TheGonz
31st July 2008, 00:39
Immortal Technique says that, “My revolution is born out of love for my people, not hatred for others.” In some sense he is utterly correct, and that mantra should be fulfilled to the greatest extent: for what does hatred breed? Hatred breeds violence, prejudice, brutality, and sows the seed—quite directly in fact—for more hatred to grow and to flourish.
While I agree with almost every philosophy this man has to offer, I cannot completely contribute the force and action of my thoughts and words to his ideas for two reasons: The first being the fact that I come from an upper-middle class, white family. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of his crisp, cutting politics and the raw power of his lyrics gracing your speakers, headphones, or car stereo with their presence, you would understand why that detrimental rift stands between two men of almost completely parallel ideology. I am a member of the caste, the system, against whom Technique is constantly waging the war of philosophy and ideal. However, I can contribute the fact that I make a solid attempt to break my mentality from the facts of this depraved and indifferent world that are so obviously corrupt and incoherent. I strive every day to be a bit left of open-minded, to understand and appreciate the suffering of others, although I have never felt it personally.
The second reason I can not bring myself to throw all of my chips down on this ingenious character is because of my deep analyzing of the aforementioned quote. Some might say that I have no love for my people, but that too is misguided. I have love, but no faith, and certainly no hope. We truly are the damned generation, and the damned race, and it is our fucking politics and our fucking total reliance on a system that is obsolete. It is the fact that many of us—too many—still instill our faith in a religion that has proved for millennium, since its creation, to be leading us all toward a path of false-truth and indifference. No, I am not afraid to say it: I am an atheist, a socialist, a traitor, a witch, Satan incarnate. I am he who is too afraid to act on the thoughts and spite and fear that runs rampant through my regrettably opened consciousness. It is all too true, too real, too god damned awful to register, and yet it does and the fury of that knowledge sears the inside of my mind, and would surely blacken my soul if I had one. I do not agree with Tech’s statement because I feel that a Revolution must be born out of hatred, to a degree, and, yes, often that hatred must be directed at people.
However, this doesn’t imply that my hatred is unprompted, that it is undeserved, nor that I have hatred or hold a grudge against anyone who has not protruded a malicious hand into the malleable fragility of reality. For those who have and control all the power, for those who will eat heartily the blood, sweat, and tears (forgive the cliché) of his countrymen just as easily as they will consume the very lives of unseen, faceless civilians halfway across the world; for those who speak of change and certitude and rebirth, and yet do nothing but line their pockets as soon as the all-too-convenient media cameras scurry off to deceive us all with some other false truth; for them I have so much loathing, so much nausea and, yes, to reiterate, hatred of the deepest and most stubborn demographic. Such a bitter reality to know that without the war-profiteers, the fucking evil Catholic and Evangelical Churches, the puppet presidents, the jaded elections, and that ten percent of Americans who sit on ninety percent of our rich nation’s wealth; without these demons my life up to this point would have been something of an antithesis to what it has been. Without this system, my parents—who are good, hardworking folks—would never have been able to climb that social ladder reserved almost selectively for white Christians.
The world is full of paradoxes, especially living in a country like ours, and the fact of the matter is that if someone doesn’t do something, if someone or some group doesn’t finally take the initiative to stand up and say “Hey, Religious-Right, hey Father, hey upper-middle and high-class, this stops now, right now,” then we truly are fucked. This country was founded upon one single principal (not slavery, although that is debatable, but hey, times have changed a little I guess): the principal that if something is wrong with the current status of affairs, if things are so shitty and intolerable, not just for one person or small demographic, but for such a large percentage of minorities and unfortunate bastards living under the heavy grip of poverty and oppression STILL, then things need to be changed. What was the Declaration of Independence? It was just that-a declaration that those overbearing monarchs across the pond could shove their heads up their asses, and why? Because things were intolerable. Conditions of the then-colonies were so awful because of who was in charge, that it caused a group of men—Revolutionaries—to finally stand together and fight, and god damn it to win.
Something tells me that war for profit and oil contracts and pipelines through fucking Afghanistan, the murder—not casualty, fucking murder—of thousands of troops and foreign civilians just so Bush and his Republican fucking cronies could make a buck wouldn’t particularly appeal to the Founding Fathers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t personally blame the president (not completely at least); instead, just like Tech, “My enemy is the white man I don’t see. It’s the people in the white house, the corporate monopoly owners, fake liberal politicians—those are my enemies—the generals of the armies that are mostly conservative: those are the real motherfuckers that I need to bring it to.” Unfortunately we are too far from any kind of social consensus or even awareness in regards to these subjects to really do more than piss in the wind, and it makes me really depressed to think that this country, this beautiful heartland of opportunity and possibility, has about a .0001 percent life expectancy. It kills me to know that eventually those in charge are going to do what they do best: take control.
