Eve of the Empire/11-4-2008 (12 o'clock AM EST)

Today we'll make history.

One nation having influenced the whole world will decide who will lead us through these next four years, when many say the planet is running out of time. Pretty amazing this little rebel nation turned Empire has become.

I might be young, but even I can see that this is an event the world has never seen, because this is a country like the world has never seen. Where else has there even been a possibility that a person whose ancestors were slaves might come to lead it; or much more importantly, lead it at a time like this. His opponent will make history too, because no matter who wins they will be making decisions that will be far reaching across the globe.

It's a Brave New World where humankind has dreamed of since it's birth. One where we touched the stars and explored the ocean floors. It's the age where no place on Earth is left undiscovered, unmapped and diagrammed; where time and space are transcended and ideas and information are sent half way around the world to a mailbox that doesn't even really exist, just like these word you read.

And today the country that has been the most powerful in the new world, and many argue that it still is, will change forever whether we like it or not. Although I think I can say confidently that none of us are too happy about the way things are. The strain on the world is getting worse, we can see it every time we turn on the TV that sometimes seems more real than we are.

I can see this even though I'm young. Then again they say it is the youth that will decide the future for the first time; depending of which side we choose and of course, if we even choose at all. In the first nation to wipe two cities off the map from across the world, each with a single bomb, that's a lot of pressure. Even more with the talk of the country declining, and everyone knows, at least by now, that choosing wrong can be disastrous. This time we are totally divided.

So today will be history because the world is changing, and the country that changed it is changing itself. We're all holding our breaths, because we see a bit of what's coming and it definitely looks bleak. But today, we're a part of this future in the making.

So let's make it.

Personal Monolouge: It Never Ends

I've been really disappointed lately. Mostly in myself, and the way my life is going. I promised myself that I would be getting down to business; getting shit done, physically take the steps necessary to achieve the things I've sworn to accomplish before my time runs out.

Shit never seems to go right tho, and when it rains, it pours. It's almost too much to deal with. Getting kicked outa college, getting arrested, having to start talking to my father again just so he can take care of this legal shit--just so he can finally do something worthwhile in my life...

Speaking of fathers, I didn't grow up with one, but I never really cared much. After all, who grows up with both parents these days? Fucking wierdos if you ask me. It's not that he wasn't around--nah, me and my sister spent the every other weekend at his house. And for the most part, I was in hell. Because between a messy divorce and me fucking up at the fancy shmancy private school I attended (how could the children of two doctors not attend a private school?), he was always pissed and I was a convenient target. Not like he was around before tho...

Nah, my father was the lyrics in the music I listened to, the stories I read, the depression I felt, the weed I smoked and the liquor I drank. My father was my mother, my mother's boyfriend, my neighbors, my friends.

My father was me and my sister...because that's all we really had.

But lately, with all the trouble that I seem to find myself in, my mother and others "adults" around me seem to believe that having a "father" would have changed everything.

For real, people are so fucking simple minded. I've been different all my life. Shit, i've been on mental medication most of my life so that alone should say something (although maybe that's beginning to be normal these days). But despite the fact that I learned how to fit in anywhere and I can chill with everybody from rich preppy kids to thugged out drug dealers, i've only grown more and more different. My sister and my three best friends are the only ones who get me. They all happen to be really smart kids who have each been through some real crazy shit..

Coincidence? I think not.

I promised myself I'd show the world the things I see in my mind, the things that no one else can see and that made me feel so different growing up. It's the reason I'm an artists, because I've been trying to a a way to express these things. But nothing will ever happen if I don't get off my ass and get focused.

Damn, I should really stop drinking...

Status Report: Booby Traps

The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned. - Antonio Gramsci

Great. Except...

Living in an age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned. The perfect life is spread before us everyday, but it changes and withers at a touch. - Joseph Priestly

What's real? You can't even tell these days. Special effects look realer than real life while the government repeats the same lies over and over again in attempt to make you believe it.

Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see. Those are the words to live by in the new millennium. Coming up in this age pretty much engraved those words in my mind. It's not hard to see the illusions around us if you stop and look. I think on some level we all know it, even if some choose to pretend that things are exactly as they're told.

It's hard not to become disillusioned these days. To many of us born and raised in these times, we can't remember a time when we weren't disillusioned. I can tell you that personally, I was a goddamn cynical little bastard. But there's mucho danger in disillusionment.

Disillusionment leads to hopelessness, and hopelessness leads to helplessness. You give up. After all, what's the point in trying? You can't change anything anyway.

