Who has the real power?

    That is to say, the power of even the strongest government rests entirely in the people, in their willing support and obedience. It follows that government in itself has no power at all. The moment the people refuse to bow to its authority, the government ceases to exist.

     Now, what strength has capitalism? Does the power of the capitalists rest in themselves, or where does it come from?

     It is evident that their strength lies in their capital, in their wealth. They own the industries, the shops, factories, and land. But those possessions would do them no good but for the willingness of the people to work for them and pay tribute to them. Suppose the workers should say to the capitalists: 'We are tired of making profits for you. We won't slave for you any more. You didn't create the land, you didn't build the factories, nor the mills or shops. We built them and from now on we will use them to work in, and what we produce will not be yours but will belong to the people. You will get nothing, and we won't even give you any food for your money. You'll be just like ourselves, and you will work like the rest of us.'

     What would happen? Why, the capitalists would appeal to the government for aid. They would demand protection for their interests and possessions. But if the people refuse to recognize the authority of the government, the latter itself would be helpless.

     You might say that is revolution. Maybe it is. But whatever you call it, it would amount to this: the government and the capitalists- the political and financial rulers - would find out that all their boasted power and strength disappear when the people refuse to acknowledge them as masters, refuse to let them lord it over them.

     Can this happen, you wonder. Well, it has happened many times before, and not so very long ago again in Russia, in Germany, in Austria. In Germany that mighty war lord, the Kaiser, had to flee for his life, because the masses had decided they did not want him any more. In Austria the monarchy was driven out because the people got tired of its tyranny and corruption. In Russia the most powerful Tsar was glad to give up his throne to save his head, and failed even in that. In his own capital he could not find a single regiment toprotect him, and all his great authority went up in smoke when the populace refused to bow to it. Just so the capitalists of Russia were made helpless when the people stopped working for them and took the land, the factories, the mines and mills for themselves. All the money and 'power' of the bourgeoisie in Russia could not get them a pound of bread when the masses declined to supply it unless they did honest work.

     What does it all prove?

     It proves that so-called political, industrial, and financial power, all the authority of government and capitalism is really in the hands of the people. It proves that only the people, the masses, have power.

     This power, the people's power, is actual: it cannot be taken away, as the power of the ruler, of the politician, or of the capitalist can be. It cannot be taken away because it does not consist in possessions but in ability. It is the ability to create, to produce; the power that feeds and clothes the world, that gives us life, health and comfort, joy and pleasure.

--Alexander Berkman

Christmas and it's commercial season

Let’s talk about the Christmas season. Every year Americans begin the big push. Economical studies look at this year’s sales versus last years sales. They use it as a measure to find out how well the economy is, and also how well it could be. Economists will admit that the Christmas season can sometimes boost a sluggish economy. Let’s discover this and much more as we examine why the majority of Americans agree that Christmas has become too commercial.

First of all, if people are afraid that the economy might not continue to be well, they may miser some of their money during Christmas. The fear of not having enough to provide for their families may cause them to shop less, shop for less expensive items, or not shop at all. News channels, the stock market, and the consumers wait for polls to announce how well the Christmas spending is going. Almost as if it is an indicator to our well-being. At the present time, maybe it is. Christmas season comes in the winter. There are plenty of industries that thrive in the winter. The heating oil trucks in the Northeast make all of their money in the winter. When it is not winter they try to take on the business of air conditioning. On the contrary, a builder’s business slows down in the winter. Whether it be the carpenter, the plumber, the electrician, or even the landscaper. So he may be less capable of spending exorbitant amounts during Christmas. Besides the people with lots of money who buy cars for their loved ones in the winter, there are many car dealerships that do not do so well during the winter months of the northernmost states. Massachusetts uses salt to clear the ice and snow from the road. Salt destroys cars. No matter how much of the outer shell is fiber glass...the frame, the engine, the exhaust and the gas tank are all made of materials that deteriorate in the salt. So the push to make people spend in December does not leave all Americans equal. Isn’t this country built on equality?

