FIGHT THE POWER

The odd thing is that I don’t ask for much : well, it doesn’t seem like much to me. Somewhere warm, plenty of sleep, some sweets in the fridge, and maybe some decent music. And yet, somewhere deep inside of it all, even when I’ve got all this, and a boatload of other stuff, I’m still unsatisfied.

There’s still something that lies at the heart of ungrateful me that makes me unsatisfied. I still want more. I don’t quite understand it ; what is this thing, this demon that drives me to want more? What is it that drives all of us to be perpetually unsatisfied?

The Western World. Where we can have everything, anything we want, if we have enough money, or if we steal it, and yet, it’s never enough. In a culture where we are taught with every film, every TV show, every word on every street corner, that the only way to be happy is to have power. To have power you’ve got to have money. And if you have money you can everything you want. You can buy sunshine, women, and world peace with enough money.

Is that why, in the richest, most affluent culture there is, nobody is happy? Everyone has something they’re unhappy with : the size of their bum, their legendary divorce, the paparazzi outside their homes, something. And for those with nothing, those dying of starvation in Africa, those ravaged by AIDS spread by condomophobic catholics, despite their unhappiness, their obvious misery, they aren’t happy either. But they certainly have more reason for their misery – far more than Mr. Whinging Rock Star, Mr. Unsatisifed Businessmen, Mr Married With One Point Six Children.

Sure, I’m unhappy about numerous things. And despite what you might think, I also am deeply happy with numerous other things. Aside from extortionate house prices, enormous debts, and the awful weather, I’m remarkably happy. In fact, overall, I’ve never actually been happier.

The world is going to hell in a handcart. This much is true : self-evident, indivisible by God, and caused by his shortsighted, unthinking minions who are hastening our extinction. There is enormous debt, corporate rule of the planet, religious Jihads on every continent, stupidity and fear are the new epidemics. But there’s more than that : this world might be in a god-forsaken state, but, but, but, the vast majority of people are decent, smart, and know that the world is being driven to ruin and there’s Idiots at the wheel.

But what can we do?

Corporate resistance? Nice idea, but unless we storm the barricades of the utility and food companies or buy our own islands with generators and run a farm there, some degree of corporate collusion, some degree of co-operating with the enemy is inevitable.

Mass public demonstrations? Yes, tried those. They go ignored by the politicians, suppressed by the media, and get broken up by the army. Whats one more dead protestor anyway?

Mass revolt? Great. But the Army and the Police will always have more weapons, tear gas, and Weapons Of Mass Destruction than the people it ‘serves and protects’. ‘To Suppress and Pervert’ more like.

It’s not how we live, but how we die that matters. You can die on your knees, you can die with your boots on, or if you feel really brave, you can die speaking out for what you believe in. Even if we are too powerless as a mass, or too stupid to work together as a mass to change the way society is run, even the fact that we tried is something. History will judge us ; not as fundamentalist Christian or Atheist dogs, but as a people who protested, in the hope of a better world.

Democracy it seems, stretches as far as agreeing with those who rule. Dissenting voices are silenced. And that’s not democracy, but dictatorship.