Except after much reconnaissance and analysis I realized something.

That shit is a trap.

If you think like that you lose your power. Belief and intention are powerful. Everything from the Taoist I Ching to quantum physics points towards it. If you can dream it you can do it, we've been shown that over and over.

It's good to be disillusioned a bit, there's no place for naivety anymore. But don't let it trap you.

Think about it.

Personal Monologe: The X Time Around

A.K.A This is not the first time I came to the planet




Man, for some reason i've been getting the feeling that i've been here before. I've read about reincarnation in religion for a long time, but I didn't really apply it to my life or beliefs. But lately i've been diving deeper into some of the ancient texts and watching the direction my life seems to be going in. I keep getting the feeling that i've done this before. Like, i've been getting closer and closer each time and that this time i'll achieve that thing that I feel compelling me.

I say I want to change the world. But there's such a huge distance between where I am now and what I see in my visions; a distance filled with smoke, winding upward pathways, cliffs and giant chasms that I could easily fall into.

I should definitely draw that. When I get around to it.

Countdown

At the same time I feel like time is running out. Maybe it's the countless murders on the news or maybe it's way the powers that be seem intent on gaining more power; maybe it's even because what's been written in the prophecies seems to be coming true.

Whatever the reason, I feel pressure in my daily life to change things now. Like there's a window of opportunity presenting itself and I'm going to miss it if I don't hurry.
Exactly what opportunity and why? I have no idea.

Code Red: E.L.E. Cont

CHILD SOLDIER EPIDEMIC



It wasn't until I heard this track that I finally got a bit. Lupe is one of the illest new(ish) MCs out. He can rhyme, his beats are sick, and most importantly he talks about real shit that's going down in the world these days; some real poignant social commentary.

My curiosity was peaked, and when I happened on a book about the situation in the Congo, one of the places the epidemic is at its worst, I decided to pick it up. I was hooked after the first paragraph.


The book is called All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in the Congo and it's written by journalist P. Narendorph. The things he describes are mind blowing man; teenage gunboys carrying 50 caliber machine guns (a bullet that size can cut you in half), men, women and children hacked to pieces with machete's, females from old women to three year olds getting raped, little kids being set on fire, genocide; the atrocities go on and on. What really got to me was when the author describing the gunboys eating the raw hearts of their victims right after they butcher them; they believe it will give them power and make them invincible.


Child soldier from Sudan. Picture from http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/

But it's not just Africa. Child soldiers are being used across the globe, from Columbia to Nepal they're everywhere.

Global Child Soldier Report

The kids are recruited by warlords because they are more pliable and less likely to disobey orders. Usually they're shot full of drugs and alcohol to make them numb to the killing.

I can't imagine anything closer to hell on earth, and the U.N. and the U.S. are not doing nearly enough to prevent it.

That means it's up to us.

Code Red: Extinction Level Events (ELE)

Goddamnit yo, it seems like we're always so busy we can rarely find a way to sneak in a couple minutes of peace in quiet. I feel you, don't think I don't. Right now i'm writing this on no sleep; with not much last night and you can bet your ass it aint in the near enough future.

Right now there are only two things keeping me from slumping to the floor unconscious and this is one of them: the fact that there's thousands of kids, like cute little 5 year old brats across the world are being killed by the various global crisis's in a lot of seriously fucked up but preventable ways. And like we're coming to see, in this post-modern/matrix era the things going on around the world affect us in a thousand ways. So here we go.

THE GLOBAL LANDMINE CRISIS

Man suicide bombers suck. And they're scary as hell because there's only so much you can do against someone who has nothing to lose (personally, I think the gunboys and Rebels in the Congo are the true hardcore).

Suicide bombers with IED's are also mad dangerous because they have been known to blow even TANKS the hell up. And yea, I might not know exactly what it's like, but I know it really has to suck to get fragged in half by something exploding near you. Can't imagine things that suck too much more...

...except maybe that shit happening to you as a kid, with no warning, and it wasn't even done on purpose.

Now THAT fucking sucks hard for real, and it turns out is a problem all over the world; not just Iraq or the Middle East. Figures.

These pictures are from Landmines.org, which says:

A disproportionate number of victims are children, both because they are not educated about the dangers of landmines, and because their small size makes them more vulnerable to a landmine explosion.

Cambodian children who survived land mine explosions.





Tomorrow i'll be broadcasting more on this and other issues. Stay tuned, it's just getting started.

THE GLOBAL LANDMINE CRISIS poster created by me.

