The Power of MAD

The PHOENIX

As I mentioned in the last post, in order to bring about CHANGE you need a definite amount of ENERGY..most likely coming from your ANGER over the Status Quo.  Several times I've mentioned the way that this feeling of ANGER...of "MAD AS HELL"...was effectively expressed by a character in a movie - Howard Beale - who worked for a broadcast NETWORK.  The clip below will help you see what I mean: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGIY5Vyj4YM

It's Howard Beale's "MAD" that has the major impact on his audience that's explored in this film. So, as I'm hoping to raise the energy to create a movement (The PHOENIX PARTY) that will help organize the Poor and those who care about what happens to them into going out and using the POWER OF THE VOTE to bring about the changes that will improve their lives, I thought I would spend some time today not only exploring what there is to be MAD about but also trying to raise the level of that MAD so that the ENERGY needed will be there when it counts.

Does that mean that I think the Poor are not ANGRY about what's happening to them? Does that mean that I think that the people who have devoted their lives to trying to help the Poor aren't angry about what's happening to them?  Well...I'm not sure...but I do wonder...

I've discovered in life that one thing is the cause of its the opposite. For example, we wouldn't have dark if there wasn't light. We wouldn't recognize fat if we didn't have thin.  Would we understand wet if we didn't have dry?  And...for the case I'm trying to make now, would we ever know MAD if we hadn't experienced SAD?

While so much of what's happened to the Poor can certainly make them MAD, my concern is that that condition has gone on for so long that the Poor have now moved beyond MAD and just into SAD.  In fact, I'm concerned that we're not just talking SAD. We're talking a sad that has become so deep that we're now talking about a state of DEPRESSION that will make any action just about impossible.

When I think of depression I think of a scene from the STAR TREK, THE NEXT GENERATION TV series.  In this scene the ship's female therapist - Troy - is in a space shuttle that has crashed on a seemingly barren planet.  Her pilot has died in the crash and she is all alone...she thinks. However, just outside that space ship the audience sees what looks like a pool of deep, dark, very black TAR. We soon discover that that pool of tar is alive and can not only change its shape...it can also move. We know it can move because it crosses the desert-like sand and covers the space ship. Inside, Troy feels like she is covered in that tar's darkness. She becomes overwhelmed by a deep sadness and she can't even move. Later in that segment she learns that the bed of tar is all that's left behind by the creatures who had inhabited this planet. In order to move on they put all of their anger and fear into this pool of tar and left it behind.  In order to be able to leave the imprisonment of the planet they had to shed all of the negative energy that was holding them back. In short, they'd gotten in touch with their negative energy and had done something to free themselves from it. 

For me, those moments when the pool of tar covers the space ship remind me of what I've felt like when I've been depressed. I'm immobilized...I'm stuck...I'm powerless...I've become so much more than just sad. And, that's what I'm concerned about for the Poor.  Those feelings of being stuck...being powerless...being a victim...can put you in a space where you just don't even have the energy to get up and move!

In the Star Trek segment, the key to change was to focus on the sad feelings and make them as small...as weak as possible.  There's an exercise where two people stand up...face each other...put their hands up and together and begin to push to see who's stronger. The surprising thing is that the key to winning is to stop pushing. Once the one side pulls their hands away to stop pushing the other side may think they've won, but really what's happened is all of the energy has just gone out of the game...they've really lost.

While it may seem contradictory, once you stop giving your SAD your energy everything can change for you.  The key here is that we're talking about ENERGY. It has to go somewhere. So, if SAD energy immobilizes you, it should be the case that if you turn that energy into its opposite - getting ANGRY...getting MAD...then the result should also be its opposite - you should be able to (as Gloria Estefan sings..) "GET UP AND MAKE IT HAPPEN".

