Published in Intrepid Report on July 12, 2013
By Larry Pinkney
“The first duty of a man is to think for himself.”
—José Marti“Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.”
—Albert Camus
As an increasing amount of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and throughout Mother Earth awaken to the fact that they have been cynically bamboozled and pimped by a relatively tiny national and global corporate/military power elite, people are being compelled to think for themselves—as opposed to continuing to be gullible, hapless systemic cannon fodder.
Despite the bloody perpetual wars and the accompanying incessant propaganda, emanating from the national and global corporate/military power elite through their corporate-stream media, the very fact that a critical mass of people have begun the process of awakening is an incredibly important development for humankind and for our precious Mother Earth. Women and men in this nation and around the globe are slowly and steadily awakening from a perilous and manipulated systemically induced mental slumber.
While it is accurate to acknowledge the fact that there is a pressing need for many, many more of our sisters and brothers to awaken, to question, to challenge, and to think for themselves—the cleansing prairie fire of critical-thinking is spreading.
Sometimes, once we awaken, we become so absorbed and righteously incensed by the vicious, vampiric, and formidable blood sucking actions on the part of the national and global power elite against us that we neglect to take stock of the many very brave men and women who, for example, in just the past two years alone, have stepped forward, placing their reputations, lives, and livelihoods on the line to challenge and shake the very foundations of the power elite’s avaricious political, economic, and social system.
It is important to remember that no sacrifice is in vain as long as the collective struggle of everyday ordinary people continues! Our collective struggle is not a bowl of sweet tasting cherries. It is tumultuous—but it is also both necessary and beautiful. We must strive to keep the words of Frederick Douglass in mind when he said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.”
The “many waters” of everyday ordinary people of all colors in this 21st century, is in essence, only just beginning in earnest—and despite the ongoing and nefarious machinations of the corporate/military power elite—it will ultimately become a collective “roar.”
So we must remember to educate ourselves and one another. We must creatively agitate and organize.
We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated and/or terrorized by the odious invasion of our privacy by Barack Obama’s NSA, CIA, and FBI. We must remember that it is WE who are the people—not the corporate-owned, war mongering, constantly lying government. WE the people must collectively reclaim our humanity and our human rights!
Barack Obama and his corporate-owned Democrat and Republican cohorts are the insidious tools of, and servants for, the power elite. And we must recognize them for who and what they really are—and act accordingly. Do not believe the lies, distortions, and omissions of and by their insidiously pathetic corporate-stream ‘news’ media. Think for yourselves!
It is time to actualize the words of the late great French philosopher Albert Camus: “Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.” If there is to be an unfettered tomorrow for ourselves and our offspring—WE MUST CRITICALLY THINK AND ACT—NOW!
Listen closely and you will hear the immortal words of Joe Hill: “Don’t mourn. ORGANIZE!” The time has come to take back our humanity from the jaws of despair!
Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers. Onward!
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, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, and more recently on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107 Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). He is in the archives of Dr. Huey P. Newton (Stanford University, CA), cofounder of the Black Panther Party. 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.)
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