Songs That Were Seeds of Anarchism in My Developing Mind Part 1.
I Grew Up in an Ultra Patriotic Household but I Always Gravitated to Music Which Punched Nationalism in the Face.
My parents divorced when I was very young so I think the distrust of so-called leaders ran deep. It is amazing how life experiences can really have an affect on your mind. Even though I wore a smile on the outside I was a very very angry young man. This may be why I was so attracted to rock music. Even though I grew up in the evangelical church deep inside my belly the anger resonated.
The First Song that I Remember that Helped me Build a Solid Anarchism Foundation was, "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour.
The Line, "Only You Can Set You Free" is one that I understand now.
Now as an Adult I Have Zero Trust in Government and Leaders.
It was difficult for me as a young adult. I was in the US Navy where I had a very low tolerance for the bullshit I saw day in and day out. I did not agree with many of the actions we were carrying out and the people that were in leadership positions over me were clowns. All most of these people truly cared about was advancing in the ranks and their function in life was to kiss as much ass as they could. This felt disingenuous to me. I had all I could do to keep quiet.
So without much fanfare I completed my eight years in the US Navy. My only regret was not leaving earlier.
Tomorrow I Will Share Another Song That Helped Free My Mind.
Great post, @hilarski. It makes me think of what songs have helped me to free my mind...
It was difficult for me as a young adult. I was in the US Navy where I had a very low tolerance for the bullshit I saw day in and day out. I did not agree with many of the actions we were carrying out and the people that were in leadership positions over me were clowns. All most of these people truly cared about was advancing in the ranks and their function in life was to kiss as much ass as they could. This felt disingenuous to me. I had all I could do to keep quiet.
It's important you to be honest, keep the spirit
they call it patriotism but its about control and money while they ride on ur blood.
As it has been said, it is a racket.
You know some of my misfortunes in the military already, and I could share a lot more too. Maybe I will one day on here. It really is a depressing subject though to me, for I joined to find liberty lovers. Instead, I was surrounded by mindless zombies.
My medical issues with the military didn't start with my hearing being damaged by Anthrax shots either. They started way before that while I was in AIT (Advanced Individual Training for the non-military people here).
I was suffering from Grave's Disease, and the military doctors didn't know it. They took my blood numerous times and never did figure it out. I spent three days in bed at the end of my Intelligence Analyst training because of an infection, and they let me graduate even though I should not have because I had top marks (third in my class).
Once home though I got more sick. I was only there for two weeks, and then I shipped off to Airborne. At Airborne though I was getting to the advanced stages of the illness when it is not treated. The doctors had no idea what was wrong with me, and I didn't know either.
My hands had started trembling in AIT, but now both my hands and knees were trembling. I had so much adrenaline flowing through my body that I just couldn't sit still. It also made it impossible to sleep, so I was quickly going crazy.
The doctors thought I was faking it unfortunately since they had no idea what was wrong with me. Because of my shaking though, I was worried about getting someone else killed. We had to check our buddy's gear before going out the door. How would I do that?
I eventually stepped out during formation and requested to leave. It was the most embarrassing moment in my life. I was quitting, and I am not a quitter. The Airborne Sergeant knew I wasn't faking, but he also didn't know what to do with me.
They sent me home, and once you quit Airborne you can never go back. That is put in your records too, so it ruined my career. That black mark followed me everywhere I went. The first civilian doctor I saw, without even touching me, said, "Oh, you have Grave's Disease."
He didn't even take my blood, and the military had taken it probably a hundred times. Within six months, I was healthy again. I felt wonderful, but it was too late to fix what was broken military records wise.
The unit I as assigned to, the 11th Special Forces, dropped me of course. You cannot be in that unit without being Airborne qualified. Today I look back though and wonder if I'd still be alive if I had finished Airborne. Maybe I would be dead, and I'd deserve to be dead for being in a place where I should not have been helping to kill people who were no threat to me.
Anyway, that's the main story I have to tell about my time in the military. There's more like how I started with 60 people in B-1-26 for Basic Training and only 39 graduated with 3 dead from suicide. I'm not ready to write about that experience yet however.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I hear ya, your journey was much more difficult than mine. I am just glad we got out alive and still mentally intact for the most part.
