SANCTITUDE
I started working out over the summer under the premise I wanted to obtain a leaner, more defined physique. This is true, but there was also an underlying message I never spoke out loud: when the world crumbles, I want to be able to defend myself and my homestead as well as be able to hypothetically defend others I deem as worthy. As someone who can’t even lift 20 pounds with each arm, this is a pretty lofty goal. Thankfully, adrenaline would help me out in situations I truly needed to defend myself, but what I want to talk about is why I decided now is the time to start thinking along the lines of defense.
I have no vested interest in this country, I’ll say that right now. What once was righteous and pure is now just a bloated cover for a conglomeration of corporations. As such, this country isn’t looking out for your best interests-if it was, we’d never be in the mess we’re in. And by mess I mean we wouldn’t have been so lax on immigration. We wouldn’t have ruined our own economy with far fetched concepts of deregulating the financial sector to give power to the ‘free market’. We wouldn’t have sacrificed our country’s standard of living in order to cushion the elite’s slippers at night. Everything about this place (I’m not saying other countries aren’t like this as well) is insane-it’s like a less desolate North Korea, a place run by INSANE PEOPLE who give NO FUCKS about their people, just themselves. Yes-we’ve got so much in common with North Korea it’s mind boggling. Look at our jail statistics. Look at them.
What I’m saying is, it’s a nice idea we can change things with our protesting and marching and reblogging and Facebook activism, but unless you’re talking about BOMBING and LEVELING and then REBUILDING, you’re talking straight out of your ass. I have no interest in living in a Mad Max-esque dystopian society where we’re all getting raped and pillaged in an effort to obtain petrol because that’s already what’s happening. But I do have an interest in seeing this entire concept of democracy completely leveled and rebuilt. This can only occur by violent means. It has to be an actual revolution. Not one of just the mind, but of everything.
As much as I love my faux fur and warm apartment and typing on this MacBook Pro and watching Netflix and eating lentils and painting my nails and seeing old dudes from the 80’s sing and dance for my amusement, I know at every second I’m doing something pleasurable, I am BY LACK OF ACTION giving my nod of approval to this kind of lifestyle, the lifestyle that says I don’t really care what’s going on around me as long as I still have my A/C, my TV, and my Internet access. As long as I can still YouTube people tripping and Tumblr my inner thoughts about platform shoes, all is well. Is this true? I suppose so; afterall, I do it everyday. I’m not out actively changing things because the only kind of change I’m interested in is seeing this entire system, both economic and ideological, collapse. No reform. Complete and utter collapse. Burn down the White House and the Washington Monument. They no longer stand for anything; they merely point out the discrepancy between what is country is supposed to be and what it actually is.
I’m extremely afraid of violence in any shape, both perpetrating it and being a victim to it, so it’s not easy for someone like myself to advocate throwing bricks into buildings and stocking up on supplies for Molotov cocktails. But if you think marching peacefully so you can *maybe* *hopefully* *possibly* get some laws put into effect to re-regulate the financial industry or legalize hemp or truly nationalize healthcare is worth your time, I beg to differ. Much like the adage you cannot build a house without a proper foundation, you cannot add a law to a pile of excrement and expect it to smell like roses. This whole fucking system is worthless. It’s law upon law upon law upon layers and layers of bureaucracy, a never ending tunnel of bullshit and legal jargon and assholery. A veritable Alice in Wonderland world of imaginary sentiment and dead and buried hope. When we elected Obama, we did so on the premise of change. We had HOPE that things would CHANGE-after all, shit couldn’t get much worse than it was under BABY BUSH, could it?! Well, it did, and let me tell you-as weak and ineffective as Barack Obama and his administration is, almost none of what’s happening today is “his” fault. It’s not the fault of any one person, truthfully, but the faults of all of us, as we allowed worthless laws to be passed and allowed meaningful laws to be broken without going for blood. The Internet, of which I am a part, is up in arms about SOPA and NDAA, but what are we going to do about it? Talk. We’re going to talk about it. Maybe sign some petitions, make some calls. Then we’re going to watch TV and later forget about it, unless we make politics our life. They’re more laws added to the pile of shit we’ve built our homes upon, and no one is doing anything. Who voted for these actions? Who championed these concepts? Their doors should be kicked down and they should be imprisoned for crimes against the people of the United States. All of those CEOs and Big Boys who volleyed for (and succeeded in) deregulating the financial industry to the detriment of the American People should be imprisoned for crimes against the American People. I can go to jail for walking around with an unlicensed gun, or a specified amount of narcotics, or any number of other activities, but others can PREMEDITATEDLY affect millions of other people’s lives in a negative fashion and still be able to kick it on their yachts and drink champagne. Interesting, isn’t it? Didn’t we found this country on the premise of getting away from a monarchy?
I’m going to stock up on bullet proof vests and canned food. I’m going to learn to shoot a gun and not be afraid of it. I’m going to emotionally un-attach myself to my material belongings, and continue to try to become leaner, stronger, faster, smarter. We’re living in a world where the destruction of the environment is an afterthought to maximizing profit. Where people refuse to erect solar wind farms because it will ruin the view from their homes. Where human capital is thought of as less valuable than actual capital, which is nothing but an imaginary concept where you’re given fiat currency in exchange for your time. Where we justify saving ourselves $2 an item buying cheap shit made with slave labor because jeez, isn’t that $2 we saved ourselves TOTALLY worth little Ching Chong in China working those 20 hour days? Hey, we’re doing Ching Chong a FAVOR, actually! Without us, he wouldn’t have a job. Never mind the fact poor Ching is actually taking away a job from an American and all those dollars you spend don’t go directly to little Ching and his family but a bloated corporation run by people with the ethical compasses of Adolf Hitler. Never mind your voting dollars (your dollars are votes, make no mistake about that) are not only supporting slave labor but also telling the Chinese government it’s okay to keep the labor laws so horrendous BECAUSE there is no need to invest in your people’s sanctitude when companies from overseas will pay you to ignore their pleas! YOU SAVED TWO DOLLARS AND THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT!
I support all movements organized around change, but I will not waste my time walking and talking about changing a system I no longer want at all. I want this entire country to be gone. I no longer want a United States of America, neither in name nor in action, for the US of A belongs in history books as it’s been dead and gone for a loooong time. This country ought to be called Wal-Mart, or maybe J.P. Morgan Chase, or perhaps Exxon Mobil. Or The Conglomerated Corporations of Lower North America. Something like that, so other countries can know what we’re all about before they decide to visit or move here. Calling a country as pathetic as the one we’re currently living in the United States of America when we are neither American by nature nor United on any front is both comical and insulting. I still respect the principles this country was founded on. I might be the last one.
I was thinking of adding my own commentary but my brain is fried by essays so I can’t think of anything except that Sterner is a really smart, awesome bitch and I really respect her for these words. They are important ones.
