An open letter to the mindful in a place that had once been the bastion of revolution and dissent.

(A discussion between two brothers.)

Jean: Do you remember the American Revolution you learned about in your history class? Wasn’t it about a group of people unhappy with what their government was doing? I think the story goes; the people of the thirteen colonies felt the government ruling them was an over taxing, jingoistic empire that had lost the most important thing, that being the consent of the people.

Vincent: Why then should we consent to rules and laws stemmed from a system we sought to escape. We recreated it. Made an exact replica. All we have left is our voice. Why aren’t we using it? Silence is the death of ideas. This can be frustrating; our only choice is to move forward as a people. If we keep on this path, this “American Dream” we will fall, further into a terrible place.

Jean: The American Dream? Wasn’t it a fair chance for everyone? As far as I can see that never happened. I took a walk yesterday to examine and research these ideas. I wandered into a department store. I saw a woman with her child yelling back and forth. The child wanted a doll, and the mother kept telling her that she had too many dolls already. The commotion died down and the scorned child and the mother wandered away. I ended up lost in this department store for a while; I asked a clerk if they knew where I could find the special offer on guaranteed personality, not getting the joke, the clerk left. I headed to the counter. There the mother and child were being checked out. The child was silent, scorned and burned. The mother had picked out for herself a pack of cigarettes, some alcohol, eyeliner, and some clothes. The total was twenty-one dollars and ninety-five cents. The doll the child had wanted was only six ninety-five. The mother was truly an excess addict. She would rather feed her addiction to materialism than to feed her poor daughter suffering from this same sickness. This is the American Dream, it is hypocrisy.

Vincent: Lifeless is a term too seldom heard unless you are at a morgue or the scene of a tragic car crash. I think it is appropriate to describe the current state of things. This may be a simplistic reduction, but how long did the “happiness” you received from buying that new hundred dollar stereo last? How many television shows did you watch on your brand new plasma screen before life was just as empty and as pointless as before? It would seem that we drown our lives in middle class materialism. They tell us that the more stuff we buy the happier we will be. Materialism has robbed us of more than rights! It has begun to degenerate our very humanity. Instead of spending time with real people, conversing, playing games, going for walks, it gives us televised versions of lives, shows like Friends where we are sold a sitcom image of life. Existence becomes one long sedated convalescence where the goal is not recovery but a trance like apathy. Everyday we wither away; connivance slowly sucks away our souls. Become something more! Anything more, anything different, unique, eccentric, extravagant, because this is the hollowed ground we so rarely tread this is hope!

Jean: Bourgeois needs to possess and organize the world; I think that is where the people really got the knife in the back. A few people decided with just enough deception and just enough triviality they could deceive he many. Once this awful artful act of deception was executed the people became blind, and enslaved. Everyday this old pact by the few to take everything they want at the expense of the people gets worse. Each generation witnesses a more disgusting and extravagant generation of bourgeois that seeks not just to maintain its separate status but push it further. Yachts, sports cars, and pretty blonde Barbie doll wives, is this really the future we want? How were we brought up thinking pretty things, and possessions would be enough? Consumerism is not the answer! Let me take a moment; let me get this out, get this off my chest make it clear. Listen, all the rich consumer whores of this nation. I do not want any part of what you’re selling. I don’t care about your excesses. They will not make me happy. Happiness comes from other places!

Vincent: Freedom used to be something beautiful, something precious. Now that this sick consumer world has run amok freedom becomes a bottle of whiskey or a little white pill. If you take this little pill or drink enough of the whiskey your worries will dissipate. What a brilliant government! Literally mass producing apathy in pill form! Becoming blind is an accident, but not doing anything to stop it, well that is ignorance. If we continue to fill our lives with booze and pills then we will eventually consume ourselves.

Jean: I really like where Vincent is going with this last point. I have two pills to offer you. One will make all your problems go away. This means no more worrying, no more pain, just silence. This pill is cyanide! That’s what the men in power are feeding you! If you continue apathy and allow the ultra-police state to continue and expand in its excesses than this is what you’ll get. If you choose the second pill, albeit a little harder to swallow I promise it is not a suppository. Its size and the struggle is the measure of its merit. This pill I offer you is called responsibility. We have a privileged position. We have a voice! We know how to speak up. The responsibility is to those who have not found their voice; they are our brothers, and comrades. Verisimilitude means an apparent truth. We have that, and this truth is our obligation to enlighten others. We are here for those who cannot speak for themselves; we are here for those who cannot fight for themselves. At this moment we may be like Socrates and only be the gadflies to the state, but even flies when their numbers are great enough and appearing united can make a difference. An eagle can fall to an insect if numbers are on their side. More than just speaking up for the people without the means to speak and fight our true obligation is to show these people their own strength and to help them find their own voice. Only with the people strong and conscious of our position, of our numbers, and our true rights can we hope for change. On to the future my brothers! Verisimilitude is the vox populi! We will conquer ignorance and inequity. The people have the right to be free, and they have the right to a voice!

(When Vincent departed he shook my hand and we both promised to spread our message to the people. We want a better future. We want justice. We want to take back our world.)