PROJECT Outlines

The G.R.A. Project

A.K.A. The Global Rebel Alliance. An aligning of those across the world who choose to go their own route and live life their way. The core goal of this alliance is to provide a common ground for people who choose to be an individual instead of conforming to so called societal norms that block them from being free.

The G.R.A. itself is meant to be used as a free banner. Anyone can say they belong to the G.R.A. because its about being yourself. It's also about connecting those of us across the world to other people who might share your ideas or style or humor etc. This is not about me per se, the words Global Rebel Alliance are only a symbol that represents the fore mentioned extremely open-ideology; anyone can do their own thing with it. It's at the experimental stages of the project and i'm just broadcasting the idea. However, this site is still my blog so i'll be discussing as it relates to me.


Project: Meta/Mega Revolution

I'm not just a rebel i'm also a revolutionary. Project MR is my brain child; my contribution to the cause. To what cause? To the cause of being free, not just from corrupt governments but from the chains that have been placed over our minds throughout history. The M.R. is the combination and execution of two age old concepts: Knowledge is Power, and the Truth will set you Free. However knowledge is only power if you can apply it effectively, which, is fucking hard if you cannot see clearly the whole truth of what is going on around you.

The M.R. is both a hard revolution and a philosophical revolution, drawing on the knowledge and history of the people who came before us that not only understood what was right but took a stand and did something about it. Philosophy plays a huge roll, because only you can decide for yourself what right is; but in order to come to such a decision you have to contemplate, which, while not always easy is extremely important.

At present the project simply a set of upcoming loose articles, theories, and essays. To me it is tied intimately with the G.R.A. because it is the total journey of what allowed me to come up with something I feel will be able to reach out to mad people. It's about controlling your destiny and achieving your potential; about achieving whatever you put your mind to. It's about the mind-states I've adapted to not only survive this crazy shit called life but pick myself up and rise to the occasion time after time. I use my life only to apply it in a tangible way, and my life has been a fucking crazy journey son. The articles range from more to less personal, but I share them because I believe they are all thought provoking...and the point is to think.


Who I be
Rage the Rebel, broadcasting live from central New Jersey a.k.a. the badlands. I'm a scholar and a revolutionary but I keep it gutter true to my personality. I'm a visual artist, a poet, a writer, tech-head, an MC, a b-boy, a real world combat martial artist, a semi-playboy, and an all around entertainer (I got mad ideas but why should ya'll listen to them if it's gonna be boring?). I'm a 19 year old kid trying to make it on my own and deal with the issues in my life; like my bipolar disorder and my familie's sad state of money affairs. I feel I can connect with mad people because the large range of diverse experiences i've had.


From here it just goes deeper, as the forementioned introductions to these projects and myself are just that, introductions. So like I always say, you best be prepare, cuz here comes the ruckus.

Broadcasting Live from the Global Rebel Alliance

Good evening ladies and gentleman. This evening scheduled programming will proceed as soon as you WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!

It's time. In fact, it's way past time.

Beneath Brittney Spears, beyond Tom Cruise and Brangelina, there are things happening in this world. Genocide is on the rise, a war on "terror" is invading every part of our lives, teenage depression is at an all time high, over-medication is the norm, our school systems aren't teaching us anything we need to know, our families are wreck and at war with themselves, and the Bill of Rights has become little more then a piece of scrap paper. The basic human rights of life and liberty for all are being systematically destroyed by corrupt government organizations, hateful parodies of organized religion, and the purposeful spread of ignorance.

Fuck that! Free your mind. Live your life the way you know in your heart is right; FUCK what they say you should feel and think. That's something you have the right to decide. Don't let them take that away from you! This world is ours, we need to take it back!

It's time to Rise Up, time to do something about the state of this world; the state of Our World! It's true, no one person can do everything, but everyone can do something. Write a poem, make a song, start a Facebook group, make a Youtube video, debate, make a comic, put up a poster, just spread the word--it doesn't matter what you do, just do something! It doesn't have to consume your life, just make it a part of your life.

And for those of you who recognize that we're growing up in a time unlike any other; a time where possibilities are endless and you can truly do anything you set your mind; that our generation has the possibility to do something legendary; I invite you to come along with the rest of already making waves, sparking change, breaking free of societies constraints, and each doing it our own individual way. It aint everybody, but I assure you, there's more of us then you think.

Welcome to the G.R.A.
-Rage the Rebel

"Every generation needs a new revolution." - Thomas Jefferson