Well, You Know, We’d All Love to See the Plan.

-from the 1968 song Revolution by The Beatles

The winds of change have been blowing for many decades here in America. They have managed to stir up a few tornados in the business of being a citizen here but since we entered the 21st century those winds have blown mostly a torrent of anger and violence that we either can’t or won’t address to bring us to a balanced center where we can sit down at the table and negotiate for a settlement of our deep differences. You can blame the right or you can blame the left but it all boils down to people who are too selfish and spoiled to do the hard work that peace requires.

I hear many people speak about all of the things that are wrong in this country every day. Politicians say this, religious leaders say this, economists say this, legal experts say this, and the common blowhard says this at the dinner table and on social media and in the faces of anyone not fast enough to get away from their speeches. So what is the answer to a society that has gone off the deep end and is drowning in hatred and resentment, poverty and a lack of empathy? To begin, we will have to find one common ground issue that we all can agree is affecting everyone. What is that issue? There doesn’t appear to be one unless you count the congressional anger about Tik Tok. One could assume that we all want to live our lives in the best way possible but the truth is that a lot of people don’t want all of us to.  Many of our citizens do not give one damn about the survival of anyone other than themselves. To have come to this point should be terrifying to all of us but it isn’t.

The town that I live in used to be a lot nicer than it is now. In the last few years, I have seen it turn into a dirty and dried up community of haves and have nots where the affluent have migrated to the outskirts of town and left the city center to rot. A few attempts at reviving the area within the city limits have been made but they mainly focus on tearing down condemned buildings and replacing them with restaurants and areas where one can walk through the city at night carrying a cocktail in a paper cup, or not replacing them at all. One end of the Main Street looks quaint and festive and the other end looks like total crap. Everything is a half-assed job here which serves only a small portion of the population now and the rest can be damned. So where would you find a common ground in a place that never even considers what the quality of life might be like at the other end of the street? You won’t. It does not exist in the minds of those who have the power and the resources to bring us toward a common ground. This is the situation everywhere, and too many people are fine with it.

So, for everyone that I hear pointing out all of the injustices in this country I have yet to see their plan for getting us all on the same page to correct this inequality. How do you change the people’s minds when they are fine with the minds that they have?

You tell me it’s the institution.

In the 1988 film The Last Temptation Of Christ, the character Pontius Pilate, played by David Bowie, tells Jesus “It simply doesn’t matter how you want to change things. We don’t want them changed.”  Socialism, Communism, or Marxism, any “ism” that you want other than Capitalism falls upon deaf ears too much of the time. The “haves” in America put up a mental block to them many decades ago. Too often our words do not penetrate through that block. Why would they want to give up the great position that they are in? Why should they be willing to have a little less on their plates so others can have more? When you must explain the why in this to people, you are dealing with closed minds and hard hearts. To make a dent in their point of view you would almost have to put them in a time machine and take them back to infancy. As an adult, you will not see what you don’t want to see. Even if your reasoning for changing the world is sound and logical they would see no legitimate argument. Allowing pain and misery is easy if you have already sown up your argument with “it is their own fault”. They won’t debate that point with you because they don’t have a leg to stand on in reality and they know it, but capitalism is an institution that in their mind is untouchable.  In the film, it had been prophesized that Rome would fall but they were too arrogant to believe it. It did fall, though. The predictions are here for the collapse of capitalism as well. If their own actions make this prophecy real, will we have sense enough to build up again with a better system? Armed with a sense of direction for that right now, we absolutely will.

You ask me for a contribution.

Bernie Sanders wrote in his latest book, It’s Okay To Be Angry About Capitalism that the average contribution that his campaign received during his 2020 run for the Presidency was $18.50 and the vast majority of the contributors were average citizens. If he were to run again in 2024, I could probably give that much in support this time but I might have to skip dinner for a couple of nights to do it. That’s how bad things are now. It should not be, but those who worship the god capitalism are not being told not to starve us out and take away our livelihood. Bernie is certainly a person worth donating two potential dinners to but the choice should not come down to that. That it would for many of us reflects a warped set of priorities put upon us to keep a warped system going.  Bernie has always remained steadfast in his message and ideals on what needs to be done in America and he proves it every time that he speaks. Support for him is a no-brainer even when the chips are really down and the fish is too.

A great many of our representatives in Washington were born in the 1940s and 50s. They were around during the time that the song Revolution was playing on the radio, and when there were many people protesting about civil rights, human rights, women’s rights, and the Vietnam War. Many of them participated in the protests, but except for a few, these people seem to have forgotten how to care about anything except profit and their position.

But if you want money for people with minds that hate…

There is a reason why we tend to hear more in this country from angry and resentful people. It is because a ton of money is being made from the internet and nowhere near as much is made from brick-and-mortar businesses. I have heard that many Amazon Go and Whole Foods stores are going to close.  Anger and hate words trigger algorithms lightning quick and peace, love, and solutions to problems are not conducive to making money. So, if you wonder why you hear more about the rude and reckless attitudes in the mainstream, this is why. It is more profitable. Does anybody care about that? Not if they are the ones reaping the benefits. Anger and hatred get attention faster than any other topic and it gets converted into chaos and criminality every single day. The profits are enormous and it doesn’t matter if these prompts are lies. Once the money is made who cares?

You say you’ll change The Constitution.

I have my doubts about this one because you don’t have to change it to get what you want. All you have to do is reinterpret it and it has been proven that they can take away any freedom that they want. If this doesn’t frighten you not much will, but so far it has been quite acceptable to do this as long as it is someone else’s freedom that is being lost. Yes, there are many who realize how wrong this is but so far, their voices are not loud enough to make a difference.

You tell me that it’s evolution.

Yes, I would tell you that. The troubles that we now have could very well evolve out of the culture after a time. We sometimes outgrow childishness and stupidity, but if we wait for an evolutionary change, I fear that the current generation would not live to see it. I also fear that the planet won’t survive the slow winds of evolution. De-evolution is another story.  It has the pedal to the metal. There has been a sharp decline in balanced human behavior that reminds me of barbarians. At first it reminded me of the Old West where there was lawlessness and a disregard for anything that got in the way of what a disconnected man saw as an easy road to success by virtue of having two guns strapped to his hips. When the citizens grew tired of living with people like this, laws were enacted to put a stop to it. We are now beyond that. Scammers are constantly calling us and sending deceptive texts to trick us out of our money.  Guns are everywhere and few attempts have been made to stop it. So now the rule of the gun and the rule of lies is used whenever we don’t like something. That is enough to intimidate a great many of us and keep us afraid and distracted enough to stay out of the other rule which is corporate greed is good. If you doubted it before try buying an affordable car or renting a house at an affordable price. How much more are you spending per month on groceries than you were last year?

You say you’ve got a real solution.

If after reading this you still have a plan for a workable revolution, please tell the rest of us. When John Lennon wrote the song change was a real possibility. But even back then it was going to require more cooperation than many of the people in this country were willing to offer. By the time the 1960s protesters reached their 40s most of them had abandoned the causes. The children that they had couldn’t relate to the struggles that their parents knew so the old problems came back and it truly shows that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Will future generations know about the problems that we have today? Will there be textbooks that tell the stories of our struggle for fairness and equality or will they all have been pulled from the school libraries and never be spoken about? Stock your personal library now and pass it along to the next generation because it may be the only record left of how we worked for their future at a time when too many of the people lived like there was no tomorrow. Your children are going to be the keepers of what we were and what we stood for. The meek (or the weak) are on track to inherit the earth by being beaten and starved into submission by love of profit. The affluent are already looking for a new home to ravage and plunder. What would John think of us now?