So, let's take a moment to consider what are the experiences that the Poor have that may be making them sad...even apathetic...now...that can also be looked at as a source of ANGRY ENERGY:

• maybe it's the fact that you don't have a job.
• maybe it's the fact that you don't have a job so you can't feed your family (and the government has cut the Food Stamps Program!) 
• maybe it's the fact that because you don't have a job you don't have the money to pay your bills.
• maybe it's the fact that because you can't pay your bills you're facing foreclosure and you and your family are on the verge of becoming homeless.
• maybe it's the fact that you're out of a job for so long you not only don't have a resume that will help you get a job; you don't even have the skills to apply for a job that will bring in a salary that's far less than the minimum wage.
• maybe it's the fact that your family's fights over your poverty has not only resulted in your experience of physical and psychology abuse but it's also resulted in the end of your marriage and now you find yourself a single woman trying to raise your family alone.
• maybe it's the fact that you have so little money that you're forced to move your family into a home that's not only falling apart but it's in a neighborhood that's riddled with violence.
• maybe it's the fact that that violence..perhaps even gang violence...has resulted in the death of one of your children or the imprisonment of another.
• maybe it's the fact that your home in a poor area also puts your kids in a school district with poor schools. 
• maybe it's the fact that those poor schools don't give your kids a good education so they can't get into a good college and now they're not qualified to get a good job.
• maybe it's the fact that because your kids can't get a good job that you now find yourself with not only an overwhelming sense of your own present poverty but you now know that you're in a CYCLE OF POVERTY and all of the "maybes" I've just listed above are about to start all over again and you have no idea how many generations of your family are going to continue to be POOR.
• maybe it's the fact that you've devoted your life to trying to help people who find themselves in these living conditions and you just don't even know where to begin and you don't know where to turn to find something/someone that will help them. 
• and finally...maybe it's the fact that every day when you look at the news or read the newspaper...you know not only that there doesn't seem to be anyone in Washington who seems to care about you but you're also worried that YOUR elected representatives have gone beyond FORGETTING about you and they now seem to even be working AGAINST YOU!!!

And...the SAD TRUTH is that I've certainly not exhausted the list of the overwhelming experiences that are true for the POOR in this country.  I haven't even begun to touch the list of problems of those whose poverty took them by SURPRISE because of some job cutbacks or some natural disaster like a flood or a forest fire. Or the students who struggled to get a college education but can't seem to get ahead because they have piled up so much debt. Or the people who suffer from some kind of mental illness (and the families who love and care for them) who don't know where to turn because of the cuts in all the social service programs that used to help them. And yes...I could go on and on.

But the question is this..does the list above just overwhelm you?.....does it just depress you?...does it just make you feel both HELPLESS and HOPELESS? Or can you make yourself reflect on any of these realities that affect your life and...like Howard Beale...say STOP!...say I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!

And...if you get to this ENERGY SPACE, I want to help you realize that getting ANGRY doesn't mean that you have to turn to VIOLENCE which will make your life even worse! Today, in Brazil, people are taking to the streets to riot because they are angry that their country spent so much money on the World Cup Soccer Games and not helping the country's economy...yet those games continue on. I want to ask you to both get in touch with your ANGER and also to believe that there is a way to CHANNEL that energy into doing something much more POSITIVE..much more EFFECTIVE.

It may seem hard to believe, but I strongly believe that if the Poor can get unified and go out together and VOTE..thing can get better.

Two days ago, when I wrote the last post in this blog, Eric Cantor had just gone down to defeat in his Congressional District and, because of the powerful leadership position that Cantor had (he's already announced he's stepping down from it by the end of July..), people were in shock!. Today I learned that that defeat happened because only 12% in that district showed up to vote! And, since Cantor's opponent won by almost 10%...that means what? Less than 6 maybe 7% of the voters in that district are responsible for perhaps the biggest political defeat in the history of this country!!!

And...as the analysis of that election has gone on...it seems that some anti-immigration reform didn't really have much to do with the outcome of this vote.  Groups who had polled the people in this district prior to the primary found them pretty much in favor of immigration reform.

The people in this district were triumphant just because they got MAD and GOT UP AND TOOK SOME ACTION!  There is POWER in GETTING MAD and...as these posts continue...I hope to craft a PROPOSAL to (like the PHOENIX) help bring about the death of the Poor's SADNESS and the resurrection of it's MAD ENERGY that will bring about the CHANGE that can make life better.