it seems the time may be upon us.
those terrible terrible internet bills are apparently being voted on today, a bipartisan surveillance package that will turn the internet into somethin' that would make Orwell blush (or scream).
it seems as though most websites will be turned into checkpoints where we will be forced to "show zem ze paperz" only with the loomin' threat that ze paperz will be leaked online for god knows who to do god knows what with.
and once again i am brought to an impasse: do i capitulate to this overreach and show ze papers? or do i stick to my principles and forsake everyone that ive met over the last half decade?
how i wish i knew the answer... how i wish i hadnt been given the question...
we now have to ask ourselves what we value more: principles or the people that make our lives worth living?
is it better to live in chains hand-in-hand or forsake all bonds of fellowship in the name of a bigger cause?
when does discipline become stubbornness? what good is an island of a person surrounded by the ruins of a broken congregation after Things Fall Apart?
we are undoutedly better together, stronger together, but under what auspices? do the auspices even matter?
history has shown us that even in shackles the spirit of humanity is able to organize with our fellow man and overcome, *arguably*, harsher forms of slavery than this
when lookin' back, are digital shackles worse than physical ones? or are they just a precursor? are we ceding ground if the ground is in cyberspace?
i am not trying to play the devil's advocate; of course giving them an inch is the pretext for them takin' a mile but juxtaposing the seemingly ephemeral nature of the internet with the real people ive met seems like no contest... but of course we needed that ephemeral plane to meet in the first place...
so what do we do now? what do we choose? could we really look our faraway loved ones in the face and say "sorry, but i have to stop talking to you over principles"?
how would they feel knowing their value is not great enough to overcome ideals? how would you feel? how would i feel?
this is a gross overgeneralization of the issue, i know that. anybody who truly cares for someone else should want them to preserve their freedoms and the integrity of their person... but why does it have to mean potentially losing them in the process over something so trivial that is being thrust upon us by hollow individuals with poisonous ambition?
these are the questions the powers that be assault us with in order to keep their infernal leverage over us, dangling our family over the abyss while always demanding more.
we have one life; do i want to spend it in stoic isolation, fighting a one man war against a cabal of hollow men while putting the people i love on the chopping block, thinking of all the what-ifs and what-could-have-beens? the laughter we would never get to share? the warmth of their voices that instill my soul with joy? the moments that breathed new life into this ravaged body like a heavenly defibrillator?
how i wish i knew the answer... how i wish i hadnt been given the question...
my thoughts drift back to Robert Freeman of Boondocks fame, the character that served as the practical middle road between the two extremes of his grandsons: Robert knew the system was bullshit and didnt buy into it as much as Riley but was not as revolutionary as Huey, instead opting to affect what change he could while also preserving himself as much as reasonably possible.
whereas his grandsons had the stalwart bullheadedness indemic to young people, Robert had experience. Robert lived through segregation as a black man, fought in a world war for a country that hated him, and lived through countless amounts of loss and hardship... but Robert knew how to play his hand.
Robert didnt take unnecessary risks and wasnt willing to undergo unnecessary suffering. Robert knew how to appease the white man (with cheese) in order to secure a better life for himself and his grandsons. Robert attended protests during the Civil Rights Movement and faced fire hydrants... after a brief trip home to get his raincoat. Robert had likely seen stronger people than himself go out in a blaze of glory and thought about all they good they could have done if they hadnt been so stalwart.
Roberts character may be best summarized by a episode where Huey spends the whole runtime on a hunger strike, boycotting BET, trying to get support from big names in order to get exposure only to have his protest be hijacked, perverted, and used for fodder at the same network he was rallying against.
the episode ends with Huey giving up his hunger strike; Robert feeds his grandson with grace (Robert had been chiding him the whole episode but knew how important it was to Huey) to which Huey asks "Granddad, what do you do when you cant do nothing... but theres nothing you can do?"
Robert turns around, smiles warmly, and says... "You do what you can."
perhaps this is the best answer we got. play the game insofar that it keeps you afloat.
"live today, fight tomorrow." - Ardeth Bay
"if you get knocked down, take the standing 8 count, get up and fight again." - Macho Man Randy Savage
they want us to be hopeless and isolated, they want us to give up; its one step closer to their goal of all of us being either dead or in jail
we cant let them win, we must confound them, we must seek alternatives made by us and for us, we must not give in to the empty promises of capital gain, we must stay together for each other's sake
we must do what we can