You see, waves come in sets. You get stuck in the crash zone, and you will be there a while. the wave sets come in 4-10 waves at a time. Your shoulders, back, arms, chest, and head feel like Mike Tyson met them in the ring, and someone forgot to hit the bell.
In much the same way, their is a neurological rogue wave condition that is permeating our collective lives. We are figuratively trying to surf in dirty water, with very high wave heights, strong currents, and little to no surfing experience. Sun Tzu, who authored, The Art of War, about 2,500 years ago, said it best in the following Coach Bill paraphrase:
If you know your enemy, but not yourself, you will suffer defeat, along with victory.
If you know not yourself, nor your enemy, defeat is sure every time.
If you know yourself, and your enemy, you will be victorious in every battle.
We are taking real hits to our health, our minds, our liberties, and our way of life everyday:
- Our water has to be bottled because our rivers are dirty from all the chemicals thrown in by human beings seeking profits, and to hell with those downstream.
- Our food is tainted with pesticides and herbicides, AS WELL AS genetically-modified in such a way that those fields can now only rely on the GM way of farming.
- The social fabric of family life is being eroded, has eroded.
- The major media news outlets are about being sensational, titillating, and focused on maintaining viewership, and not offending companies that buy commercial air time.
- How does repeated investment by a company affect journalism at a major media news outlet?
- Heads of banks are stronger than many heads of state. Their are a tremendous amount of ramifications involved here, including the strength of the greatly devalued dollar, and where the banks are taking us.
- Every conversation by phone, every email, text message, blog post is saved, stored, and sifted. Put the wrong guy or gal in a position to manage this and... power can be used to stifle, support, or do away with voices that are not in line with whomever is in charge.
Forget the sugar-coated pill of indifference. Eliminate "whatever" from your vocabulary as an answer.
An armed revolution would be the dumbest thing we could do, even with 3d printing. We don't want a massacre. We don't want to take anyone's life away, but our life is being sapped slowly, one day at a time, and the poorest pay the heaviest price. We want America back. We can take a page out of Mohandas Ghandi's life, and use our population numbers to exact change peacefully through non-violence.
Yes, we all have to work, raise kids, deal with everyday life issues. But at what point do you stop yourself and say, "the buck stops here." Don't follow leaders who call for armed action. Is that how we teach our kids to solve conflict? No, we teach them social/ emotional learning, and all the life skills they will need to be awesome. Likewise, we must scratch our heads and figure out what to do with this monstrous wave condition that is hitting us hard.
I think it will take marches, demonstrations day in and day out. It will take sacrifice, introspection, crying, anger, unity, and a willingness to meet indifference with love and guts. Lead by example for your kids, don't put your head in the sand, or your kids will also.
Let us collectively face the music. With man all things are not possible, but with God they are.
Psalm 51: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart thou will not despise.
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