Now if the economists can convince us that this is a good time to spend a lot of money, it will be said that we are enjoying a prosperous time. Why is it important to use a specific day of the year to increase spending? If we really had the good will to buy presents for the people in our life, we would do it whenever we wanted to. Some of us do just that. So it doesn’t matter if you spent $5,000 buying your loved ones gifts in the summer, because if you don’t spend it in the winter,we feel as if the economy is suffering. So...what if the economy is suffering? What are we to do then? Are we to be more selfish and worry about feeding our families? What does the economy have to gain by encouraging us to spend our dollars during Christmas season? For the rest of the year, the economists only worry about: The stock market, the price of gold and silver, and the price of oil. During Christmas time they push the material products. If we really have a sluggish economy during any given year, shouldn’t we spend our money helping everybody survive? Should we panic because Aunt Rosa couldn’t buy me clothing apparel, candles and other decorations, an MP3 player, or a big screen TV? Somebody has an interest in hoping you will buy all this stuff. So who is that, and why is it important to them?

The business that have invested so much to create some of these products need to see profits. It doesn’t matter if we have enough to eat, it matters if we can buy their product. If we can’t buy their product they will eventually have to sell it at a loss. If we buy their product, we send them piles of money which leads to the owners of that company living in even better conditions. So if we struggle to find food, shelter and heat…they might lose a limousine or one of their vacation getaways. If we have enough to spend on their products, all is well for them. Figure in the sales tax, and the government makes out as well. And hey, it’s Christmas…the collection plate fills up much faster during the holiday season.

It is for this very reason that Christmas has become so commercialized. We can’t blame it entirely on the commerce, government and church because we buy into it. We follow their lead. We say, “What can we do, dear masters?” “How can we be assured of our future?” If this economy ever got so bad that we couldn’t survive…go to the capital. They threaten with low economies, without ever caring about what you personally have to do to survive. They worry that you may not be so willing to fill their pockets. So they make you a part of it, by offering you “shares” of this profiteering. So we buy shares in Enron…we buy shares of the Martha Stewart line…we invoke savings and loan, and keep trying to up our credit. In a small way, this helps us try to reclaim our own interests in this country…but we put ourselves at the mercy of this system. If AOL suddenly proclaimed that they lost $1 billion dollars last year, would we wonder how? Or maybe instead we kick a can, look down at the ground and say, “Times are tough.” You have more control over your lives than you know, but the more you let the richest, most powerful people in the world dictate how you feel about the economy, you will stray further and further from your natural instinct. I’m not saying that technology and all it’s gadgets are wrong. I’m saying that people like you and me made this stuff for such a small portion of what they cost the consumer. The workers that built the factory, the workers that devised the blue-prints to build these gadgets, and of course the workers sitting on the assembly line. That my friends, are the people that deserve the dollars from your hard work…not the man in the mansion, with the limo and private jet. What does he do? He can’t even take care of himself. Let him pick out his own suit, cook his own food, drive his own self to the airport. We don’t need him to be who we are.

another run-in

In our apartment building, people occasionally leave items in the hallways with signs indicating that they are free for any who wants them.  One day my neighbor picked up a huge work of art.  3x2 feet in approximation.  She asked if I wanted it, and I said I was holding out for the other picture like it that I saw in my other neighbors house.  We decided to hang it up in the hallway.  We got a kick out of ourselves as I went into my closet to find a bunch of posters from my younger years.  We hung them all up and it really made the place look good.  All the neighbors were commenting on how nice it was to personalize the hallway a little, and it seemed to be a pleasant move for all.

Until the other night.  I came home from my family Christmas party and was told that they took all the artwork down.  I said, "Who did?"  They said the manager of the building.  I'll leave her nameless because I'd rather say what a piece of shit manager she is.  Getting anything done is like pulling teeth, and it's not because she's trying to protect the landlord...it's because she couldn't be bothered with our silly issues, such as my heat doesn't work, my toilet's broken, our refrigerator died, and so on.

