The Rebels! What happened to them? What happened to the Hippie Movement? The Punk Movement? The Rastafari Movement? The Conscious Hip-Hop guerillas? What happened to the Che Guevara, Bob Marley, Anarchy T-shirts? What happened to the Revolution Nerds? Did they all at once come to realize they weren’t no MONEY in their Fields? Did governments crash them? Or it is perhaps the corporations? I don’t hear about REBELS no more. Do you? If yes, where?
What happened to our Real Life Heroes? The most selfless, humane of us. Are they extinct now? Or they realised they were all acting out of naiveté?
I think I got some Ideas on what might have happened to them. I have 5 suggestions.
- The Powers- Governments- Corporations are erasing them all:
You might be like WOAAH, I haven’t a conspiracy themed sentence in a long time. Ok, but let’s think about it: At some point we’ve all heard of the Julian Assange - Edward Snowden - Chelsea Manning, all accused of ESPIONAGE ACTS- Leaking Classified Information that to some level divulged criminal activities that operated by government branches. Now I am not a professional on this. But what type of message does this send to all those seeking to show truth and commit for justice? “DON’T MESS WITH US WE GON MAKE YOU ANOTHER ASSANGE!”. With such a message what could the mini Snowden and Assange do? Quit?
2. There are New Means to be militant and a Rebel:
The 60’s, 70’s and all the way to the 90’s suffered lots of premature casualties towards REBELLIOUS leaders: From MLK Jr. Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Assata Shakur and even Tupac Shakur. All these were victims of premature deaths(Assassinations) and forced exile. These happenings left the movements that these Leaders lead orphan of direction and leadership. This then totally destabilized the movements. Nowadays, it seems that the new REBELLIOUS Leaders have learnt their lesson. It is wise to operate under the PUBLIC eye! How could they gain their populace then? They could be using the INTERNET to access its fans and other new technologies. However are doing it, it seems they’ve succeeded to keep their Anonymity. For example, it’s hardly possible to track the leaders of BLM, ANONYMOUS.
3. Life isn’t all about Causes-Militancy and Fighting.
Now, one major misconception that we tend to have of our revolutionary heroes, is that we pictured them as Messiahs- SuperHumans that were and are able to overcome every difficulty and humanistic emotions to fight for their cause. MLK Jr. chose the fight instead of the family life, the same did Malcolm and others. But what if they chose the other path. What if Malcolm had a lover that he chose spend his life instead? Would he have done wrong? Yes-No? Now Imagine the many other unknown that have passed through this decision and chose the latter: Family, Love, Life, etc. What does it really take to sacrifice your life to a Revolution-Movement.
4. Desperations: Society is a giant jungle and Civilizations aren't really Linear!
How many militant abandoned their struggle for the lost of faith in Humanity? After the Holocaust, how many genocides were perpetuated: The Rwandan, Romanian and perhaps other unknowns. How many times have we declared that RACISM- DISCRIMINATION was dead? What was the biggest reverberation in the 2016 elections? Syrian Refugees, KKK, etc. And how many times have you, yourself gone into the mode “ F*&k EVERYBODY!” Now if you put yourself in the mind of one who’s fought for civil rights their whole life, what would be your observation of humanity?
5. Till when we gon Fight- The Kids seen the parents struggle.
Now you might be asking yourself: What’s with the New generation. Now I want you to ask yourself: Are you willing to be militant and fight for a people’s rights and almost certainly sacrifice your livelihood? I want you to be honest with your answer. If your answer is YES, the GODS bless your soul and path! If you answered NO, I feel you BRO/SIS. AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME TO FIGHT! We are all tired. Tired of the Neglect we endured while our parents fought, tired of the lives we lost for the struggles. Tired of sacrificing our dreams for the struggle. Tired of inheriting a World full of LandMines. Tired of it all.
But ALWAYS REMEMBER this simple quote : “ To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals - this alone is worth the struggle.” - William Osler
