(Op-ed By Peter Lagios)
If I were to ponder on what revolution means to me…
The revolution is an ideological revolution for emancipation of one’s body in time and space; to free oneself from the conditions that infringe themselves upon us. It recognizes that with favorable circumstances…something favorable results. With unfavorable circumstances…something unfavorable results. It’s basic karma 101. Karma in the sense of a strict cause and effect relationship…like Newtonian physics…not something mystical, or other-worldly.
There exists a “construct” whether people want to acknowledge this fact or not.
The construct is a general model for human behavior and activity that has been refined over time. It has been a guide (and prison) to control human thought for a lifetime, to keep society functioning within acceptable controls; controls deemed appropriate and necessary by the larger body, to insure smooth processing and transition…from one life to another.
Human lives are short and it’s easier to keep it on one or two planes, then to allow total free range of motion. What is more complicated…X, Y, axes or a sphere of 360 degrees with all points in between?
In life we are born helpless. We are formed like clay by our parents / caregivers. In turn our caregivers are shaped by the greater of society. It’s a constant process of molding and shaping from one generation to the next, with very little deviation in between. A human as a wailing infant, totally dependent to live or die…it has no choice but to be developed and controlled. During this extreme authority and control over one’s entire being…predators have their rule. If you grow something in a Petri dish…you could not help but feel that you are its total master. Parents express domination over their children. Society expresses domination over its parents. When the spark of self awareness firmly ignites, we realize self-determination and freewill…that we are being controlled, and that we need to attempt to break free and go our own way.
For some blessed with good families, positive upbringings, nurturing environments, love, companionship, plenty of money…the outlook looks good…the transition to independence easy. But for those burdened by adverse conditions and neurotic impulses, inflicted upon them by their caregivers-the future looks grim. They possess neither the support nor the knowledge to make it in the world as-is. With addictions to drugs and alcohol, and impulses deemed inappropriate by society, they cannot understand what, who and why they are, nor have sufficient insight to change. With little control, they head towards the path of scorn, and punishment by the greater society…a society that cannot understand their inability to come into compliance to what they determine as the “better way”.
Meanwhile, predatory organizations, waiting in the shadows to strike at the newly found independent conscious being begin fomenting their plans.
A credit card with $2000 limits is given in the mail. Solicitations that higher education will better one’s life are advertised. Federal loans and grants are made available to encourage the path for school. Law enforcement officers patrol around in cars and try and snag oddballs. The ones who are merely breaking free from a life of control and dominance now face more rigid control and domination.
The Predatory dragnet becomes too dense to escape.
Of course the young troubled adult will spend the money limit on the credit card that was given to them. Of course they will apply for the student aid and Federal loans so they can buy a TV and Sony Playstation. Of course they will smoke the joint, and get busted by the cops for possession of drugs, paraphernalia, underage drinking, or driving while intoxicated. Of course they don’t understand the way of economics and will attempt to steal and rob when they run out of money… (Not all…but some). Of course the police are on alert to enter them into a judicial system destined to receive them.
A criminal record is developed. Credit reporting agencies are notified for delinquency in payment, credit scores plummet, young adults lose their drivers licenses, and face a round of suspensions and revocations…they are unable to pay back their student loans, have no college credits to show for their stint of drinking and debauchery, and have no idea what they want to do in life or which direction to go. Upon conviction of drugs- if that particular net were to snare the tadpole…military service is thereby denied…a career as a law enforcement officer is closed, and any participation in politics becomes nil to none.
A job is secured at the local McDonalds, Burger King, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Wal-Mart, Telemarketing Scam Company…and life begins paycheck to paycheck in a feeble attempt to rectify the debt that was destined for them to take on…The debt of Coming of Age in America. Depression ensues. More drinking and drugs continues. More busts by the cops. Mental illnesses begin to develop. Hopelessness and contempt sets in.
Credit agencies are eternal. Court and Law Enforcement records are eternal. Mental illness diagnosis’s are forever. A name is damned forever before they even know what hit them. The Predatory Society guides another round of life down the X, Y, streams it created.
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Epilogue:
This is the cycle that many people go through on a daily basis as they come of age in American society. This is the gristly mill many face until they get smart and mature enough to realize what’s being inflicted on them. For me…instead of accepting it as some American rite of passage…I choose to harbor ill will towards the process and ask the political system do something about it to clear names and grant a fresh start. It’s akin to asking the fisherman to take away the giant net that he’s holding over the stream to let the salmon make it out to the ocean. Instead of rewarding big credit agencies, we need to be shutting them down…and the 3 reporting agencies that assign credit ratings need be banned. A step program needs to be installed before Federal student loan money and Grant money is given to prove the student is serious about becoming a student. The system is too easy to be gamed and young people are facing debt they cannot understand or handle. This doesn’t even cover medical debt, or the endless overdrafts people faced under the tyranny of Bank of America / US Bank that has now been reformed through litigation.
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