Becoming Babylon
What is Babylon to you? For me Babylon is The Matrix. It is a system that is built around you that you don't control. But can you control it? Would would it take? Is not trying to control it the very thing that allows it to control us?
Part of the reason I ask is because I heard one or more people say that rasta don't deal with politics. It bothered me a bit and felt a little bit counterproductive. And that sentiment combines with many many black people out there that simply do not vote. And I, seeing the political realm, as simply the manipulation of people in order to push policies, to a large extent, for the highest bidder, do not see this corruption as invincible. I believe it is only as invincible as we allow it to be. It only exists right now because we allow it to exist. "Power to the people" is a slogan used by John Lennon, James Brown, Public Enemy, The Black Panthers, Rootz Underground, Big Mountain, Joe Henderson, and Basement Jaxx.
Some people get hung up on who said it and what kind of cause or movement it was used at one time to support. But all it really says is that there comes a time in which revolution becomes necessary for us to evolve and make progress. The system is designed and is continuously redesigned in the interests of those who have figured out the system. In computer systems, to keep out hackers you have to continuously evolve your defenses. If your defenses do not keep pace with the adaptation of the hacker to your defenses, eventually the defenses of your computer will work for the hacker and not against them.
Once you understand this you can realize that sometimes you need to reboot the system and sometimes you need to completely delete the Operating System and possibly even reformat the hard drive. At this point it is the hacker who doesn't want you changing the system. They want to "conserve it" the way it is. Conservatives like the system because they understand it and they know that it benefits them. But they also change it because they know what changes would benefit them even more and they advance ideas that are counterproductive to the poor (like trickle down economics) because it gives them the power to do more with their money. And if and when you get money you have to choose which side to fight for. Dave Chappelle, in my opinion, is a genius. He talked about his internal struggle with taxation because he understood the feelings of the rich but also the needs of the poor.
I think he does understand though that if it wasn't for the poor, a lot of rich people wouldn't be rich; especially since we need to entertain ourselves as a distraction from being poor while the rich tend more towards being busy doing their "busi-ness" or the state of being busy. They're focused on making money while we're focused on spending it. And this creates not only a divide between the haves and have nots but also who rises to power, because not only do they want to keep what they have but they use their "busi-ness" to their advantage while the poor distract themselves from who rises in power and how that power is being used by not being busy at all, but rather filling our minds with our favorite TV shows, food, cars and clothing that help us to look less poor than we are.
This doesn't mean poor folks don't work hard. Sometimes we work so hard that we don't have time to pay attention to anything else. Sometimes we even leave our children to be raised by the TV. Our excuse is that we have to work to survive. But this becomes harder and harder every year because we're allowing the rich to freely rule us and dictate the terms of our re-enslavement. We let them do this while we complain about what they're doing and how hard life is. We may chant down Babylon but we do very little to stop it or even slow it down. We don't call our representatives. Rich people do, but we don't. And they donate to campaigns. So we make them feel like we don't care but the people who wont let them ignore them are the ones usually funding their campaigns; which essentially pays for their representation. You work for whoever's paying you.
A lot of people would rather watch Football than politics. And I get it. I do. But this is how we're letting them win. We're all playing a game and each class of society is on its own team and the poor aren't loyal to their class because they're hoping to get promoted to the middle class while the middle class isn't loyal because they're hoping to get promoted to the higher class. But the only ones who get that promotion are those who either put in the effort or figure out the system and apply those hacks to their daily lives. And part of the reason why whites have more money isn't simply racism but rather some of them have figured out the system and they share the fruit with their friends and family. We're more likely to move away when we get more money and try desperately to hide it away from people we know. We don't recirculate or reinvest in our community so that money helps white communities more than our own because we don't understand economics.
Our ignorance is bliss for whites because they see the vacuum that we create in our potential to earn wealth and they happily step into that vacuum. They're not busy fighting each other over religion. A lot of them could care less and barely practice any form of religion or spirituality. We let way too many things divide us and don't see how our separation and how these walls separate us. And we even think we're right to choose faith over family because the bible suggests this and then we wonder why our children kill each other.
Many of our problems have their roots in our economics and our economics is greatly influenced by politics. It's like the circle of life... but for us more of a circle of death. And Scar is a nigga named Omar ("The Wire"). If you don't want to be hunted you can't simply keep running around like wild buffalo because that simply lets the predators pick out the slowest of our herd. And we're so divided that whenever we see them we just run because we don't really care about the ones that get picked off. After awhile we get numb to the Michael Browns, Alton Sterlings, Tamir Rices, and Trayvon Martins.
We run from the law and get shot in the back instead of taking power and changing the law. And I get it. It's tradition. We've run because of tradition. We've run because our elders decided that then was not the time to fight. And its not a physical fight that we need. To win in Football you have to play Football. You can't hit the football with a baseball bat. Likewise, to win in politics you have to play politics. But it's corrupt. Yeah... I know... Because you aren't the ones in it. You aren't the ones running for office and being supported by our community. We're voting between the lesser of two evils because evil LOVES power and Good... avoids it?
No Good needs to use power for good; if nothing else than to balance the power that is used for evil. Politics in and of itself isn't evil. You might lose. But that doesn't mean Basketball is evil. Winning and Losing is about how you play the game. Relatively soon, whites (Sorry Hemphill) will not have the physical numbers they used to have. This is what many whites are afraid of and why the incidents of white terrorism are much higher in the US than any Muslim extremists. It's always extremists who seem willing to do whatever it takes, not moderates. It's about how you play the game. Whites don't mind playing against us. But instead of us playing with each other and being on the same team, we simply call the game unfair, cry foul, but end up being the ones to sit on the bench (jail/prison) because we let them be in charge by not playing the game. I say play the game. It is what it is. So play it. Win it.
Find out what you need to do to get into a position of power. And then use that power the same way that the previous occupant used that power-or better. It's up to you. But it's always been up to you. We just decided we didn't want it before. Some of us died to get others of us into these positions so that we could influence and determine our own future; so that our great great great grand children wouldn't be slaves and wouldn't be treated as savages. But to be honest, how they treat us is less important than who's in power because that's the one who's doing the treating. That's the one who decides and who sets the standards. It's about power.
I don't hate white people or love white people. That is because there is no such thing as race, only people who behave as one. There are white people who also reject the idea of race and will help you in more ways than you can predict or think possible. Treat white people as individuals. Because its wiser to do so. If they know this system more than you, find out their tools and tricks and use them for yourself. We've bought into the whole notion of race so much that we disadvantage ourselves by treating all whites as hostile enemies. Of course, not all of us do that but I would say most of us have some manner of wall or partition up that helps to keep racism alive through isolation and ignorance. A lot of whites who don't hate us and many that do, also don't understand us and let ignorance determine truth.
If you follow sports and have a favorite team, there's probably at least one person on that team who you would like to trade or retire. The difference between a player and a spectator is that a player wants to replace that guy with himself. We have to start replacing Babylon. We have to start putting on those uniforms, as much as we may detest them, until we can make them less detestable; until those uniforms represent us. How can we police our own streets if there's not enough of us who are police? How can we reform the justice system if none of us are judges and prosecutors? How can we write laws that are fair if none of us are lawmakers? All these things can be fixed but they can't be fixed by a backseat driver or an armchair quarter back.
You have to actually get in the game.
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