http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0yOjizCBlQ
A sailor is mindful of the wind, or that individual is no
sailor. Gandhi was mindful of the media,
but he was no manipulator, and he didn't believe in the power of the media, he
believed in the truth, he believed in the power of the truth, of how it can
hack through all but the very most resistant nervous system, to the heart, when
truth is embodied, made flesh. It may be
that he manipulated the media, it may be that he invested more than nanoseconds
in positioning events, in fabricating, fashioning messages to cater to the
media. But that's not the Gandhi that I
know. That's not the Jesus that I
know. It's not the Martin Luther King
that I know.
So if I want a Lexus, sorry I can't think of a better
example, I keep going to that, if I want a Lexus, I suppose I can invest my
time in fabricating what's the right message, how do I tell them I want a
Lexus, how do I speak to them, how do I get the media involved that will write
about me going into the Lexus dealership to ask for a Lexus. I suppose I can invest much of my time and
energy in that, I suppose I can invest any of my time and energy in that. But I wouldn't, and neither would you. Instead, what I would focus on is - how much
do I want a Lexus, and how much of my life, how much of whatever wealth I have,
am I willing to invest in getting that Lexus, or how can I raise the funds. That's what I'd spend my time on. You too, right?
That's how the insanely humane people, the insanely humane
Unviolent warriors throughout history have devoted their time - deciding what's
worth everything, and paying the price for it.
What they are after, the priceless stuff, is not going to be gotten with
counterfeit actions that are the equivalent of me protesting a Lexus
dealership, to give me the car that I want.
They didn't have that time to waste, and they had too much moral
integrity to want to waste the time, or to try and be such a fake creature. They realized that there are two ways to
secure something - one is to go in with force, including money, and the other,
when it's something they’re already morally due, is to go in with their life
and say, 'If this costs me my life I will happily pay it, for what is
rightfully mine.' They don't have time
for these counterfeit media events. I'm
sorry, there's a difference between four hour post and forfeit and speaking on
international TV from Egypt to the 2# guy in Egypt, saying through tears, 'Kill
me if you want, disappear me if you want, torture me if you want, we are not
going to sit down until Mubarak is gone.'
There's a difference between 100 people showing up to protest BP and 1
million people showing up to demand civil rights with Dr. King. They're not the same thing, and any seconds
spent ranting to the media, complaining about the media, about why they're not
covering those hundred people, or the thousand people, or the 500,000
overprivileged people that came here for a nice weekend and oh, by the way,
I'll go to the mall for a two hour demonstration, on environmental Armageddon, and then I'll go
through several of the museums, and then I'll go home, and that's the most
militant I am for a year; well, the News is not that half 1 million people
showed up. The news would be, it would
be news if, that half a million people wouldn't go home till they won. The news is that 10 million people didn't
show up.
I don't chase people down, friends. If you want, if you want to trash your
children's future with this self-serving delusion of grandeur and importance of
our unimportant so far actions, I'm not gunna hunt you down. But I'll speak the truth as best I can, I'll
share the truth as best I can, because most of you are really, essentially good
people that have gotten off on a path that’s spiritual death for you, and death
to the 200 billion people that we could be saving right now. And maybe that's not what you want to do, and
maybe you want to step out of faux activism into real activism, and I'm here
for you if and when you do.
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