So I headed down to the dumpster, and by complete coincidence I ran into the manager heading out the door.  I asked her what she did with my stuff and she said, "you can't put those up there" I said, "That's not what I asked you, I asked you what you did with them."  She said she put them in the dumpster.  Satisfied I went to the dumpster while she was trying to tell me that I KNEW that I wasn't allowed to put those up.  I don't remember seeing that in the handbook, but my focus was on getting my stuff back.  Everyone in my building knows that I put the artwork up.  Don't you agree that the civil thing to do would have been to ask me to take the stuff down, or take them down and give them to me? 

With every intention to clean up after myself, I started digging through the dumpster looking for my stuff.  I say intention to clean up because I live here, and I don't want to live in a pig-sty.  Maybe a pig-pen, but not a pig-sty...haha.  The police showed up, naturally.  I didn't look too happy, I was ripping trash out of the dumpster, and I was wearing a new mohawk to boot.  He asked me what I was doing, I told him I was looking for my stuff that the manager threw away, and I assured him I would clean it all up.  So he took my ID and joked, "Let me make sure the FBI isn't after you, or anything," which seemed funny to me, but I didn't smile I just said, "I know they're not."

     At this point a second cruiser pulled up, they didn't need backup, but how are they to know?  Meanwhile my neighbor was out there pleading with me to calm down, pleading my case to the police.  Both of us telling my neighbor to get away and not worry about it.  I said, "My neighbors love me, I help them dig out their cars after snow storms, I help them move in and out of the building, I help them carry their groceries in from the parking lot."  When the officer was out of earshot, I lowered my voice in a solemn manner, and told my neighbor, "Don't worry dude, I know what I'm doing...let me handle this."  The cop said, "It doesn't matter how much your neighbors like you, we're here to protect the owner."  The back-up police officer asked if my car was the one in front of the building with the ladder on it, I said it was...how the fuck did he know that?  Did he cross-reference my ID?  Did he have his eyes on my truck already?  I do not know.  I just started spitting out social values and the importance of our brotherhood.  They plainly stated that they were here to protect the owners.  I told them that they are put in place to protect the money of a man who doesn't live here, has no idea what it means to live in Holbrook and the police are protecting this man from us...his brothers and sisters who make his life better, day after day.  I told him that I respected him for trying to keep the public safe and feed his own family, but that he was merely protecting money, and letting his brothers suffer.  The back-up policeman smiled, put his head down and turned around.  I kept repeating something ain't right, something's wrong...we are more important than money, and as long as we protect money, we will suffer more thefts, murders, and so on.  They didn't seem to be opposed to my viewpoint, but of course they couldn't say a whole lot.  They let me go, I had asked them if I was breaking a law they should tell me now, so I could stop.  They assured me that I wasn't breaking a law, that they appreciated that I was keeping my word by cleaning up aftermyself, and that they believed the manager could have dealt with the situation a little better.  That's all I wanted. 

Police run-ins

     Because of my propensity for freedom, and outside-the-box methods, I find myself talking with the police a lot.  Not because I've broken any law, just because I was doing something that is similar to what criminals do.  I shared with you the story of me "up on the rooftop," so here's a couple more:

     Picture this, I walk outside my apartment building and proceed to walk around my neighborhood.  I keep myself on the sidewalks or the parking lot that surrounds my building.  I was going on a small mission to learn things.  I know what you're thinking..."Why would he want to learn things?  That's the dumbest thing I ever heard."  Anyway...I was studying plants, and trees comparing them to one another...I took a look at some of the telephone poles, and all the wires/lights/ and transformers suspended by them.  I investigated the various decorations that people had placed in their lawns or on their porches...(from the sidewalk, mind you.)  As I came around the block, back towards my building I noticed some vents sticking out of the second floor of the side of my building.  So I walked over to them and discovered a cable TV wire draped across the side of the building into the window of a nearby apartment.  I wondered if somebody was possibly stealing cable...but I decided it wasn't interesting enough to look further.  At this point I sat on the front steps of my building and began reading the newspaper that was left there for its subscriber.  That's when the police showed up.  He walked up to me, as I continued to read...sort of a "it's none of my business until he makes it my business" attitude.  He asked me, "What are you doing here?"  In a gruff tone.  I told him I lived here.  That caught him by suprise for some reason...I guess I'm the only one that likes to enjoy the sunshine in front of my residence.  As I handed away my ID to prove I lived here he asked me if I had been looking in people's windows.  First of all, nobody on side of the building would even be worth sneaking a peek and, and second of all, I don't do that sort of thing.  I told him exactly what I was doing that may have provoked the call, satisfied he left...he didn't even leave me with the usual instructions that police usually do...such as, "stop looking in people's windows."  The more they come for me, and find out that I'm doing nothing wrong...won't they grow tired of the people calling them out to look at me?  Next story...coming up in the next entry.

