Civilized (aka in America: fat, happy) people often prefer peaceful (aka "no") uprisings so as not to upset the status quo, no matter how bad the status quo has become for those around them. And, in fact, if they'd admit it, how bad it has become for themselves. This is how tyranny thrives...in a sea of apathy and mediocrity.
I, for one, am glad the revolutionaries in THIS country that came long before this generation, that helped found this country and all that we stand for in terms of freedom and democracy, did not agree with the status quo of THEIR day and the tryanny of it.
Yet, as grand as it may have been, there were loopholes in in their plan to overcome tyranny. And our age has exposed them. So, now that we find ourselves here in this reality, do we honor the revolutionaries who gave us one of the best plans in the world for freedom and self governance, by rising up and fixing it? Or, do we let it continue to be abused by a tyrannous few and so, for future generations, see it potentially, ultimately abolished?
The fox is in the hen house. Do we just feed it in hopes it will devour only a few?
That is what is at the heart of Occupy. And, just as Thomas Paine had the printing press, so do we have the internet. And, I say, those who seek to inflict tyranny upon us in the name of "capitalism" (which is really just a new name for a monarchy that has usurped our government) should study their history more carefully.
Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in. You can do your best to be "peaceful".... But, sometimes, that's just not enough. Peaceful or otherwise, it remains to be seen whether there is enough will out there to move beyond the status quo or not. Freedom is not always peaceful, nor is it free.
Egypt threw off tyranny and we cheered, but will we cheer for our own deliverance? In America, maybe it takes invoking the memory of a modern "revolutionary" who championed the rights of the unheard and the unseen to wake us from our slumber.
Video: MLK by U2.
MLK
Sleeep
Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thundercloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Rain down on him
So let it be
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