I must admit that by year's end I
was feeling the full weight of the year's trial and tribulations, frets and
frustrations. I was worn thin by taking stock of things gained and things lost
in the preceding 364 days. How was your 2014? Mine was a real mix. You
know that saying, The only thing that is constant about life is change.
Change, accept, adjust, hold tight, let go, fight, surrender: each of us owns a
piece of that real estate. And there is another saying, and that is that all
change is perceived as loss; even if its change that is acknowledged to be
for the better. Change in which no good can be perceived is the worst. I will
openly confess to you that I usually go into change kicking and screaming and
making sure that everyone in my world knows that I am not a happy camper. This
year I relied heavily on Louis L'amour's saying, which bears repeating: "There will come a time when you believe
that everything is finished. That will be the beginning." Like some of
you, I had some endings that were really beginnings, though I could only take
Louis's word for it at the time. In fact, I just gave in and posted his words
on my computer so I'd see them all the time. I hung out there on faith
that some changes, especially the ones that mark a clear ending point, are at
the same time places where something new is about to happen.
But on New Year's Day I woke up
feeling a bit differently. For me there is something magical that happens
on January 1; it’s a new start. It feels to me the way I think we're supposed
to feel on Easter. That whatever came before is past; it's done. And New Year's
Day seems a good time to make a break from whatever emotional baggage we're
still hanging on too. So turned on some Michael Buble, his song "Feeling
Good," seemed to be a good theme song for 2015. It goes like this: "It's
a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life." And by the end
of the day I was dancing around my kitchen; blissful in the euphoria of new
beginnings.
King Herod had a little issue with
change. But he had a plan; not a new one actually. Same song, new tune that
goes like this: If something is going to get in your way, threaten your
kingdom; then kill it. Well, that's one way to deal with change. And it's not
like the world we live in doesn’t witness to that option on a daily basis. Just
because you and I wouldn't take that route doesn't mean someone else won't. They
do. People are condemned to death through social and economic means all the
time. Killing is quite institutionalized really these days. It's so common now
we are simply desensitized to it. It's right in front of us and we just pretend
don't see it. Or we feel so legitimately overwhelmed by own efforts to survive
we yield to our own perception of personal powerlessness. We do things like
have fundraising dinners for people who can't afford their cancer treatments.
So they might have a chance to live, but they'll drown in debt. I get calls all
winter from elderly people who have to choose between food and paying the
heating bill. Even with a discount from the gas company, winter here with -18F.
degrees on a regular basis for a month can cripple someone on a small fixed
income for the next year. It's death by a million cuts.
Back to Herod. We all know how that
story ends - the shepherds see the change on the horizon and the change they
see is to them good and right. So they make a choice. They go home by a
different route. They take a different
route.
There have always been people who
have been outspoken critics, if not outright prophets, to point, we the masses,
in a new direction; to give us the choice of taking another route. One
such current figure, is Russell Brand, hailing from Britain, author of the new
book, Revolution, who is taking the worldwide political scene by
storm. Here are a couple of excerpt from his recent interview with Amy Goodman,
on Democracy Now, which aired this Friday. I'm just going to go ahead and warn
you: Buckle up.
AMY GOODMAN: .....I want to talk about your book, because you talk about
the kind of revolution you want to see. Talk about the revolutions in your own
life, how you’ve changed over time.
RUSSELL BRAND:
Well, the reason I have such faith in the capacity for change, for people to
change their lives, is because my own life has changed radically. All a
revolution is, really, is to create structures outside of the existing
structures, to create change without using the sanctioned means for change. And
me, I’ve gone from a life of being impoverished and drug-addicted to a life
where I’m sort of affluent and free from drugs. So, that’s what gives me this
belief that change is possible on an individual level.
Part of Amy's interview was a
segment of Russell's interview with Jeremy Paxman a television host of a
British newshow:
JEREMY PAXMAN: Is it true you don’t even vote?
RUSSELL BRAND: Yeah, no, I don’t vote.
JEREMY PAXMAN: Well, how do you have any authority to talk about politics
then?
RUSSELL BRAND: Well, I don’t get my authority from this pre-existing
paradigm which is quite narrow and only serves a few people. I look elsewhere
for alternatives that might be of service to humanity. Alternative means
alternative political systems.