OK...back to the important stuff

Let me try to teach you a valuable lesson. We have one life to live, and the more tools we acquire to survive, the better off we are. Not all of us were fortunate enough to be born with these tools, in fact not many at all. The most important tool in this world used to be our physical body. Our hands with opposable thumbs, our two legs for walking, our genitals to create new life, and our brains all helped humanity survive. Slowly these tools are diminishing in importance. A new tool has come to the forefront. A small portion of the human beings on this planet were born with this tool, but the majority of us are not. With this single tool we can eat, breathe, sleep, stay warm, be popular, look good, have sex, control lives, commit crimes, wage war, and if used properly, bring peace to the world. But the holders of this tool in its ever-inflating glory will never use it for that. Peace on earth is the enemy of this tool. Peace on earth takes away every usefulness of this tool. The need for this tool would disappear, but for those who want to use this tool to control lives, peace on earth would devastate them.

This tool was invented by mankind and is not used by any other life form on this planet. For those of you that believe in God, it would seem that a careful examination of the masterpiece called life would reveal that God has given every tool necessary to support this system. When a new tool is needed, God introduces new tools with evolution. Mankind has invented another kind of tool to help uphold a very different kind of system. The church itself uses this tool claiming to serve God, but does not take responsibility for this tool’s harmful effects on society.

With every good there is a bad, and vice versa. So don’t get me wrong when I talk about this tool. It has it’s uses, but is completely subject to exploitation amongst the less scrupulous types. This tool can in fact help a man who has lost his natural tools. It can help him walk if he loses his legs. It can help him talk if he loses his voice. It can help a handicapped person survive amongst his fellow humans who have all their natural tools to draw upon. Without this tool, this handicapped man perishes; possibly freezing to death on the street, unable to escape from predators, or unable to gather food. Sounds like a very noble tool, doesn’t it?

The fact is, this tool is only necessary as long as this tool exists. Without it, life is still going to go, rivers still goingto flow, and the trees are still going to grow. Whether this tool was invented out of goodwill or not, it’s use has extremely harmful effects on this planet’s natural system. The invention of this tool has required the invention of another tool to help protect this tools use. This secondary tool is also referred to as law. It is law that protects this important man-made tool. But depending on the amount of the tool you have, these laws may not apply to you. With enough of this tool, you can escape punishment for breaking the law. You can use this tool to actually commit the crime if you like.

If you take away this tool, we can return to freedom. We started our species a free entity. We were free to do as we please, but we were one man against another. Until we realized how much easier life was through cooperation. Cooperation eventually evolved to trade, and then we invented the tool. We’ve evolved as a species to incorporate this mystery tool into our survival, and without it we suffer every injustice that the world can hand us. Some choose to use the tool to help those who do not have the tool. Then they claim to have rule over those less fortunate.

Slowly we realize that joint effort, mutual respect and freedom are the real tools we need to use. But we have no choice in the matter. If you don’t use THE tool, you are sub-humans, backwards Third World, hippies, or perhaps criminals. Criminals LOVE this tool. They love it, and it is the very reason they are criminals. They may steal this tool, break the law so other criminals will give them this tool, or if the feeling of despair from not having this tool sits in their hearts with anger, they may lash out at others who have this tool, or take their aggressions out on the other humans that cannot use this tool against them. Until we realize that this tool is NOT the driving force behind our kind nature…we will forever be slaves to this tool. We will be slaves to the master who uses this tool as our golden ring on the carousel of life. The vicious cycle that must be broken because until it is, we will be sheep in a society of greedy wolves. Wolves that we…WE elected to office, that WE support by “keeping up with the Joneses,” that WE support in the collection plate to build monstrous palaces to worship God, instead of using this “tool” to give the less fortunate a chance at happiness in this world, while instilling in them a feeling of good will towards their fellow man, and ultimately a chance at heaven.

