"an american revolution"

look at those words. catchy, right? makes you feel like if you buy a chevrolet (maybe one of those crazy new hybrid things that seem to be all the rage), you're participating in something huge. like you're making a statement, like you're accomplishing something... revolting against... i dunno... something.

right?

well, mr./mrs. revolutionary, what are you revolting against? what's your revolution? are you just signing up to be the next in a long line of assholes driving corvettes?

i'm getting away from my original train of thought here a bit. i don't mean for this to be an attack on chevrolet, in fact my favorite car was a chevy. what i'm getting at is this: is it even possible to have any sort of "american revolution"? what could we possibly all stand behind, what could compel the overwhelming majority of americans to stand up and say "i will fight against this!" and do something truly revolutionary?

now before you sit there and think i'm an idiot and say to yourself "well we're ALL against terrorism, shithead", that's almost more of a common sense thing than anything. there's nothing "revolutionary" about wanting to protect yourself, your loved ones, neighbors, and so on from an attack. that's just being a decent human being. you're not going to have your name in the history books alongside paul revere in the list of "american revolutionaries" because you have one of those "terrorist hunting permit" stickers on your suv.

"there's no revolution anymore"

the lyrics to that song always struck a chord with me, but lately i've just been thinking about it a lot more. don't get me wrong, there's plenty of revolutionary thinkers out there. plenty of people are taking a stand and speaking up for what they know is right, even when (especially when) it goes against popular beliefs. there are revolutionaries in america, there are people that are revolting against injustice, intolerance, cruelty, deception, lies... these are the american revolutionaries. proof that there are causes worth fighting for, worth going to jail for. proof that in some hearts, the fire of revolution will always burn. we are a country founded on revolution, the united states would not exist as we know it if not for dissent. a minority stood against an oppressive majority, and once the smoke cleared, here we were. the end result of an american revolution.

there is nothing that will motivate enough people to spark a true revolution. let me clarify that... there are in fact things that should motivate people, people and policies that should be spoken out against. but will the majority of america stand up and speak out against these things? will there be enough of an outcry, enough fighting to call any of it a revolution? no way. we, as a country, are far too complacent. somewhere along the way, we lost our ability to think for ourselves. we're so content with letting other people handle the problems, not even thinking that we will never get the results we want unless we do something.

we've reached this point where we've let others speak and act for us for so long, that even if there was something that finally outraged us enough to speak up and do something, our outcry would now be severely limited. sure, you've still got your freedom of speech... to an extent. when you have enough people standing up against something, you'll eventually find yourself being silenced. and it's this threat that keeps so many of us where we are; sitting in front of our tv, watching the news, and bitching about what we see. we'll never stand up as a whole again, even when we know things are going horribly wrong. and you know what? they'll get to a point where we have no choice. a point where, even if we wanted to stand up and speak out in opposition, we won't be able to. and we'll deserve that, our punishment for being apathetic for far too long. it's what we deserve for laughing at people with revolutionary ideas, ignoring facts that have been laid out bare for us to examine.

we're a blinded society. far too easily do we shut our eyes to what we should stand against. and through our inaction, we're condoning these activities that we should be condemning. ladies and gentlemen of the united states, your forefathers would be fucking ashamed of you.

to the dissidents of the world, to those who fight for their beliefs no matter the cost... my eternal gratitude. hopefully more will follow in your footsteps.



current song: these days - the lion's den