Revolution. Nearly as abused a word as love. As the Occupy Wall Street movement migrates to Vancouver, I am skeptical, though can’t abide the status quo either, and do believe change is possible. I am hopeful democracy will continue to spread, encouraged by the Arab Spring, how technology facilitates virtual brainstorming, the overthrow of despots. I am impressed with the integrity of this oh so grass roots movement. Still, I maintain, look within. I realize it sounds Buddhist or hippie-ish, but it’s vital to self-reflect, inhabit your Self, no matter where you reside, be it Wonderland or Wall Street.
I revolted long ago. Fleeing tortured relationships and a harrowing home life, as an angry young woman, I vainly sought justice, or more accurately, vengeance. A radicalized feminist, I became disillusioned and frustrated, began to understand that being an artist is a political statement. Being me. There is no other reality, or viable accomplishment, such a hard journey it is, once penning in a lyric, “I will not become what I mean to you.” I am far more effective expressing my views through words. And deeds, (see below), changing the only thing I can; me. My transformation, dare I say, transcendence is my greatest contribution, for talk is cheap, as is life, sadly.
Clean up your own back yard. Mess. That would be a good start. Do the work. Strengthen your foundation. Fill in the cracks, make the repairs. Corrections. Engineer community. Eliminate the pain and suffering within your reach. Stamp out tragedy, reign in disaster, strife, and or, express grief. Assimilate grief. Strip away the armor. Learn humility. Share. It feels good. Respect yourself. Others. Life. Be as kind as you can be. Expect less. Reserve judgement, not affection. Love. Unconditionally.
Whether I agree or disagree with the protesters doesn’t matter. We are complicit. Reform begins at home. All the rest is politics.
You beat me to the post. And much more succinctly than any of my scratched out rants. I’d settled on Occupy Your Culpability.
Yes we as individuals are culpable and we need to look in the mirror at our part in this. We also need to get off our asses and monitor the hell out of government and the corporations as well as confronting each other. When we find something awry, we need to speak up and we need to be prepared to take our advice.
Being culpable does not mean that you take the focus on the governments and the corporations. It means you need to become an active part of society …. acting with respect for others and yourself; acting for the best interests of the whole of society, not self interested segments of it.
I like that Pearl! Thanks for the feedback.
Well, said, Heather, as usual. This is what I have been quietly and sometimes expressively doing since the 70’s. I do my best NOT to compare myself to others. I notice others do in a very intrusive yet isolating (to me) way, because of the way I have travelled my path. I felt betrayed, in the eighties and onward, when nearly everyone, I knew, went into debt for “stuff”. I did not join them and that meant decades, utterly alone. I do not feel redeemed that many are NOW waking up, en masse. But, I AM relieved … for ALL of us. xo
“Self knowledge is a dangerous thing/The freedom of who you are,” is how Reed put it. Just the same, I am grateful there are people in our world who want to aim our beat up North American car someplace else before it arrives where it looks like it is headed now – in Saudi Arabia, out of gas. Remember what no one called Pablo Picasso? Not in New York.
I’m grateful too, but you lost me on the Picasso reference. 😮
Picasso, and I admit here to having no formal training in the history of artists, had friends in the Anarchist world. Whatever one makes of his politics, he was surely anti-fascist. Occupation politics, such as we have been seeing all around our world, is an Anarchist form, occurring as it does, outside government. The reference is to Jonathan Richman’s song “Pablo Picasso,” who Jonathan claims was never called an asshole (“not in New York”) the birthplace of our continent’s present stir, conceived right here at home.
Thanks for the clarification. 🙂 I abhor fascisim, in all its guises.
i really enjoyed this piece. i particularly like how you’ve personalised it. brought it home, which is where these changes have to begin. i’m like you, i think we need change but i haven’t swallowed the whole pill yet. close though. i wrote in my own blog on this ‘revolution’ so it was interesting to see your approach.
and just a quick comment on the reference to the anarchy idea. what appears to be anarchy in occupy on the outside is actually a bunch of people scrambling like hell, trying to coordinate efforts and ideas, and making up a lot of it as they go.
Nice! I like your personal spin on it. Heartfelt. We live in a world of judgement. Everybody judges everybody else. It’s just the way we seem to be. It’s sad, cruel and often heartless. And occasionally there is justice.
I know a few people who are in the Occupy Movement. They care so much about everything that their hearts break. They are doing it for the right reasons. I do also see people waking up more. It’s hard being awake. You are always on the outside of everything.