defy your robot masters!

Thursday, Dec. 1st 2011
I'm watching the Occupy L.A. protests periodically, and like most of the protests they are more like awaiting the eventual dispersing by law enforcement, and it has me asking more than a few questions.

Most examples of public protest or civil disobedience in the past seems to be initially ridiculed, but then later ratified, as what was protested was innately corrupt, wrong, or socially backward, for example, civil rights or Vietnam, while some was not quite ratified like the Gulf or Iraq war. The internet and the general viral flow of data has helped considerably. A few actions are tolerated by some and loathed by others like when the Klan marches or the Westboro Baptist church marches or when Planned Parenthood is picketed. To be fair any major political event (or any event) will have some degree of dissent, but, and I would claim, the idea is that "this is America and I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

But then is has to stop at some point, right? unless you are in a tree, or on a hunger strike, cause otherwise the "pest-factor" increases.

When does that stop? Is the idea that one (or many) can make a bit of noise, ruffle some feathers, and it is back to business as usual? Because it seems to me that getting back to business as usual is where certain people (or corporations) thrive.

When I first read the bill of rights, probably as a twelve-year old, it was meaningless to me, or it didn't seem to concern me. It read like a handbook for someone that might get arrested. Essentially that's what it was, and it took a few years to realize how things were. We weren't living in a moral world, and later I wanted the protections and rights that were spelled out to me in that document because the other guys weren't playing fair. Oddly enough, that increases with the less illegal shit I do and the more political I become.

I see thousands of peaceful people being told to disperse by law enforcement armed with clubs and teargas (and guns.) Dig this, though. They aren't doing anything wrong. That to me is the kicker. Regardless of your feelings regarding an issue, clubbing students, tear gassing veterans, pepper spraying seated kids and old ladies (and anyone that is simply acting within their constitutional rights, for that matter) is fucked, and a sign of a weak America. One that I didn't sign up for. One that at age twelve I could have never envisioned. It never occurred to me that I wasn't free to express my opinion regardless of the bill of rights. Again, thanks to the flow of information, America is watching, and hopefully realizing this isn't just lazy hippies or whatever the preconceptions were.

Okay, let's imagine this. A really beloved person dies, someone we can all agree is like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Kennedy (John),maybe all (or some of) the Popes all combined into one. Actually, to hell with that. I've got it, a terrorist attack similar to or worse than the September 11th attacks occurs. Damn near everyone in the country is moved by this. A massive candlelight vigil and march takes place involving damn near EVERYONE. After a period of time, let us say half the amount of time required to grieve, we are all told that we have grieved enough and it is time to disperse. Our grief would turn to anger and righteous indignation. Some of us would say that we had a right to be there. We'd get teargassed. The next day half of us would show up regardless, simply angry that we were told what we could and couldn't do. We'd get teargassed again. The amount of people that like to get teargassed is small, so the numbers would diminish the next day to a smaller vocal minority. Then the media makes us seem like troublemakers.

Try this experiment, opposers of the movement. Go to a protest (the exciting part) and tell the cops that you don't agree with the movement and you are there to observe as a citizen of the United States and see how that cookie crumbles. My guess is unless you are wearing a banner that says "Mayor" you are going to have a different impression on the way dissent is treated by the moneyed (and conversely the law enforcement) in this (police) state. For all of the protests I've attended, if you just wanted to get to or from work and a cop with a billy club confronts you, it'll have an impression.

There's a lot of science fiction that plays out these scenarios using different analogies, generally with aliens or robots, where we are enslaved by alien or robot masters. Would you be enslaved by your alien or robot master? Hell no, you wouldn't! Me neither! I'd smack the shit out of a robot (or robocop!) I would guess that they are portraying a worst-case scenario. But what is the worst case scenario? That analogy (or event) played out with people versus people, right? That's what's on.

Dreams, or nightmares, rather.

I dreamed that I bought a new cellphone, and had to activate it. I dialed the 800 number and talked to an operator, who said I had to answer a couple of questions. The problem was, he was speaking ridiculously quietly, with a heavy accent. Then, the questions he was asking me were trivia questions about current Disney movies, which I had no clue about, since I was older than eight years old. I started yelling at the guy to no avail, his voice just kept getting quieter.

Then I felt something in the back of my mouth, and insects began flying out of it.