Saturday Music Hall: Still Effin' Peasants

With the release of the new movie The U.S. vs. John Lennon (see the trailer), I thought a little Working Class Hero would be right on time. The ongoing onslaught of corporatism, jingoism, aggression, greed, torture, dishonesty and almost complete disregard for human rights and the natural world are enough to make anyone cynical. How long will we allow them to keep putting profits before humans, deluded imperialistic hubris before common sense compassion, economic "growth" (for some) before human rights, nature, justice and just about everything else of genuine value?

Keep you doped with religion, and sex, and TV. And you think you're so clever and classless and free. But you're still f***ing peasants as far as I can see.

... There's room at the top, they are telling you still. But first you must learn how to smile as you kill. If you want to be like the folks on the hill.

The fools on The Hill are now smiling while they torture. Smiling while they occupy. Smiling while they lie. Smiling while they steal. Smiling while they kill. Most of all, smiling about how easy it is to fool us, the f***king peasants. And we are letting them do it. Still.

Let's start making sense, as Molly Ivins recommends. It's up to us now. Again:

Now, in addition to the slightly surreal awakening to find we live in a country that’s having a serious debate on a torture bill, can we do anything about it? The answer is: We better. We better do something about it. Now, right away. What do we do? The answer is: anything ... phone, fax, e-mail, mail, demonstrate—go stand outside their offices or the nearest federal building in the cold and sing hymns or shout rude slogans, chant or make a speech, or start attacking federal property, like a postal box, so they have to arrest you. Gather peacefully and make a lot of noise. Get publicity, too.

How will you feel if you didn’t do something? “Well, honey, when the United States decided to adopt torture as an official policy, I was dipping the dog for ticks.”

Or staying drugged not only on our religion, sex, TVs, but on our iPods, our cell phones, our computers. Maybe, most of all, on our lazy cynicism. More fodder for stoking our motivation? Go read the Glenn Greenwald pieces listed near the top of the 'Must Read & See' links on the left-hand side of our main page.