There is a War on for Your Mind

When I first heard the Flobots utter those words, I felt them. I understood, amid the war-mongering rhetoric of the Bush administration, that there were people trying to sway my opinion and make me complicit to my own slavery. I had a huge number of ideas what I could do to resist this, but none were feasible. Aware or not, I was as helpless as the power elite wanted me to be.

As time went on, though, incremental change seeped in through the cracks. Groups formed under the radar, in unlikely places. The light of hope was given fuel, if only drops at a time. People fed up with status quo and the rape and plunder of a once-great nation began to seek each other out. Awareness spread like a wildfire across the internet, and individuals became groups became one.

This movement - and make no mistake, it is a movement - has been brewing in the collective unconscious for years now. My generation does not remember a time when hard work guaranteed a decent standard of living. My generation has not seen the opportunities our history books promised us. My generation does not know, personally, on a first name basis, the America that is sung about in near-religious chants or promoted by election-seeking politicians. What hope then is there, for my children to know these things?

This movement will work - is working - because where other plans attacked, it guides. Where others seek to dismantle, it seeks to build. "Lead by example", the wise have said. And so OccupyWallSt does. Beyond the marches and chants and drums, in that Square -Liberty Square- there is a microcosm to capture our imagination. A template to be followed. A true democracy of the people, by the people, for the people. In that small, damp place surrounded by towers built upon greed and theft, there lies the America you have heard about, and that's why it has no choice but to work.


Call your friends, email your cyber-buddies, grab some gear and hop a train to Liberty Square or whichever occupation is close to you if you'd like to be an American, for possibly the first time in your life.