JEREMY PAXMAN: —if you can’t be asked to vote, why should we be asked to
listen to your political point of view?
RUSSELL BRAND: You don’t have to listen to my political point of view. But
it’s not that I’m not voting out of apathy. I’m not voting out of absolute indifference
and weariness and exhaustion from the lies, treachery, deceit of the political
class that has been going on for generations now and which has now reached
fever pitch, where we have a disenfranchised, disillusioned, despondent
underclass that are not being represented by that political system. So, voting
for it is tacit complicity with that system, and that’s not something I’m
offering up.
Back to Amy:
AMY GOODMAN: .... yesterday, our big special was on Mexico— and these 43
students who disappeared in the state of Guerrero. And it turns out that the
mayor and the police turned them over to drug gangs. And the question is --
going right up to the president, the billions of dollars, for example, the
United States has given the Mexican military and Mexican police, in the name of
the so-called drug war, where has it really gone? And is it in fact a real war,
but a war against people, particularly poor people and indigenous people?
RUSSELL BRAND: Some people would argue, like in that brilliant film by
Eugene Jarecki, The House I Live In, he argues that what’s actually
happening is that the bottom 15 percent of society are no longer needed because
of the collapse of the manufacturing industry, so it’s a lot better to just
criminalize them and put them in prison. So, yeah, it’s like it’s a proxy war
on poverty. It’s a proxy race war. I certainly think that argument holds. I
mean, I think addiction can affect people from any economic or social
background, but those who tend to suffer most are those without money. And
there’s no doubt that social conditions have a huge impact on people’s tendency
to get addicted to substances. I think if people live in communal environments
where they’ve got access to support and—forgive me for using the word—love, then
they’re less likely to get addicted to drugs.
Russell Brand hasn't just taken a
different route: he's standing at the Y in the road and begging us to go
another way. He defines revolution as the creation of structures outside of
existing structures; to create change without using the sanctioned means for
change. You and I should be familiar with that tactic; its straight out of
the gospels. If you think Russell Brand is just too far out there for your
taste but at the same time you love your nice church and its lovely music and
its good works then I suggest you take another look at the person you pray too.
Jesus was a revolutionary; he opposed the status quo at every turn. He never
stopped confronting and arguing and engaging people's minds to think about what
they were really doing, what they were really supporting - calling out the
sheer hypocrisy of at every opportunity. If you actually met Jesus you probably
wouldn't like him; he might actually offend you because he was real and so
intense. And we generally don't do well with people who are so on point, so
confrontational all of the time. He didn't do small talk very well and he was a
bit moody actually and he had very high expectations for anyone who pledged
their allegiance to him. He would openly criticize his followers just as soon
as his detractors. He was not playing it small. There was too much as
stake. There is, now, right now, too much at stake. It's time for change,
for a revolution that is not based on fiscal security which can only condemn those
on the short end of that spectrum to a life of misery, but rather a revolution
in which love, that's right, love is the basic tenet on which all parts
are built. If we think this love thing is simply a ridiculous way to structure
a society, then we clearly have not heard a single word Jesus said. And when he
was hung on the cross and dying and said, "It is finished." What he
was really saying was: This is the beginning.
I was at a diocesan meeting
yesterday in which someone postulated that one of the reasons that the church
has seen such decline is that we don't really expect a lot from the people in
the pews; that we don't call people to account for how they live out the gospel.
Yes,
the bar is really low. Christianity isn't just a personal
preference, like whether you're a Steelers fan or a root for the Cowboys.
It's a call to arms actually. Being politically correct these days we shy away
from such language, but I think that's right. We're not just called to feed the
poor, we're called to do something about it. What other reason would there be
for being a disciple? Personal enlightenment? If that's what you are
seeking then I recommend Buddhism. It's lovely really. Personally, it’s a big
part of my own sense of spirituality; but it’s not the end game. Christians
follow a revolutionary who waged war on the powers and principalities that
created conditions of death and despair. Herod is alive and well in every
segment of our life. We've been co'oped and made complicit in his deadly
schemes. It's a new dawn. It's a new day. It's a new life. It's time to
take another route.
