Relevance and Revolution

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Where's the Revolution?

For some time now I have been wondering where the revolution was hiding. Where is the passion and fire for cause that moved people through the 1960's? I used to believe our generation had no real cause beyond hiding the fact we secretly watch reruns of "Saved By the Bell" (I'm 34, by the way, so you know of which generation I'm speaking)- but now I think our causes are just buried. They are buried in television. They are residing in that plant off the New Jersey turnpike where chemists create "natural flavoring". So-called professionals have cornered the market on our causes, mangling them into nice, square, foamy news stories that are formatted to fit our screens.

What I'm thinking about, not yet proprosing- due to the fact I DID grow up in the '80's and I'm not sure I can handle all the work- is that we reclaim our causes and start our own damn revolution.

Now, before anyone gets royally pissed, I'm not proclaiming there is no good work being done. However, the overall complacency of most of society is overwhelming me. We still have poverty, folks, and that just isn't ok. Those so-called professionals handling our causes right now have distorted our version of reality. Some of these professionals make a pretty penny recreating this reality to fit the picture our leaders like us to have in our head.

WAIT... keep reading- I promise I'm not going to throw a conspiracy theory on you. I guess I'm just sort of pessimistic right now. I'm sort of a bipolar pessimist. My mood will change, but not my need for revolution.

As far as relevence goes, the need for revolution can occur daily. I challenge you to take on one of those hidden causes when you find them. It might just be something like writing "fake baking is dumb" on a bunch of matchbooks at a bar to get your message heard.

Another fact overwhelming me is that I am a late bloomer in the area of hell raising and activism. Not that I didn't break my share of rules in that small Missouri town, but underage drinking only counts as a revolution when it's done on Senior-Skip-Day. I do react to the meanness of toll booth money takers, people who steal parking spots, and write a mean letter to the editor, but is this enough? Shouldn't I be picketing or crossing picket lines... or something? Can we feel good about our little acts of revolting?

Sure we can. And we can entice others to act. Before you know it, we'll have our causes back. This will be good, because I hate that artificial natural strawberry-kiwi flavor.