Visions Of 21 Year-Old “Radical”

By Blacken White

Radical, huh, funny label, like hippie, commie, pinko, or even liberal.  At one time or another I’ve thought like all of them plus Christian, Buddhist, conservative, capitalist, socialist, and space cadet burnout. And I must say I’ve found all of it vital in gaining new perspective. I’ve partied, fasted, been busted, trusted, beaten and scorned. I’ve had long hair, mohawks, earrings, and moccasins.

But now I’ve reached that age within myself that my direction is becoming clearer. My philosophy and beliefs are starting to show and grow. No longer do I make musicians my Gods. No longer do I act out in a rebellious manner; for I’ve found rebellion is only wasted energy that leads to frustration and hardship for oneself. If you’re going to make it hard on yourself, why not do it in a constructive, rather than destructive, manner.

No longer do I try to drink all night, or try to take more than 2 hits of acid so I can “break on through to the other side.” I guess I feel kinda lucky in a way that I did all my partying at a younger age than my peers, because now they’re out “going off track” and here I am knowing what I want and how to get it. No longer do I find chemical highs to be a necessity to having a good time, yet sometimes a little ganga doesn’t hurt.

One thing that I have found interesting in the last and first issue of The Advocate was the article on anarchy by Alex P. Laslow. Anarchy is a great youth idea. Let’s just destroy all government, and start a new one over again or let’s just totally destroy it and leave it that way. Yeah. Let’s be realistic, not everything is bad about our system. With politicians like Bernie Sanders, James Jeffords, and Steve Webster in our government things can’t be all bad. I mean some people truly do care about people and it’s not just glory, fame, and power.

I don’t really care if someone is Republican, Democrat, or a liberal. I only care if they are qualified, determined, and can’t be bought. Let’s face it. Our two presidential candidates weren’t much of a selection. And when all they can do is call each other names and point a blaming finger, well, I’m not impressed. Passing the buck doesn’t impress this soul one bit. I don’t care who made the problem let’s just fix it.

God, my biggest pet peeve is how much our intelligence is insulted by people still living under barbaric, militaristic principles. I mean here’s reality. We’ve got a huge federal budget deficit, enough nuclear arms to blow up the world 60-70 times over, and a lot of better places to put our money: developing new energy sources, toxic waste clean up programs, education, and so forth. Yet, even though in all practicality we nor Russia can afford to go to war, some politicians are still telling us we need multi-billion dollar improved weapons system (in ten years new peace treaties will hopefully be signed which will probably have us throw away billions of dollars worth of weapons which we so call needed). Gee, we must really lack confidence in our intellectual ability to deal with one another huh?

Wake up everybody. We’re receiving so much bullshit it’s incredible. Who gives a fuck about the jobs building weapons creates. Gosh, with all those billions of dollars we don’t even have, don’t you think more positive employment for our entire planet could be made?

Just think about one great saying Mr. Einstein said, “How can we simultaneously prepare for and prevent nuclear war?”

Well, chew up that food for thought and let it settle. Hopefully it will make sense.