The
impossible is, more often than not, that for which we have set limitations,
and convinced ourselves simply cannot be done.
Clearly,
the increasing joblessness, home foreclosures, continuing bloody
U.S. wars abroad, cynical
racism, gross economic inequities and social injustices at home,
and the constant government and media disinformation, omissions,
and subterfuge have brought some people to the very precipice of
despair. Yet, we must not allow ourselves to succumb to a sense
of powerlessness or despondency.
Contained
within each of the above disparities are the seeds for actualized
and real systemic change. Since real change does not come
about by osmosis, it is each and every one of us who must consciously
engage in a revolutionary tilling of the soil.
We
are living in an historic period in which we are experiencing the
vicious and painful internal crumbling of the U.S. Empire�s infrastructure,
particularly as it affects the daily lives of everyday people.
Even so, we are also living in an historic period that presents
enormous possibilities to bring about real systemic change. The
inevitable question is: Are we everyday people up to the
tasks at hand which are required of us in order to bring about real
systemic change?
I
submit that, notwithstanding the constant brainwashing and disinformation
on the part of the U.S.
corporate government and its subservient / lap dog corporate �news�
media; we are capable of being up to the tasks required
of us. Why? Because, simply stated, inaction and failure are not
acceptable options. Far too much is at stake.
Let
us be pragmatists and realists by taking on and carrying out these
seemingly impossible tasks in order to bring about real systemic
change. Virtually nothing is impossible, unless of course, we resign
ourselves to the notion of impossibility.
As
the corporate media invariably seeks to contaminate the minds, hearts,
and critical thinking capacities of everyday people with
its endless diversions consisting of a litany of poisonous, senseless
and manipulative drivel in order to keep us mentally numb
and piteously pliable, we must disconnect ourselves from this insanity,
by individually and collectively, visualizing systemic change and
actively working / struggling for it. This is what is meant
by tilling the soil.
Indeed,
tilling the soil is a revolutionary concept. It is a concept
that requires an actualized vision for the future that we
seek to bring about. Reality is not merely that which
is, but just as importantly; reality is the
process by which we struggle or work to bring about revolutionary
or real systemic change, or in other words, that which can
be. Though the government and corporate mass media would
have us believe otherwise, these two realities are dialectical and
exist simultaneously. We must consciously be aware
of these coexisting realities, while actively nurturing and pursuing
that which offers us the endless possibilities of a better, more
humane society and world.
In
order to grasp or understand what I am saying, one does not need
a PhD or any so-called �formal education� [systemic brainwashing]
whatsoever. To the contrary, a consciousness of our everyday
surroundings and life itself is the real PhD that virtually
all of us already possess.
People,
be we Black, Brown, Red, White, or Yellow, are not, by some
quirk of nature, evil. People are not innately evil at all.
That is a deliberate lie. It is an orchestrated myth
which serves the avaricious interests of the ruling elite, not
of everyday people. Everyday people are constantly bombarded
and instilled with the poison of divisiveness coupled with a
negative past and present interpretation of ourselves and our collective
histories. Thus,
it is not history that repeats itself; but rather people
who cyclically repeat the insidiously perpetuated and revisionist
history put before us, which does not, and was never meant, to serve
the interests of just plain everyday people. Therefore, instead
of organizing, struggling for, and demanding the very best in our
collective selves we, all too often, resign ourselves to the systemically
dangled carrot of delusion and illusion, while simultaneously
and unrealistically hoping for the best from the deplorable, hypocritical,
and unacceptable system of exploitation in which we find ourselves.
We have yet to truly till the proverbial economic, social,
and political soil. We have yet to come anywhere near to fulfilling
our capacities as informed, decent, human beings.
Tilling
the economic, social, and political soil is an individual, collective,
and increasingly urgent revolutionary process which knows
no impossibility. It�s time to be real and accomplish the
impossible!
Intensify
your efforts! Educate, agitate, and organize. Till the soil! Onward
my sisters and brothers! Onward!
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney,
is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of
Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner
and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political
rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political
organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc.,
Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS
NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/LehrerNewsHour. For more
about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and
Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn].
(Click here
to read excerpts from the book). Click here
to contact Mr. Pinkney.
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