We got out morally intact too. I was close to deploying three times. The first two times I wanted to go. During the last time though, I had a young child and another on the way. Leaving them didn't make any sense to me at all. I have high school associates that did deploy, and they have PTSD and loads of issues from the people they killed and saw killed. That is something I am very thankful to have avoided for many reasons.
I have regrets about participating in the matrix, too. I'm a former high school teacher and I regret that I administered and monitired standardized tests. I wish I had called in sick on those days. I did do my best to be creative within the curriculum and to cater to each student's learning style. And, thankfully "Common Core Curriculum wasn't around then. I could never do that job today.
Although the Beatles were before my time, I was always drawn to most of their music, especially John Lennon's. It made sense in a crazy world. I remember the day John Lennon was shot was shot. Now, now.... you can't have people singing about love and peace, can you? TBTB killed him just like they killed Bob Marley.
Great post! It made me think about life, especially all the differences between then and now.
I did 8 years in 🎖. I was a free thinker before, during and after. Looking back, I did not do anything I regret☠️. I feel I learned a lot in the military, I traveled the world, I was in more than one conflict, I got to see from the perspective of other nations and ideologies. The experience gave me a worldview that is even more on the fringes then when I went in.
As far as the government, I just think that humanity can do better. I don't think humanity is ready to go beyond nationalism yet. Most people are not even ready to look at nationalism, race, or religion objectively. It is just asking too much for pawns to see where they are on the chess board.
I think this way of thinking will be around a long time because we are just not a mature species. I think there is some hope in concepts like blockchain technology which does not have to rely on a human to do what is equitable.
Great post.
Honestly, the rest of the people can stay ignorant and be statists. They just need to leave me and my loved ones alone. It is the question of my life time. How do those of us who refuse to be ruled coexist in a world full of people who do want to be ruled?
Wow that's so awesome that you're only regret was not getting out earlier. I'm the same way! I just got out of the Air Force 2 weeks ago. It took me about 7 months to break my contract as a Conscientious Objector. The further along I got the more I realized how stupid government operations really are.
Boom! I wish I had the juevos to do that back in the day.
Congratulations! I was not aware when I was in, and I was not an anarchist. At the time I was pursuing liberty and thought the military was doing the same thing. It didn't take long for me to realize how wrong I was.
Love that song, thanks for shearing. I loved the stuff of the US Navy, and I admire you for that, I think all your discipline and a lot of your leadership was acquire on those hard days.
For me it was pretty much any song by Rage Against the Machine. I used to listen to all the songs in the first album at full blast and they are all amazing.
Me too, they were definitely a huge influence on me but I did not find them until I was already in my 30's.
My steemit posts are all about the solution.
https://steemit.com/@democracydirect
No thanks. If you provide a system, government as we call it, that system will be taken over by oligarchs. Mob rule is no better than rule by oligarchy too. I do not want to replace one tyranny with another.
You are only repeating youtube comment memes. Check my blog and learn something then get back to me.
Democracy sucks, it's just mob rule. After thousands of years of different flavors of Government it should be apparent more government is not the answer. 5,000 years of government war, theft & destruction is not the answer.
Democracy sucks in your mind because you have never experieced it. We dont have democracy in its true form other than the odd referendum or ballot initiative. Yes democracy is mob rules. All governments and democratic institutions are majority rules. Its not that bad if you have a chance to have real input into the policy decision. Anyway i am an advocate as are many others just check my posts and you will get an education on the subject
Killer song.
I saw RATM on tour in 1995 and it was insane. They pulled out the American flag, turned it upside down, and spray painted the anarchy "A" on it. It was kind of shocking to me at the time, but very powerful. I did not fully appreciate a lot of the message at the time but certainly was drawn to the energy they put out and, of course, it all makes much more sense now! Oh yes, and Wu-Tang was on that tour with them! Bonkers...
That is a great song. Thanks for sharing a personal side of you. And thank you for your service. Celebrity cult leaders aside, we still need people like you to defend this country.
I grew up on bands like Kiss, Ac/Dc, and Iron Maiden. :-)
Don't let'em tell you that there's too much noise
They're to old to really understand
You'll still get rowdy with the girls and boys
'Cause it's time for you to make a staaaaaaaaaaaaaand