"What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad." - Morpheus to Neo, from The Matrix
Images, ideas and concepts from The Matrix are now part of our everyday language and have influenced how we view the world. Neo is a slave in the beginning of the film, just as we are slaves, because we're not yet masters of our own fate. The majority of us don't want war, but there is still war, in fact, another big one is on the way soon. We all know that our democratic governments in America, England, and Canada are unaccountable to the people's voice and are staffed with career politicians who put their own salaries above their country. We are all aware of the fact that money doesn't just control politics, it is politics. And it's even worse than we can imagine. In America, the rule of law is not applied to the powerful and well-connected, but to the defenseless and weak, and this is true at home and abroad. Here are just two examples among many.
On November 25th, 2006, in a New York street, an unarmed man named Sean Bell was shot fifty times on the night of his wedding by police officers for no good reason, but to this day there still hasn't been any charges pressed against the offenders involved. And then on September 16, 2007, Blackwater guards killed 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in point blank fashion in Nisour Square, Baghdad. Charges against Blackwater have all been dropped, and the company's CEO, Erik Prince, has refused to publicly apologize to Mohammed Kinani, the father of the youngest victim of the bloodbath.
Indeed, it is a mad world, so we shouldn't be too quick to judge when a man like Joesph Stack flies off the radar and drives a plane into a government building. No doubt his deadly act is unforgivable, but let's not pretend that he was just crazy and stupid. Of course, flying planes into government buildings is not a solution to tyranny. It is a sign of mental breakdown. What is achieved by destroying lives and property? Absolutely nothing. Destruction is not the answer. But the man's angry sentiments are understandable. The current system of government in America is an insult to every thinking and moral individual. No one who is informed about the facts can defend the Federal Reserve System, or the IRS. But also, no one can rightly defend Stack's behavior, not now, and not in the future when the US government will be viewed even less favorably by the American public. He has cemented his reputation along with the IRS, and it is not good.
Peaceful and truthful action, in the tradition of Ghandi and King, will restore the American republic and bring sanity to this broken world, not acts of violence. General strikes, tax boycotts, marches, protests, and other forms of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience will help us achieve freedom, justice and peace for the people of America, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and the whole world.
“My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and absolute freedom–freedom from violence and falsehood, no matter how the last two manifest themselves.” – Chekhov
