by Ishi Dinim

Like Gil-Scot Heron said, “The revolution will not be televised.” Now I’m just going on a hunch but I’ve felt a shift; people are talking change. All of the recent scandalous political fiascos and unscrupulous business dealings that are coming to light are stirring the masses and cementing those who already knew. We need to take back our society and make it work holistically. Spread the word, because it won’t be on the box.

I’ve been busy for the last month working on set, creating fresh meat for the box. The entertainment industry is such a grind. Very challenging to keep sane while enduring so many imbalances at once. Sacrificing sleep, diet, ethics and peace of mind we hurtle forward on an out of control train waiting for it to finally screech to a halt so we can get back to our “real” lives and wait for the next contract.

I was reading some graffiti in the cramped bathroom at work. One person wrote a detailed indictment of their production company, questioning the morality of the business in general. There was more added to the wall each day; some in agreement with the statement, others calling the writer a whiner, some giving alternatives like working at McDonald’s. The bulletins will surely continue until the wall is painted again; the bathroom wall as a forum for socio-political debate, what a concept.

Got me thinking about other peoples’ lines of work. I’m sure other industries require many similar and other more severe tolls. One industry that really confuses me is the credit card world. How did these corporations finger me as the guy to send three applications to per week? Don’t they know that I can barely pay my rent most of the time, that I’ve never earned more than a poverty line income or that I rarely spend money I don’t have such as using a credit card. Like Kool Keith said, “ Who are you?” Anyhow the applications will continue going right from the mailbox into the recycling bin in hundreds of small pieces.

The meat industry seems to be in a bit of a pinch these days. It may be cheeky but I’m glad that nature is exacting its own system of checks and balances by throwing in some good old fashioned plagues. Genetic tinkering and forced cannibalism are unwise no matter how it is rationalized. If humans are going to keep going against the planet it will just swallow us up and spit us out.

THOUGHTS:

There are worlds on which life has never arisen. There are worlds that have been charred and ruined by cosmic catastrophes. We are fortunate: we are alive; we are powerful; the welfare of our civilization and our species is in our hands. If we do not speak for Earth, who will? If we are not committed to our own survival, who will be? - Carl Sagan in Cosmos, 1980

The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.
- Alexis Carrel, Reflections on Life

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.
- Abraham Lincoln

To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power.
- Jane Fonda

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.
- Abbie Hoffman

LINK UPS:

www.sagacious-smartass.com

www.ebaumsworld.com/presaddress2.shtml

www.amconmag.com/08_11_03/feature.html

Ishi Dinim graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2001, with a BFA major in photography. He enjoys experiencing art, especially writing and film. Madagascar calls him to meet the lemurs and baobab trees. Currently he lives in Vancouver cooking up some good lovin’, collecting cacti and trying to discover the meaning of life. contactishi@yahoo.ca waiting to hear echoes back...