THE MAJORITY
When anyone brings up the abstractly named 99%, and the great uphill battle it faces against the equally
abstract 1%, I can’t help but think how amazing those odds really are. Certainly, the vastly larger percent needs only to suddenly roll over to
achieve what it wants. Such a huge advantage would surely go to the side who is that much greater in numbers, yet we find the tables rarely
turn—even rarely do they get turned over. Why is that? Despite there being a growing wave of indignation among a fringe segment of the general
public (not quite 99%), the machine carries on as we continue to lay its track, and our current course seems endless.
I usually wouldn’t suggest this, not even to my worst enemy, but try taking a walk through a mall sometime. It glows with a strange sterility
despite it being a fairly common feeding ground for the rabble. There you’ll find what used to be people weaving through stores buying whatever they
feel they’re supposed to. One would think that in such situations, people wander about in complete chaos; but no, they move surprising natural like
a herd, like a school of fish or a flock of birds, with every so often a stray like myself trying to push through against the grain. This torrent of
bodies reminds me of a scene from Metropolis except the opposite of silent. There’s a constant din of people unloading their lives on each other,
and one subjects himself to mistakenly overhear the words of others. These conversations don’t leave the safety of such mediocre topics as how
exceedingly drunk they were last night. For some reason, their celebrity culture forbids they even
attempt to discuss something meaningful,
maybe because they don’t want to be confused with someone with enough depth to think. At the mall, we get a glimpse of the
real people in
charge, the ones perpetuating their own oppressors and so happy in doing so. This group encompasses our friends, our family and sometimes
ourselves—
the majority, or the force behind the machine.
Generally speaking—and I think I’m right to say this—the majority of people are perfectly fine living their lives by the guidance of authority.
Whether it be found in the talking heads on television, in the government, the church, in the advice columns in the papers, or in the vapid
achievements of talentless celebrities, there’s no shortage of ready-made life kits. We’re all guilty of this at some point in our lives. We’ve
all allowed the parasitic ideas of others full reign on our thoughts, not because it is in any way relevant to our lives and happiness, but because it
is easier, and sometimes thinking for oneself involves too much work.
Those willfully ignorant souls, the ones we so often urge in all manner of cliché to “wake up” as if they were actually asleep, are the way they
are by their
own choice and their
own doing. They are perfectly fine facing the butcher, as long as the trough is always full. And what
does 1% feed us but what we want? The supply doesn’t work without a demand. Imagine if the majority just stopped buying it. Imagine if everyone
turned off their televisions and demanded a properly informed culture; they stopped attending Walmart in support of local businesses; they no longer
paid attention to an overhyped celebrity; they stopped buying genetically modified foods in favour of something healthy. The ‘TPTB’ would have no
choice but to supply that demand with everything they could throw at it, lest they lose their precious profits. Imagine that—but don't yet think it
likely.
Let's drop the abstract terms. It’s not a matter of 99% versus 1%; it’s a matter of 100% caught in an endless vicious circle. Not until a great
paradigm shift, a revolution or a massive change in mindset can this circle be disrupted. For that we need free thinkers, artists, and creators
willing to risk all to inspire the ones they love, the ones who would rather care less, the majority, to change.
edit on 27-7-2012 by TheSubversiveOne because: (no reason given)