One of the things which drives me most crazy are the people who think that there is nothing that they can do about the current state of affairs in this country. For Heaven's sake, go talk to a neighbor, call a talk show, contribute to a candidate who most closely mirrors your point of view, even if he has no chance of being elected. To do nothing makes your fears silf fulfilling prophecies.

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Nowhere Man (A Rock and Roll Epistle)

By Richard Girard

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. . . . I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends . . . and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."

John Lennon (194080), British rock musician. Interview, 22 June 1968, BBC-TV.

"The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility."

John Lennon (194080), British rock musician. Interview, 8 Dec. 1980, for KFRC RKO Radio, given the day of Lennon's death.

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god--the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!"

William Shakespeare (15641616), English dramatist, poet. Hamlet, in Hamlet, act 2, scene 2.

The Beatles' song "Nowhere Man" is one of my favorites by the Fab Four. Its seemingly simple lyrics have spoken to me ever since I heard them on 95 Fabulous KIMN radio here in Denver in 1966. It is a reminder to all of those individuals of whom Henry David Thoreau was writing when he wrote of those who led lives of quiet desperation.

"He's a real Nowhere Man,

Sitting in his nowhere land;

Making all his nowhere plans

For nobody."

Increasingly, all of us living in this country are living those lives of quiet desperation. We are feeling trapped by our lives and our circumstances. We are trapped by a social Darwinist system of economics and morality, whose consequences we ignore at our own peril; out of fear of an internal exile of untenable employment, unnatural measures of success, and unacceptable moral choices. We are beaten down if we take a stand, and throwing up if we do not. As John Lennon said on "Revolution No. 9" (The Beatles "White Album,"), "It's a fine natural imbalance."

Our sense of entrapment by the history we are told, and the reality that we face on a daily basis, would give pause to a saint. Is it any wonder that so many of us latch onto a particular ideology or philosophy and uncritically defend it against anyone and everyone who attacks it, because we have nothing left to cling to when the hurricane winds of change rip through our society.

"Doesn't have a point of view,

Knows not where he's going to:

Isn't he a bit like you

and me."

We are all in this together. This is in spite of what Margaret Thatcher said: "There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families;" (Woman's Own; London, 31 Oct. 1987); echoing the selfish and unsustainable viewpoint of Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, and every other right wing libertarian crackpot over the last seventy years. As John Donne wrote, "No man is an island: we are each a part of a continent, a greater whole." Human beings--even with their families--are not sufficient onto themselves: we require positive interaction with other humans in order to be emotionally healthy and realize our fullest potential.

"Nowhere Man, please listen,

You don't know what you're missing;

Nowhere Man,

The World is at your command."

The first quote by John Lennon above, made in 1968, is far truer now than it was then. Our World, especially the United States, is restructuring itself into a neo-feudalistic society at the beck and call of a power elite far more powerful and ruthless than anything that C. Wright Mills ever dreamed of, even in his worst nightmares. The sociopaths--clinical and self-made--are in control, and they will say and do anything to maintain that control.

Believing ourselves powerless against the heartless machine of the soi disant post-industrial society, we wring our hands in frustration when we see everything that is wrong in our lives, our communities, our states, our nation and the World. The task appears so huge, so daunting, we do nothing rather than impotently flail "against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them;" as Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet's famous soliloquy. This in turn, leads to our using various medications, prescription and non-prescription, legal and illegal, prescribed by physicians and ourselves, and a multitude of other diversions--healthy and unhealthy--trying to compensate for our overwhelming feelings of loss and helplessness. The ailments resulting from these desperate emotions, burst forth at the most inopportune moments, because we have so poorly buried them under a thin veneer of indifference--where we are unsuccessfully trying to hide them from ourselves and the rest of the World--rather than pursue a solution that entails any risk to ourselves and those we love.

"He's as blind as he can be,

Just sees what he wants to see;

Nowhere Man

Can you see me at all."

But take heart my friends; we are not powerless. We are not helpless. We are beings of extraordinary power and resources, who have been taught to hide our near limitless potential so that we do not frighten our fellow humans, or succumb to our own hubris, which--given our history as human beings--is not necessarily a bad thing. Our greatest limitations are the lack of trust we have in ourselves and one another. Together, we can change the world, and make it a better place for ourselves and future generations.

"Nowhere Man, don't worry,

Take your time, don't hurry;

Leave it all

'til somebody else lends you a hand."

As John Lennon said in the second quote above, the most important lessons that arose out of the 1960's were the ones that taught us the endless possibilities that were available to us. We do not have to accept things as they are, or because they have always been done that way.

In the movies, we still had heroes who wore white hats, but their skins were not always white, nor were they always males. Bruce Lee became an icon whose influence transcended every race and other boundary, worldwide. Pam Grier epitomized the smart, sassy, hip, black woman who you could count on to see the right thing was done. Chief Dan George brought both dignity and wry humor to the stereotypical stoic Native American in the films Little Big Man and The Outlaw Josie Wales. The world seemed upon the verge of a sea change. It was that potential sea change that John Lennon was speaking of in the radio interview on the day he was murdered.

Ronald Reagan's election as President, followed so closely by the stunning impact of, and our reaction to, John Lennon's murder, were two of the visible symptoms of our nation turning inwards on itself. In our disillusionment, we retreated into a shell of comfort and safety in the familiarity of our nation's sordid past. With the silencing of Lennon's voice we forgot, almost overnight, every positive thing that the 1960's had meant to the world, and especially to the United States of America. Selfishness became the paramount reality of America, celebrated in movies including Wall Street, The War of the Roses, Scarface, and Body Heat.

