I was outraged and offended when I heard Morgan Freeman telling credit card users to "let your freak flag fly", and saying it with fervor, as if our nation needs to go further into debt to the huge banks that we ourselves bailed out just months ago. How pathetic that is and what a monumentally disingenuous use of the term that was filched from an era that dared to challenge the establishment and its system that values money over humanity...a system that celebrates the inequities inherent in a society that with one arm condemns inhumanity, and with the other embraces a fixed "free market" itself slyly keeping the working class in their place.
David Crosby coined the phrase in a song entitled "Almost Cut My Hair" and to me it was a song about the search for freedom in a society that constantly tries to take it away. Cutting his hair was a symbolic act that would have represented his succumbing to the pressure to conform instead of remaining true to himself. How devious of a corporate mind to adopt a slogan or phrase and spin it to mean something else totally opposite. I would encourage people to be dissatisfied with that kind of thinking and to go into their attic or garage this weekend and find that old box full of your youthful hopes and dreams ...the one that your freak flag has occupied for decades ...yank it out , dust it off and run it back up the flag pole. And then take a moment to reconsider the revolution. The one that never truly took off. The one that was quieted by gunfire on college campuses in the late Sixties. The revolution that died minutes after the closing act at Woodstock. Many of us have seen our "freak flag" (ie.. our hair) get thinner and grayer over the years so growing it longer now would be foolish, but it was only a metaphor anyway. What should really inspire us more is the present state of our country...not just the economic disaster the we are suffering through , but also the power structure that helped bring it to us. I laugh at conservative revolutionaries and their corporate sponsored tea parties. Their kind of revolution is like going camping...in an $ 80,000 camper mobile home.
Roughing it...but in comfort. Real revolution, I believe, must come with discomfort...aching backs, dirty fingernails and dripping sweat. It can't be done from a penthouse office.
Several years ago, author Chuck Palahniuk, wrote the book that was turned into a movie in 1999 call "The Fight Club". It became a cult phenomenon and a rallying point for many who approved of it's message of anarchy in Tyler Durden's Mayhem Project, a plan that involved destroying the financial system of the country whereby, in his words," everybody goes back to zero."...that is, equal status through anarchy. That's pretty scary stuff but people cheered at the prospect of the end of power structures in our country as we have always known them. Discriminating , unequal and unfair. I guess it depends on how big one's bank account is as to whether you would agree with that sentiment. Up until about 12 months ago, a lot of people would have condemned the idea of a revolution that toppled the powers that be. They were doing just fine. But a lot has happened in a short period of time that should really open our eyes to the truth about how things are. Napoleon once said, "religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich." It pacifies those currently disenfranchised individuals with promises of eventual reward from a just and loving God. And it may well be true, but it is still a pacifier.
Just as much as a politician who pacifies his supporters with promises of correcting the inequities of a society built upon those very same inequities. In some circles, it's called bullshit.
Dr. Julian Edney has written many things of note, but none more thought provoking than his essay called "Greed." It's a little lengthy, but well worth reading. It's easily found on the world wide web. It offers a historical perspective along with suggestions of his own on how we should proceed. I have my own short list just hastily thought out but I'd like to share some of those suggestions quickly with you. First, abolish the U.S. Stock Exchange. Secondly, divide the country in half putting all conservative-thinking individuals together on one side to pool their resources for survival. All of them. Then , in the other half put all liberals or progressives together to work out a plan for their own survival. Pick the side that represents your long term philosophy. Split the country down the middle (philosophically, it already is) and allow it to reflect their philosophy of survival in real ways. Then let the competition begin. Now adopt some new rules of politics for both sides to follow such as stringent term limits and zero tolerance for politicians who betray the public trust. You break the law, you're out of politics permanently.
These small suggestions may not be the answer to all problems, but I believe that revolution still has a place in a society that has seen what we have seen about how the other half,( actually 5%) lives and flourishes off the efforts of the underprivileged 95%. Does majority rule in this country? That's what we've been taught to believe, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Take the time to think about it, and do it before the truth acquires a corporate sponsor.
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