as in tune with what is going on in America to talk to you about what they think and why they are not doing anything about the problems we face. Find a creative way to make them respond to you and do it for the future generations of America.
History shows that social movements win, but the catch is that this knowledge can hinder any chance of succeeding in impeaching Bush and Cheney or trying them for crimes in the future (which will be more difficult in the future because 1) They cannot be tried in the International Criminal Court and 2) Few courts will want to hear the case of U.S. v. Bush or Cheney after 2009 when people will just be relieved that they are out of power). The drive for change cannot come from what you read in a book about something that happened a long time ago. It can help make the case but ultimately, you have to find it within yourself to make the giant leap of faith to save this nation---to save your future and to band together and get connected with people who feel the same way you do. You have to decide that with all the problems we face, this insanity can not go on any longer.
And really, it’s as simple as this---You have to choose to open that window and like Howard Beale in Network shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore.”
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