THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED

[pasithea]

Preface: This post is really questioning myself using an external voice. All use of the word 'you' should be interpreted as being about the writer, not the audience.

You've always moped and been sad that you missed the 60s. That far off fantasy time of great cultural change. And yet, you know that like the magical heterosexual 50s, they didn't really exist. It's a myth. Hippies were a subculture. Most of america was exactly as it is now. A bunch of miserable people who hate pretty-much everything that's different from them.

So.. Look around you right now. Burning Man, Free Hugs, and great stands against racism, homophobia, and the rape of our planet. Perhaps you're missing the revolution. Look at everything that's going on in the world today. How can you be involved? How can you be a part of it? How can you join the revolution and make change happen? The world is largely what you make it, and you live in a time and place where great cultural change is within your grasp if you're willing to reach out and be a part of it. Make the world a better place. You have the power. Everyone does. A million tiny changes add up.


So... Now back to the audience: What can I do to make the world a happier, nicer, more beautiful place? How about you?

Comments

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.

[kit-kaboodle.livejournal.com]

I think a trap I personally have fallen into is the notion of changing the minds of the enemies of freedom. I think it is a lost cause to trying to explain to people that they are in Plato's cave or the Matrix. The Dominator Culture wants and NEEDS enemies here at home. Let's not play their game.

I was melancholy about this very subject today. I'm the kind of chap that desperately wanted to "beat them at their own game." I don't think that is possible. I think the game is rigged. Actually, the game is so slimy, that I wonder why I took the Faustian bargain to begin with.

But enough cynicism. To answer your question about making the world a better place...

You are quite correct to bring up the hippies. I think those are a few people who really took Dr. Leary's advice to Turn On, Tune In and Drop Out to heart. This advice says nothing about throwing Molotov cocktails, that is something the Dominator culture would understand. Actually living a life that is about peace and love, and really meaning it, not just some fashion, is far more dangerous and world changing than anythng the Yippies did. To some extent, the Punks, who dropped out of society, were dangerous to the status quo, but their embrace of nihilism derailed them.

Hippies are still reviled as the most dangerous thing to ever happen to the status quo. This is strange, since they failed to bring about the changes to society, even to themselves. If you do a google search on 'hippy' there is plenty of propaganda still from the mainstream. Stuff like "I hate Hippies" t-shirts for little clean cuts to wear. The hippies were thrown into a political context, but that was never their goal. It is to the hippies, the punks, the bohemians, the dadaists, the artistic movements of the past that we should look for inspiration.

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

I've worked in activism a good bit. A lot of activists (tho prolly a different percentage out there in Cali given the high density of codeheads) are verbal folks and sociology/psych/english major humanties etc... types. They don't have code skills. Organizations and campaigns fight for budget. Since you have so many rad code skillz..... you should look to where they might be needed and offer to deploy them. Also.. a lot of demos rely on theatre to get press coverage. You could also deploy your rad creativity/sewing/making things skillz there. Pick a cause, show up at the meetings and do. Also, if she's up for it... you could bring Julia to some demoz and get her to photograph so the org has cool pix they can post on their pre-fab or the website you create for them.

What kinds of activist & public education presences are there on SL? Any thing you can do there? How about going to different causes and seeing if there is anyone trainable within those causes that you can teach to maintain a SL presence?

You could also make little viral animations with important messages and spread them around.

Maybe you could teach codey kinds of stuff to immigrant women's groups and improve the lives of women seeking to make decent money here. Or you could just help teach them English. There are orgs to do that here in the ATL so there might be some over there in CA.

Maybe you could help some of the microloans women in impoverished countries sell their wares on line....

Lotsa stuff you can do. Good for you for asking.

I need to get off my ass and do something more myself. I've been dormant too long.

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

Oh and you and the geeks you know could form a collective to study privacy invasion technologies and anti-demo weapons (like that sonic shit they're gonna break out if Obama wins) and design and construct combatant technologies.

I've always said I'd like to put together a collective of folks with different skills to fight the evil shit the gubmint spends all the DARPA money on to oppress us. Kinda like La Femme Nikita :-)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Me, I'm just trying to make it a little prettier by hiding in my cave and drawing pretty stuff. Sometimes I slide bits of my worldview under the surface, especially in the long-form pieces.

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Ultimately I feel our political system is a crust on top of our economic system. Take energy out of that system: start making or doing things for yourself instead of buying goods or services. This is very hard, there's a reason why consumerism dominated America in the 20th century -- it was a clear advance over what preceded it for most people. Start with easy stuff that has a good emotional or sensual return on investment, stuff that has a low hair-shirt self-denial factor. Both because you're more likely to stick to it, and because hair shirts are generally unattractive.

[paka.livejournal.com]

Actually, I feel like I missed the '40s. I empathize more with my grandparents' generation than my parents'. But you've got a good point here; I often wish I'd been around to fight the Germans and then, after returning home, been part of the white people who realized that American racial inequality was wrong and that we needed to do something about it. But then, would I have done all that? I don't know.

There's a lot of "just surviving" that people do. I'd like to think I've done some of what I should be working on. There's a lot that I haven't done, though, and maybe it's always that way?

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

At work, during sexual harassment training I wanted to crawl into a hole and die when I was told that a couple publicly displaying affection for one another is sexual harassment against those who witness it. Yes, love, how disgusting, how offensive that others might feel affection for one another. Woe to the company that harbors affectionate couples.