As I said before our generation is so ignorant and confused because of the actions of the system that came before us, because we were raised on the placebo of apparent happiness in a country that doesn’t (relatively) suffer as much as many others. My premonition is that we wandering souls are going to panic, going to be plunged into this chaos of this New World Order with nothing but a look of stupidity and fear plastered over our unspeaking faces-too dumbstruck to even cry out. You think the Right Wing doesn’t want to take over? You think they’re not trying to, that it isn't just a matter of time before the disappearances of people who actually do think for themselves, that actually try to alter the status quo start to happen? If you can’t see that we’re on the brink of something big, and something god awful, then you’re pulling the proverbial wool over your own eyes, and though you may not be a direct part of the problem, you sure as fuck aren’t doing a thing to make this better.
I propose a change. Not necessarily anything physical, just a little more openness to being aware, and to allowing change without just taking what the capital has to tell us at face-value, like so much of America does. You want a reason to be angry? Watch the movie Jesus Camp, watch This Movie is not yet Rated—censorship is another major issue, but that’s a completely different topic--read about the ideas of other people who actually give a fuck about society, and not just the heft of their wallets. Drink the coffee of forethought, and snort the cocaine of truth before tomorrow falls too heavy and we don’t see it coming, before we all end up as fucking prisoners, as corpses. As for me, I’ll do whatever I can, and I am going to fight this.
I like to think that there is strength and purpose in words, that the pen is also mightier than an A-bomb or a puppet democracy. It isn’t impossible, the future is bleak but there is always a chance to make things better. Human life is worth more than every penny, every diamond and bar of gold in the world, and until people start to realize that it is wrong to make a living from the suffering and expiration of any person, that it is wrong to stand before a whole country and lie—bold faced and without discernable discomfort, much less regret—that there still is a chance to save ourselves from the fate that seems to be looming closer with each passing day; until then we cannot even begin to make a difference. I hope you, reader, will at least consider my words without the need for a grain of salt. I speak from the heart, and I speak for more than just myself. The revolution has yet to arise, but I will be the first to jump behind it if it does.
Farewell, and good luck.
While I agree with almost every philosophy this man has to offer, I cannot completely contribute the force and action of my thoughts and words to his ideas for two reasons: The first being the fact that I come from an upper-middle class, white family. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of his crisp, cutting politics and the raw power of his lyrics gracing your speakers, headphones, or car stereo with their presence, you would understand why that detrimental rift stands between two men of almost completely parallel ideology. I am a member of the caste, the system, against whom Technique is constantly waging the war of philosophy and ideal. However, I can contribute the fact that I make a solid attempt to break my mentality from the facts of this depraved and indifferent world that are so obviously corrupt and incoherent. I strive every day to be a bit left of open-minded, to understand and appreciate the suffering of others, although I have never felt it personally.
The second reason I can not bring myself to throw all of my chips down on this ingenious character is because of my deep analyzing of the aforementioned quote. Some might say that I have no love for my people, but that too is misguided. I have love, but no faith, and certainly no hope. We truly are the damned generation, and the damned race, and it is our fucking politics and our fucking total reliance on a system that is obsolete. It is the fact that many of us—too many—still instill our faith in a religion that has proved for millennium, since its creation, to be leading us all toward a path of false-truth and indifference. No, I am not afraid to say it: I am an atheist, a socialist, a traitor, a witch, Satan incarnate. I am he who is too afraid to act on the thoughts and spite and fear that runs rampant through my regrettably opened consciousness. It is all too true, too real, too god damned awful to register, and yet it does and the fury of that knowledge sears the inside of my mind, and would surely blacken my soul if I had one. I do not agree with Tech’s statement because I feel that a Revolution must be born out of hatred, to a degree, and, yes, often that hatred must be directed at people.