Suddenly, most of the martial artists on our television and movie screens were people like Chuck Norris and Ralph Macchio, not anyone even remotely resembling Bruce Lee. Black men and women were relegated to supporting or criminal roles; the only exceptions were shows about African-Americans in a distinctly upper-middle class environment such as The Cosby Show, Different Strokes, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. With the Western genre all but dead on both television and the big screen, Native Americans were shown as either drunk, disillusioned veterans, or angry activists trying to get back the rights they had lost.

John Lennon saw the direction the United States was heading, and from his last interview quoted above, I do not believe that he would have stood by idly during the Me decade, 1981-90, or its aftermath. No, I believe that he would have led the charge against the the evils and corruption of that decade, as he had during the late Sixties and early Seventies; something most of his peers failed to accomplish because of drugs, or alcohol, or finding Jesus. The John Lennon who wrote the songs for Double Fantasy, was a man who had struggled against his own demons, coming through his trials stronger, more mature, and more sure of himself, and the rightness of the causes he believed in.

"You say you want a revolution,

well you know,

We'd all want to change the world;

You tell me that it's evolution,

well you know,

We'd all want to change the world.

But when you talk about destruction,

Don't you know that you can count me out."

The Beatles, "Revolution," 1968.

Gandhi may have been the best known teacher and proponent of non-violent resistance in the modern world. He was not, however, the first to one accomplish political change through the use of non-violence. That honor belongs to the people of Hungary in the late 1860's, when they demanded equality with their Germanic overlords in Franz Josef's Hapsburg Empire.

All of Hungary--peasants and nobles alike--united, demanding that they be granted equality with Austria, including their own Constitution, laws, Parliament, etc., with Franz Josef as Emperor of the combined Austro-Hungarian Empire.

When they were refused, the Hungarians went out on what was in essence a general strike. No taxes or customs duties were collected, court decisions were ignored, and orders of conscription for the Imperial Army were met with absolute refusal.

When the Imperial government attempted to enforce the Emperor's will, tax sales of lands were disrupted, speculators and Imperial tax collectors could find neither food nor shelter in Hungarian lands, and every Imperial official was prevented from physically taking up his office or performing his duties. Finally, Franz Josef relented and permitted the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary.

I believe if John Lennon had lived, he would have shown us in his songs and public statements the futility of the most massive arms build up in world history, as well as a system of taxation which--when you consider the regressive nature of most state and local taxes, as well as the Federal payroll tax--is effectively what Steve Forbes has always wanted: a flat tax.

I still believe that John Lennon's death was awfully convenient for the power elite, just as Senator Paul Wellstone's was in 2002. In either case, there is no evidence of a conspiracy, just a nagging question at the back of my mind. If our nation started to go to Hell when JFK was shot, then it arrived in Satan's front office seventeen years and seventeen days later, when another assassin with three names destroyed an icon and working class hero.

I can think of only one means by which we can be certain of not sacrificing yet another hero and icon upon the altar of our democracy. That is for all of us to become heroes.

In fact, all of the great crises of our nation's history were dealt with not by a small number of heroes, but by a rising of the United States--en masse--to oppose our troubles with both courage and supreme effort; sacrificing their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors for their common cause.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence were not the Thirteen Colonies richest men; the richest men were all Tories, supporters of George III, including Benjamin Franklin's bastard son William, the Royal Governor of New Jersey. Almost half of the signers lost what fortunes they had, or their lives or families because of the Revolution.

The Civil War was won not by the politicians who started it, but by the soldiers who died and were maimed in their thousands for what they believed in: slavery, abolition, states rights, or preservation of the Union.

The Great Depression and Second World War were overcome by a generation who would not accept the fascist state at home--offered by Ford and DuPont--nor rest until the spectre of fascism was put to rest around the world.

The Social Revolution that led to the Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Gay Rights, Children's Rights, Victim's Rights and all of the other social justice movements over the last sixty years, as well as our withdrawal from Vietnam, and the resignation of President Nixon after the Watergate scandal; had heroes central to the cause. But the real driving force behind itwere the informed and motivated individuals who perpetuated the movement's ideals when the heroes fell away.

I think the time has come for us to come together, and become a group, not of Nowhere Men, but of Somewhere Men and Women. It is incumbent upon us to to become informed and motivated, and finding the requisite courage and making the necessary effort, change the world so that once again it promises a better tomorrow for our children and grandchildren.

It is time for us to once again embrace both love and hope, as we did when The Beatles sang of it some forty years ago.

Authors Bio:

Richard Girard is a polymath and autodidact whose greatest desire in life is to be his generations' Thomas Paine. He is an FDR Democrat, which probably puts him with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in the current political spectrum. His answer to all of those who decry Democratic Socialism is that it is a system invented by one of our Founding Fathers--Thomas Paine--and was the inspiration for two of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, who the Democrats of today would do well if they would follow in their footsteps. Or to quote Harry Truman, "Out of the great progress of this country, out of our great advances in achieving a better life for all, out of our rise to world leadership, the Republican leaders have learned nothing. Confronted by the great record of this country, and the tremendous promise of its future, all they do is croak, 'socialism.'