Fit the Power

Public Enemy famously rapped back in 1989 "Fight the power, we've got to fight the powers that be" as a rallying cry to Black Americans. These days it seems like many kinds of people aspire to be the power that is by fitting themselves into the mold du jour. If you are a Republican wannabe, you are likely tearing a page from the Book of Trump to rabble rouse yourself to a place of importance/power (e.g., Josh Hawley, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz). If you are a Democrat, you are likely trying to decide between the more diverse Bernie Sanders/The Squad model or the whiter M.O.R. model that Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are driving. In other words, whomever you are, you've got to fit the powers that be.

By doing so, you create and build on a set of calculating core beliefs that give you amplification and the perception of power in the form of fundraising, public voice, and social media notoriety. Borrowing again from Public Enemy, "You've got to give the Peeps what they need" is the mantra that rallies the mob (corporate or public) to your side. 

We have a vortex of power, a massive wave of energy that is largely like a stalled hurricane, always a threat, but more likely to peter out in the end. Do enough of this and a person might believe that democracy is failing. A question I'd raise is "Maybe democracy has not happened yet?"

If we stop trying to fight the power and come at it with our own power, what then? For one thing, we have to join forces over lines of division. Color, culture, economics have got to be approached with a sense of purpose. We the people are just people who want to get along and have peaceful lives free of violence and exploitation. As long as we continue to fit the power, the power wins. When we realize that we are the power, then we all are on the road to giving the people what we need.