006. They fill the void - they Become the Facts-on-the-ground of Intolerable Horror, worth the ultimate price to change


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdqFryf66AU

What were the facts on the ground that caused, was it millions of iPads to be sold within the first couple of days?  It wasn't the iPad.  People didn't have their hands on it yet.  It wasn't the iPad.  The facts on the ground were the iPod, and the history of Apple computer with producing great stuff.  It was not the spec sheets, it was not the online demos, it was not newspaper articles, it was not the magazine articles, all of which played a role.   It was the fact on the ground of the existence of millions of iPods that been sold and revered.

What was the facts on the ground that brought about civil rights - newspaper articles, magazine articles lynchings?  No. Black kids, and white kids from colleges, thereby over-privileged kids, putting their bodies on the line, their lives on the line, their freedom on the line from Peterson prison, to bring about civil rights – they established for the onlookers that civil rights, now, was worth the ultimate price – they established the price in the only way possible – by unmistakably, joyfully offering to pay it – their lives.  Newspaper articles spread those True-facts-on-the-ground, told people those facts, but the facts on the ground were the bodies on the ground that established the price, this is worth my life.

Why is Mubarak gone?  Because a guy in Tunisia ‘said,’ this is worth my life to stop; and a friend of Wael Ghonim, the Google exec, ‘said’ the same with his life, then brutally crushed by Mubarak’s thugs, and those 2 establishing the Ultimate Worth, the Ultimate price, established it for the next hundred thousand people who got into Tahrir square and stated with their bodies - this is worth our life - that was the facts on the ground, not the news stories, and back room speaking of 30 years of horror of Mubarak's brutal rule, because that had been true, those articles and conversations hade been going on for each of the 30 years.   Those weren't the facts on the ground.  The bodies, putting their lives in harm's way – ‘Here, I’ll pay for what’s rightfully mine with my life!’, that was the facts on the ground.  

That's how it always is; it was the millions of buyers of iPods, that were the facts on the ground that that caused the proliferation, the massive expenditures, on iPads.  It was the first thousand people buying a Lexus that were the facts on the ground for the next hundred thousand, and it's that way in everything – including and especially True, new social values.

Most of our brothers and sisters are tremendously risk-averse, tremendously low imagination, and they don't start by buying, they don't start by buying into an idea, or product, or a movement, or action based on articles, based on theory, based on promise, based on vision, or news, or token payment... they move based on other people acting, and establishing the ultimate worth by joyfully offering to pay it.  The masses, our brothers and sisters will always be sheeple. 

The tip of the spear, the early adapters, the pioneers paying, or offering to pay the ultimate price, with joy, that’s what causes it to happen, when it happens.  So your choices whether to be a bona fide, genuine fact on the ground, or not.

Actually, you can't escape, ever, being a fact on the ground.  The only question is what are you a fact on the ground, 'proof' of –

A. that the status quo is fine.

B.  That the status quo is intolerable, and worth the price of your life to change. That there is a better way to be, and you are being it.

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