I used to think that changing the world was something anyone could do with the right idea, and honestly, I still believe it is. The right idea at the right time with the right strengths and skills can be an amazing combination. I believed, naively as many young people believe, that you could help change the world if you got into politics and made fair and just laws, or marched in defiant protest against the demons of the world. There was even a time where I had reasoned out and decided at which point I could answer a call to arms to defend myself, my family and my country, and it pleased me to know that anyone can exercise their free will and become an extraordinary example of humanity, faith and inspiration to countless others.
But, if I knew then what I know now, I would probably want to grow up to be a terrorist.
Have you ever heard the phrase “Money for nothing and Chicks for Free” describing the MTV Generation? It described almost perfectly the idea that anyone could grow up to be a rock star and ignore the countless volumes of good advice given to them to study and work hard, achieve something in their life, and die anyway. Well, the Nintendo and MTV generation has given way to a pleasantly fat and embattled jelly-like generation that is more than happy to be spoon fed atrocities, bullshit, lies and humiliation. If you thought a bunch of headbangers and Gameboy fans were bad, just you wait to see what’s next. For now, I’m just going to call them Generation Lockdown.
So, you’re born in this Generation Lockdown, and what can you expect? The first thing will be the news. Always the news. If not TV, then on your Netbook, or e-Reader or Tablet, or if not then it will be delivered via those annoying free newspapers that clog up the public transit terminals that people only read for five minutes at a time. Once you’re old enough to sell your soul for a cell-phone contract and get the latest Apple iPhone 20XD6, you can expect a steady stream of news on your $20/GB data connection too. The best part about all this news is that reading it will make you feel smart. Feel aware and in control. And it will give everyone who has enough pennies to rub together a direct hookup to your ego, habits and desires.
Day to day might not be so bad. Lots of flashy gizmos and movies and pointless consumer products. When you get to school, hopefully they’ll be so fucking scared of lawsuits that bullies will be actively hunted down. Of course, though, there are a lot of ways to hurt someone, pressure someone, and force someone that don’t require physical violence, but the schools won’t bother with all that stuff. Hopefully your parents can help handle your mental state when they’re not too busy with their own lives. You can blame that last one on us. Some of the MTV and Nintendo Generation shouldn’t be parents. They should stick to air-guitar and levelling up Mario.
But when you do learn to think for yourself (or do you?) and have a bit of life under your belt, you’re going to begin to see all the wonderful things that the greatest world-changers of the modern age have done for you: The assholes with guns and bombs, and the politicians who didn’t actually read the definition of Terrorist.
You’ll be unable to write violent, self-critiquing stories in school, because the teachers will order you to attend psychological evaluation with no probable cause, and you’ll just end up having to change schools because they’ll quote some bullshit anti-Columbine rule about “zero tolerance”.
You’ll be unable to play with your younger siblings in the park because anyone watching you will think you’re a pedophile looking for a mark. Heaven help you if you have a camera-phone, like the brand new Apple iPhone 400milllions!
Your surfing habits on the internet can be throttled and cut back at anytime based on someone in your city downloading twenty terabytes of porn in one week. But that’s okay, because you’ll just be happy you still have a connection when someone uses your Wifi to look at pictures of your little brother or sister from the park and reports you for child porn. Decide to surf at college or university? Better hope someone in the 50 dorm rooms next to you doesn’t download a movie, or you can all be cut off from the net.
You’ll be unable to put down your backpack when visiting your folks from college for the holidays because it may scare the other passengers on the bus or train that you are trying to plant a bomb. Even if there’s absolutely no reason for it, the cops will still thank the driver for delaying you all for 4 hours as they get a bomb squad to rifle through your things. Better safe than sorry.
If you have to cross a peaceful country border on the bus, your laptop, iPod, and digital Camera can all be confiscated and mailed to you “whenever they fucking feel like it” due to you acting suspicious. Or looking like a child molester. Or a terrorist. Or a human being. Or something that is too safe and harmless to be real. It’s a well known fact that only terrorists download MP3s.
Should you talk some smack at the border patrol, you can be beaten, detained, and charged with resisting arrest and not following bullshit orders. That’s if you’re lucky enough to have charges brought against you…it’s not even necessary in some cases.
You get home for the Holidays, and find that the play your little brother was going to act in was cancelled due to it being too “religious”. You know. For Christmas. It may offend someone.
Your college raises your tuition while you’re abroad and threatens you won’t get your degree if you don’t pay up. You read on your iPhone39030GT4 that they just recently received a billion dollar grant from the government. But they need…absolutely REQUIRE…your additional $3400 or all of civilization is moot. Luckily your parents sell some of their vintage Nintendo games on eBay (and have to keep the tax receipts now) and give you the cash for tuition and a plane ticket home. You are given a book for Christmas, and are not necessarily guaranteed to be allowed to carry it with you on the plane to read.
Luckily, after the full-body scan, the strip and cavity search, and half of your lunch thrown out due to it being ‘suspicious’ you sit on the airplane for 4 hours, waiting for it to take off, and get a free napkin and a can of Pepsi to tide you over. The napkin isn’t nearly as tasty as you hoped. You still have your laptop with the 9 cell extended lithium ion battery that could overheat and blow up…at least that’s safer than that book they confiscated and will mail back to you in 4-6 business months.
Unfortunately, the person next to you sees that you have the latest wallpaper advertising your favourite video game “Cherry Bomb” in which ice-cream-monsters must be defeated by liberal use of syrup and maraschino cherries. They read the word ‘Bomb’ and start screaming, thinking your laptop is one. They detain you for 72 hours. Just in case. After beating you.
And all of this because some kid strapped a bomb to his nuts and got caught without killing anyone fifteen years ago.
Welcome to your wonderful, free society, winning the war on terror for God (but not celebrating His birthday because that would be too much).
Authorities, People, and Society in general need to stop believing that they can be secure because they remove freedoms. Removing freedom doesn’t make you safe. It makes you easier to control. It makes you easier to limit. It makes you a hell of a lot easier to ignore, which unfortunately plagues most of us going around shouting “Removing Freedoms Doesn’t Make You Safe!” to people.
A common motivational poster I see on the net these days shows a picture in Briton with 12 video cameras pointed at random angles with the caption: “1984 was a warning! Not an instruction manual!” This gives me hope. At least there are people noticing what’s happening. It’s not going all to hell quietly, it’s just going all to hell consistently and without anyone willing to jump in front of it to stop it.
All it takes to change the world is for you to be willing to give up your life. This is what drives martyrs, public servants and activists. It’s what drives great dedicated teachers, researchers and scientists. It’s what drives holy men and women, and what makes people do impossible things. It is, sadly, also what is the key ingredient in murder and terror. It’s my hope that, as liberties and freedoms are stripped away due to ‘acts of terror’, that good people, the hopefuls and the optimists like me, begin to realize how little you would actually miss your life as a ignorable, controllable, squash-ready drone, will be willing to put it all on the line, and we’ll start to see some real change for once.
Changing the world is easy.
Changing it for the better is the part I haven’t figured out yet.
Is it all as simple as being willing to stand out in front of the beast of civilization, society, capitalism and democracy as it’s stampeding towards a terrible, destructive, tyrannical end?
I don’t know.
But strapping a bomb to my dick sounds a lot less scary.
Posted under Manifestoes
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