The model of a family

     I was at the family Christmas party...I was enjoying myself, and it became plainly obvious that everybody else was enjoying themselves as well.  If there is one thing I can appreciate, it is the sentiment that is felt by all, but recently put into words by my uncle Kevin.  I call him Hokey from time to time, and we call him Uncle Rudy from time to time.  But his words verbatim were, "We are very lucky to have the crazy family we have, and most families would envy us." 

     Which leads me to this.  I love my family, and I WOULD envy this family if I weren't a part of it.  I realize the positive factors.  I realize how many people in the world may never have the chance to connect with the most important people in their lives...their family.  So I thank you.  I thank me.  I thank us.  I've realized that most of the complaining I have done in the most recent years were not a selfish attempt to nit-pick my own deficiencies or even those of the people closest to me.  My complaining is only there to discover why other families cannot be as solid as mine.

     Although I cannot solve the injustices of the world, I can use my strength, and draw upon my family's experiences to help push the less fortunate into our corner.  To push the meek into our own sort of union.  And to never, ever take for granted the things that we (me, you and a lot of other people) have been afforded in this world. 

     I wouldn't give my family away for anything, but I would give every material possesion I own to see a majority of mankind have the awesome feelings I have experienced.  Thank you...and thank you for allowing me to get a little sappy for a minute.  After all, I'm hours away from Vermont, a state that is well known for the syrup they create from sap.  Keep laughing...I'll be here.

jealousy

This is not quite the usual "political banter" but it DOES talk about truth and lies, and that is the core of what I'm trying to expose.

I’m beginning to realize something about myself. I know…I know…I’m getting older, and most of what I say will become irrelevant to the younger cliques. I realize that all of my jealous moments in the past were based on lies. I didn’t get a chance to be jealous all that often. But the jealousy I felt stemmed from one thing, and one thing only. Some girls told me that I am/was/will be the only one. Some of those girls meant it at the time.

If a girl tells me she loves me that means one thing. If a girl tells me I’m the only one, that’s another. The times that I was jealous were born from this feeling that the particular girl only wanted me. So to see that same girl be close (physically or emotionally) with some other man had a major effect on me.

What if I went into a relationship knowing that I loved a girl and that she loved me, but yet I understood how much fun it was to take life as it comes and kiss other girls, and forgive my girl for kissing other men? I am quickly slipping away from the need to control another’s life. I guess the scary part is this…I may be open, honest and willing to accept a girl’s wishes. But she may wish to have some fun with another man. And that other man may feel the need to keep “his woman” away from any other man that could threaten his hold on this girl.

Can a man like me enjoy the happiness of love? Is there a girl out there that would be herself, refuse to limit herself, and yet still return to me, kiss me, fuck me or whatever else would keep us close?

I have never enjoyed a woman that cared about nothing else as much as she cared about me. I have never found a woman that wanted to be near me, to please me as I please her. I have found women that like to take chances, I’ve found women that enjoyed my company, I’ve found women that like to feel my tongue on her nether regions. I’ve found women that care about people the way I do, I’ve found women that share my sense of humor, I’ve found women that live by the basic values that I live by. But I’ve never found a woman that agrees with my way of living enough to want to be a part of it. Some have said they did, but where are they now?

Can I overcome the jealousies of other men? Can I overcome the labels that have jaded the best of women? Can I be happy with a woman by my side, or do I have to resort to masturbation for the rest of my life? Do I have to be somebody, other than myself, to feel the gentle touch of a woman? To feel like I can say anything to her? To have somebody to love and to hold when I’m fucked?

Y O U T E L L M E !!!!

Sheep? Slaves? What?

The lottery, you know it's all the same

Ain't shit changed, since the big game

They're fuckin with your brain

The government strain

Tax is stealin, but they got you trained.

Kottonmouth Kings