Five minute free write - potatoes

He sat deep in the bowels of the metal beast, peeler and potato in hand.

A big bucket of raw spuds sitting to a side, and another of finished ones to his other. An endless line of buckets trailing out to ether side of him.

Above and outwards there was action. Planes flew, tanks drove, troops marched. But, here in the deep recesses of the ship he moved to a different beat.

It had come to pass because he had uttered a single word, 'no.'

'No,' he would not hold a gun, point it at another, pull the trigger and take a life.

'No,' he would not support the cause to which his countrymen marched. The point was hidden behind too many dollar signs to make sense to him.

'No,' he would not be a part of a movement that did not bring anything good into this world. Too many people before him had been a part of such things, believing in a greater good, but had been anything but.

So, there he sat.

Peeling one tuber after another. Happy in his task, but not in his place. His 'no' had kept him from joining the rest, but not from leaving. His 'no' had been repeated to those above, and those below, landing on deaf ears and mechnical minds.

The din outside was nothing but a nighmare to him that he wished he could wake from.

---

As our world is standing yet again on the brink of a war...no, wars,

I can't help but think of the frustration me and I'm sure many other people are feeling. The stupid reasons our country's decide to waste the lives of their people, because, it's never about protection, it's always about the money, or about the power. All of us sit at the bottom of this pyramid with these leaders above pointing us in directions that benefit them. We used to be able to look past it because of the lack of information and how they hid what they did. But, we now live in an age where all the information is available, and where they no longer hide their actions.

It blows my mind that we've let it come to this point, where the many accept and accede to the desires of the few. Like kings of old they sit high above us all, beholden to no one. You see it in politics, you see it in finance, you see it everywhere. Our government, once ours, is now theirs. Totally and absolutely. Saying this is not accepting defeat, it's recognizing a fact. Even those we think are fighting for us work to strengthen their own positions. Our votes matter only as much as they are allowed to manner. Laws are written and rewritten, created and destroyed. Districts created, boundaries moved, all to embolden those who hold the reigns.

A simple 'no' is all most of us can accomplish.

A pitiful act of defiance, overruled and ignored. We object, but are still sent into the field to dance at the commanders whim. It's a pattern that can be seen throughout society. Those who see the stupidity of what goes on, ignored and placed out of the way. Or ridiculed. Ignorance and opinion venerated while intelligence and reasoning spat upon.

Why do we go to war? Why do we work the jobs we work? Why do we do the things we do? How many of our actions are still our own? Can we even tell the difference anymore?

---

I need to stop lest I say too much and am noticed. Thank you @mariannewest for this prompt and your amazing Five minute free write. I once again took it in a completely different direction, hehe.

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