If America is to be saved, if we are to rise above the years of self-inflicted damage and neglect and abuse, if we are to free ourselves from our bondage to the forces of greed, confusion, reaction and domination, if we are to make this nation once again the peerless monument to the best instincts of the human race that it was meant to be, and to provide for ourselves the security of a decent sufficiency, then it will have to be saved from the bottom up, one American at a time. There is no other way. The change we need is so fundamental, so profound, so all-encompassing, that the current paradigm of finding good people, electing them to office, giving them power, and them passively waiting for them to deliver change painlessly from the top is not only completely irrelevant but a hindrance.
The stakes could not be higher. On the one hand, we face the real possibility -- and it grows more real by the day -- of an impoverished, dispossessed, angry and vengeful herd of millions, unable to speak even to each other but possessed of the rage of the mob, reaching closer every day to control of the state and all its terrible apparatus of control and destruction. In such a case America would earn the scorn of history and shame the Founders. But on the other hand, we see the way to rebuild a new and better nation on the legacy of our Western heritage of striving towards new heights of justice, equality, and freedom, and under the shelter of our Constitution.
Most of America's problems come from the greed, short-sightedness and cynicism of a a tiny number of plutocrats and their hired minions, zealously stirring confusion, division, and discontent among the people. Individual lives lived responsibly, and individual actions taken responsibly and thoughtfully, are the most powerful antidote to this poison.
The most truly revolutionary, subversive act is to live a deeply responsible life.
The most positive thoughts along these lines come from Leonard Cohen:
"Democracy"
It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on ...
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
The stakes could not be higher. On the one hand, we face the real possibility -- and it grows more real by the day -- of an impoverished, dispossessed, angry and vengeful herd of millions, unable to speak even to each other but possessed of the rage of the mob, reaching closer every day to control of the state and all its terrible apparatus of control and destruction. In such a case America would earn the scorn of history and shame the Founders. But on the other hand, we see the way to rebuild a new and better nation on the legacy of our Western heritage of striving towards new heights of justice, equality, and freedom, and under the shelter of our Constitution.
Most of America's problems come from the greed, short-sightedness and cynicism of a a tiny number of plutocrats and their hired minions, zealously stirring confusion, division, and discontent among the people. Individual lives lived responsibly, and individual actions taken responsibly and thoughtfully, are the most powerful antidote to this poison.
The most truly revolutionary, subversive act is to live a deeply responsible life.
The most positive thoughts along these lines come from Leonard Cohen:
"Democracy"
It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on ...
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