However, this doesn’t imply that my hatred is unprompted, that it is undeserved, nor that I have hatred or hold a grudge against anyone who has not protruded a malicious hand into the malleable fragility of reality. For those who have and control all the power, for those who will eat heartily the blood, sweat, and tears (forgive the cliché) of his countrymen just as easily as they will consume the very lives of unseen, faceless civilians halfway across the world; for those who speak of change and certitude and rebirth, and yet do nothing but line their pockets as soon as the all-too-convenient media cameras scurry off to deceive us all with some other false truth; for them I have so much loathing, so much nausea and, yes, to reiterate, hatred of the deepest and most stubborn demographic. Such a bitter reality to know that without the war-profiteers, the fucking evil Catholic and Evangelical Churches, the puppet presidents, the jaded elections, and that ten percent of Americans who sit on ninety percent of our rich nation’s wealth; without these demons my life up to this point would have been something of an antithesis to what it has been. Without this system, my parents—who are good, hardworking folks—would never have been able to climb that social ladder reserved almost selectively for white Christians.
The world is full of paradoxes, especially living in a country like ours, and the fact of the matter is that if someone doesn’t do something, if someone or some group doesn’t finally take the initiative to stand up and say “Hey, Religious-Right, hey Father, hey upper-middle and high-class, this stops now, right now,” then we truly are fucked. This country was founded upon one single principal (not slavery, although that is debatable, but hey, times have changed a little I guess): the principal that if something is wrong with the current status of affairs, if things are so shitty and intolerable, not just for one person or small demographic, but for such a large percentage of minorities and unfortunate bastards living under the heavy grip of poverty and oppression STILL, then things need to be changed. What was the Declaration of Independence? It was just that-a declaration that those overbearing monarchs across the pond could shove their heads up their asses, and why? Because things were intolerable. Conditions of the then-colonies were so awful because of who was in charge, that it caused a group of men—Revolutionaries—to finally stand together and fight, and god damn it to win.
Something tells me that war for profit and oil contracts and pipelines through fucking Afghanistan, the murder—not casualty, fucking murder—of thousands of troops and foreign civilians just so Bush and his Republican fucking cronies could make a buck wouldn’t particularly appeal to the Founding Fathers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t personally blame the president (not completely at least); instead, just like Tech, “My enemy is the white man I don’t see. It’s the people in the white house, the corporate monopoly owners, fake liberal politicians—those are my enemies—the generals of the armies that are mostly conservative: those are the real motherfuckers that I need to bring it to.” Unfortunately we are too far from any kind of social consensus or even awareness in regards to these subjects to really do more than piss in the wind, and it makes me really depressed to think that this country, this beautiful heartland of opportunity and possibility, has about a .0001 percent life expectancy. It kills me to know that eventually those in charge are going to do what they do best: take control.
As I said before our generation is so ignorant and confused because of the actions of the system that came before us, because we were raised on the placebo of apparent happiness in a country that doesn’t (relatively) suffer as much as many others. My premonition is that we wandering souls are going to panic, going to be plunged into this chaos of this New World Order with nothing but a look of stupidity and fear plastered over our unspeaking faces-too dumbstruck to even cry out. You think the Right Wing doesn’t want to take over? You think they’re not trying to, that it isn't just a matter of time before the disappearances of people who actually do think for themselves, that actually try to alter the status quo start to happen? If you can’t see that we’re on the brink of something big, and something god awful, then you’re pulling the proverbial wool over your own eyes, and though you may not be a direct part of the problem, you sure as fuck aren’t doing a thing to make this better.
I propose a change. Not necessarily anything physical, just a little more openness to being aware, and to allowing change without just taking what the capital has to tell us at face-value, like so much of America does. You want a reason to be angry? Watch the movie Jesus Camp, watch This Movie is not yet Rated—censorship is another major issue, but that’s a completely different topic--read about the ideas of other people who actually give a fuck about society, and not just the heft of their wallets. Drink the coffee of forethought, and snort the cocaine of truth before tomorrow falls too heavy and we don’t see it coming, before we all end up as fucking prisoners, as corpses. As for me, I’ll do whatever I can, and I am going to fight this.
I like to think that there is strength and purpose in words, that the pen is also mightier than an A-bomb or a puppet democracy. It isn’t impossible, the future is bleak but there is always a chance to make things better. Human life is worth more than every penny, every diamond and bar of gold in the world, and until people start to realize that it is wrong to make a living from the suffering and expiration of any person, that it is wrong to stand before a whole country and lie—bold faced and without discernable discomfort, much less regret—that there still is a chance to save ourselves from the fate that seems to be looming closer with each passing day; until then we cannot even begin to make a difference. I hope you, reader, will at least consider my words without the need for a grain of salt. I speak from the heart, and I speak for more than just myself. The revolution has yet to arise, but I will be the first to jump behind it if it does.
Farewell, and good luck.