Wake up , it's time for us to change

The future is unwritten; it is up to you to write the next chapter.

Consider this an invitation to change your world. Although you might think of yourself as insignificant in ‘the big picture,' you have the power to drastically alter the course of history.

I won't blame you for scoffing at the idea that you can change things, let alone alter the course of history, because I too was once conditioned to think that way by those who build powerful empires by disempowering the rest of us. Corporations, governments, the mainstream media, organized religion and all other hierarchical organizations want you to believe you are too small to make any substantial difference in the world and advise that instead of empowering yourself you keep putting your money, loyalty, attention, faith, and energy into their systems of control.

Instead of making things for ourselves and to share with our communities, we are conditioned to be consumers of industrialized products.

Instead of acting and speaking for ourselves, representing our own views, desires and interests, we vote for representatives who always have their own views, desires and interests. We then get angry when those same representatives act in their own instead of ours, but still we wait for four more years to ‘go through the proper channels', blindly hoping for change within the system.

Instead of questioning authority and thinking outside of the box, we watch boxes to get our daily fix of propaganda from the corporate news stations.

Instead of finding our own sense of empowerment and spiritual enlightenment we are guided to church pews and told to sit, then kneel, then stand, then ask forgiveness and declare our own unworthiness (worthlessness).

They've taken everything; we have nothing left to lose but our chains. These chains form a tangled web in which all of humanity is stuck, and it isn't enough to get out yourself, we must destroy the web altogether for our liberation to last. We must simultaneously reclaim our energy, our communities, our souls, our minds and every other aspect of our lives, but it won't be easy.

A small minority of the world's population owns the vast majority of the world's resources. They've conquered the world, carved it up, and now rent it back to us in exchange for our labour. They've programmed our minds so well that they can now sell us the advertisements that sell us their products that carry their advertisements.

So where do we go from here? Time and time again we've seen symbolic resistance fail miserably. The most recent example of this is the anti-war movement, which although breaking world-records for largest protests ever, has not accomplished much of anything, especially not its stated goal of ending the war. Imagine if millions of peace activists focused their energies on directly stopping the war instead of simply protesting it. How effective is holding a sign when we could be blocking arms shipments, encouraging and supporting soldiers to go AWOL, shutting down recruitment centres, occupying government buildings, disrupting communications, and sabotaging the military-industrial complex?

This same principle applies to all our struggles; direct action works. We don't need to ask permission, or ‘go through the proper channels'; we ARE the proper channels. We need to simultaneously destroy the poisonous, destructive, and oppressive system that is choking life out of this planet and create non-oppressive communities centered around mutual aid and freedom. The idea that we don't have the right, or the power to shape the world we live in is the illusion peddled down to the masses from the top of the power structure so as to keep the status quo. If we are ever going to change anything it will have to be as empowered individuals and communities, not the disempowered subjects we are today. Another world is possible, and we will make it real.

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.