efore we begin

efore we begin, I would like to ask you a question; If you could be doing anything right now what would it be?
The lie we live.
We could be doing whatever we want, but we are stuck in school learning information that we probably won’t even use in the outside world. I mean would you ever use quadratic equations? Probably not, instead a computer that calculates that for you. But that’s why I’m not here, I came here to talk about the lie we live, or what we call “living”. Each day we live the same day, walk up, get ready, have breakfast, go to school/work. We follow the same path as yesterday. Once, every day used to be a new adventure; days were endless; but somewhere that changed. now they are scheduled, put into a timetable, for maximizing the productivity. Is this what it means to grow up? To be free? But then again are we really free? Food; Water; Land, the elements we need to survive, they are owned by corporations. There is no food for us on trees; no fresh water in streams; no land to build a home upon.
We follow their rules. We discover the world through a text book, for years we sit and regurgitate what we are told. Tested and graded, like subjects in a lab. Raised to not make a difference in the world; but raised to be no different. Smart enough to do our job; but not smart enough to question why we do it. So we work and work, left with no time to live the lives that we worked for. Until the day come when we are too old to do our job; It is here we wait until our death. Our children take our place in the system.
To us our path is unique, but together we are nothing but fuel. The fuel that powers the elite. The 1% of the 1% that hide behind the logos of corporations. This is their world. And their most valuable resource isn’t in the ground, it is us. We build their cities; we build and run their machines; we fight their wars. Money isn’t what drives them, it’s power. Money is simply a tool they use to control us. Worthless pieces of paper we depend on to feed us, to move us, and retain us. They gave us money, and in turn we gave them power to control the world.
We point to our technology, say we are the smartest. But do our computers, cars and factorises, illustrates how smart we are? Or do they show how lazy we have become? We put this civilised mask on, but when you take that away, who are we? How quickly we forget in the past hundred years we allowed women to vote, allow blacks to live as equals. We act as if we know it all, yet there is much left to learn.
We walk down the streets ignoring the little things, the eyes that stare, the stories they share. Perhaps we fear that we aren’t alone, that we are a part of a much bigger picture, but we fail to make a connection.
We are okay with killing pigs; cows; chickens; strangers from a different land; but not our neighbours; not our dogs; or cats; those we have come to love and understand. We call other animals stupid, yet we point to them to justify our actions. But do we just kill something just because we can, because we always have, does it make it right? Or does it show how little we have learned. That we continue to act with primal congestion. Rather than power and compaction. One day this sensation we call life will leave us. Our body will rot, our valuables recollected. Yesterday’s actions will remain.
Death constantly surrounds us. Still it seems so distant from our everyday reality. We live in a world on the verge of collapse. The wars of tomorrow will have no winners. For violence will never be the answer, it will destroy every possible solution.
This isn’t about saving the planet, the planet will be here whether we are or not. Earth has been here for billions of years.
We are a flash in time, but our impact is forever.
For better or worse, our generation will determine the future life of this planet. We can either continue to serve this system of destruction until no memory of our existence remains. Or we can wake up; realize that we aren’t moving forwards, but downwards.
This present moment is what every step, every breath, and every death has lead us to. We are the faces of all who came before us. And now it’s our turn; you can choose to carve your own path, or follow the road countless others have already taken.
Life isn’t a movie, the script isn’t written. We are the writers, this is our story.
So I ask you again, If you could be doing anything right now what would it be?