Stay angry, my friends
Those feelings of frustration, outrage, and disgust? Keep them. Store them. Treasure them. Hold them close. Polish them and refine them.
Refine them not into a blind rage that thrashes about, flailing at anything and everything, but craft them into a cold blooded fury that drives you to action.
Not a quick, easy, rash, exercise in futility, but a considered, targeted, planned course of action that accomplishes a specific goal.
There is an old aphorism, said to trace to the 1st Century B.C.: "Beware the fury of a patient man."
We must be patient, we must plan, we must THINK. The most powerful weapon extant is the human mind: Use it.
Use it to explore options, use it to plan actions, use it to disregard distractions, use it to determine and execute a course of action. Make your deed COUNT.
Rage is a berserk barbarian with a club thrashing about, endangering allies and self as much as their antagonist.
Fury is the assassin that calmly inserts a dagger through a chink in the armor into the heart of the opponent.
As in all metaphors, symbolism is used to illustrate actions here. Words and pictures can as easily be weapons to destroy opponents. Ridicule can render an person or attitude powerless as easily as anything else, often with wider effect. Exposure of the inherent weakness of an ideology or a person can be done at a greater distance than physical action requires. Proving that "The Emperor has no clothes!" for all to see is more devastating than an assault which can create a martyr. Beware of unforeseen consequences.
The greed, incompetence, corruption, and venality of those currently in power must be exposed. The ill deeds of the darkness must be brought forth into the light, kicking and screaming if need be. Truth, Justice, and Honor must be elevated to their rightful places.
We as a country stand at a crossroads. One path points to ever more divided tribes constantly warring over small advantages to access ever lessening scraps, while the other points to a co-operative effort to ensure plenty for all. I advocate for the latter. I take no pleasure in the misery of others. I know pain and suffering, and I do not wish it on others.
Vote. Study the issues. Study the candidates. Study the situations. Do not be blinded by distractions and lies. Do not blind yourself with impracticality and purity. Blind adherence to ideology can be more dangerous than doing nothing. A few steps in the right direction is better than many in the wrong one. Patience also means that journeys are taken steps at a time rather than massive jumps to the end. There may be lessons learned on the path that refine your destiny, show a better outcome, or give the wisdom to better appreciate the destination.
Pragmatism can be a virtue while idealism can be a vice. Shortcuts rarely are. Instant gratification is for infants. If you want a specific outcome, you must work for it; it will not be handed to you. Is it really worth having if it's not worth working for? If you want it done, and done right, do it yourself. There's no such thing as a free lunch.
A collection of aphorisms that have a common thread: You must make the journey to arrive at the destination. It won't be easy, but it must be done, and the arrival will be sweeter for the effort.
The current regime must be replaced for the good of the country and the world. It's up to you, and you, and you, and me, and her over there. We each have a part. We must do it. Without fail. We might not get "there" all at once, but we must start the trip.
"The voyage of a thousand leagues begins with one step." Take that step. Then take another. And another. Keep going. But use your head. Don't walk through the quicksand, walk around it. All of us won't make it, that should be a given. But some of us will. If not us, our progeny. It won't be overnight, it won't be easy, it won't be pleasant, but we will get there. The alternative is to descend into the depths of horror.
Hold on to your anger and use it to drive you to action. Refine that anger to power you to the RIGHT action. Let the opposition fulfill the role of the ineffectual fool. Do not let yourself fail. Even if your action is no more than a metaphorical extended middle finger to the fates, you may have cleared a path that lets your successor go further toward the destination.
Use the dagger, not the club.
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