The Revolution Starts Now, In Your Own Backyard

Steve Earle Plays It Close To Home

It’s a New Year, a new (old) president is waiting on-deck and the world tumbles on.

What the hell is going to happen in 2025?

I can’t imagine a worse year than 2024: Gaza, Ukraine, hurricanes, Syria, political malfeasance, media malpractice, inflation, border trafficking, homelessness, etc.

It’s enough to make you forget about those dystopic pandemic days.

But, maybe it’s just a normal day on the planet.

When You Rise Above Your Fear

The whole world is tired and tattered.

Every month a disaster looms, from the threat of nuclear war to the crush of humanity crossing the Darién Gap highway to reach the American border,

Everyone from global governments to local NGOs are mooching off the calamities of the downtrodden. The New World Order is organized chaos.

For Steve Earle, a singer-songwriter, things were bleak back in 2004 too. America was mired in the Iraq War and a presidential election, choosing Bush-Cheney to a second term.

Earle released his eleventh studio album, The Revolution Starts...Now, with tales of soldiers in the pointlessness of battle. The title song of the same name is a ray of hope amid the sad-spirited storytelling.

Surprisingly, the revolution is not in a faraway land. It is close to home:

Yeah the revolution starts now
In your own backyard
In your own hometown
So what you doin' standin' around?
Just follow your heart
The revolution starts now

In the aftermath of 911, the United States was in a stupor. It took years to overcome the initial shockwaves. It only took months for the security state to authorize surveillance and censoring mechanisms.

A revolution was needed just to get back to normal open conversation.

The revolution starts here
Where you work and where you play
Where you lay your money down
What you do and what you say
The revolution starts now
Yeah the revolution starts now

Twenty Years Down The Road To 2025

Two decades later and the wars linger on.

Sadly, it must be The American Way. What else explains the repetitive cycle of interference, uprising, invasion and regime replacement?

The world is a smaller place than it was back in 2004.

We are all connected now, for better or for worse. It’s a marriage of technology and citizenry. We cannot divorce ourselves from the abuse. We cannot stop the madness.

Our historical fate is in the hands of people we do not really like. They are strangers to our way of thinking. Their actions are far beyond normal humanity.

They are cold. They are evil. And they consume the goodness of others in a heartbeat.

Such is the scenario as 2025 embarks into existence.

Coda

Technology is most beneficial when it disrupts the traditional ways of doing things. It breaks down embedded barriers. It opens access to a wider range of citizens.

Disruptive technology allows for innovation, new markets and creates value far and wide. It displaces old-established and leading companies and products.

It’s a new horizon. It’s a new world.

Are we headed in the New Year with a disruptive president? Or will it be the old establishment again, not a needed displacement?

Will America wallow in the same old context of resource wars, wage stagnation, government waste, medical fraud and housing price inflation?

If so, just remember that …

The Revolution Starts … Now.

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