http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/07/afraid-of-our-own-power.html

We The People have the power. And yet we're letting a bunch of tin-pot dictators have their way, and we're not lifting a darn finger.

I mean, millions upon millions of Americans are disgusted with the neocons and neoliberals running the government. The vast majority of the public -- that's hundreds of millions of people -- think that the current "leadership" is driving us over a cliff, and understand that the people at the helm are thugs who should be thrown out on their ears.

And yet nothing's happening. Congress is putting on a nice dog-and-pony show, but impeachment is "off the table", and the Democratic Congress has proven that it is more interested in enforcing the status quo and winning the 2008 elections than actually standing up for American values and actually changing anything.

But we've still got the power to change things in a heartbeat. Don't believe me?

Well, if people carried out civil disobedience, or stopped paying taxes, the government would grind to a halt. The whole deck of cards would come crashing down on these boneheads.

Or if a small percentage of people who are upset -- say a half a million people (that's only around one-sixth of one percent of the disgruntled masses) -- marched down to to the White House, they could blockade the exits until the old boys agreed to start following the rule of law again.*

Indeed, even some of the traditionally pacifist blogs are starting to talk about the "R" word.

So why aren't people doing anything to throw the bums out?

Everyone knows that one reason is that Americans have gotten fat and lazy. Sure, the folks in New Orleans have suffered unimaginable horrors. And the poor have gotten the shaft. And the Constitution ain't what it used to be.

But most of us don't think we'll ever personally have to suffer the effects of fascism, we've gotten warm and sleepy due to America's long-rich economy (we don't realize where the economic signs are pointing to), and we don't want to get up out of our comfortable sofa and do anything.

But I believe there is also another reason: we're afraid of our own power. If we got off our behinds and actually took control of our own destiny then . . . we'd be responsible, we'd be in charge, we'd be the adults running the country.

In other words, we'd have to abandon our adolescent fantasy that benevolent parent-figures are running things. Or we'd have to abandon our teenage-level "rebelliousness", the type of rebelliousness that is full of sound and fury, but doesn't really change anything, because it does not assume responsibility for a different way of running things.

We wouldn't be able to rest easy in the myth that our heroic forefathers and Adam Smith (the father of capitalism) did all of the hard work, and everything will work perfectly on autopilot. We wouldn't be able snooze in the myth that God set the universe in motion and that all we have to do is go to church on Sundays, and then everything will work out all right.**

But those adolescent myths aren't working, are they? While we've been snoozing and dreaming childish, happy thoughts, the thugs have been murdering us, imprisoning us for even criticizing our Dear Leader's policies, looting our piggybank, and generally destroying everything important.

Its time to grow up, people. It is time to claim our power.

The first step? It is time to take our country back from those who are destroying her. If we do that, if we awake from our slumber, then we will be able to create the world which we do want.

As the The Voice says:

"They bought the politicians and the news
They've got all the weapons (which they like to use)

But they are few and we're billions strong
We are the giant ... been sleeping for too long
Time to wake up and sing our victory song.

*I'm not advocating violence, destruction of property, or breaking any other laws. I am simply illustrating with hypothetical examples -- which I am not promoting -- that the people have the power.

**Note to religious and spiritual people: I, personally, am a person of faith. But the scriptures and true religious and spiritual teachers do NOT teach that we should be passive sheep. I believe that they instead teach that we are responsible for helping to create the kind of world we want. Even if God does most of the work, we've got to do our part also.

Did you hear the joke about the man who was in a flood, and when a Coast Guard rescue diver came, the man said "I don't need your help, God will save me"? Then when a row boat came, he said the same thing. And then when a helicopter came, he said the same thing. Finally, he drowned. And when he met Saint Peter, he demanded to know "why didn't God save me?". And Saint Peter responded, "we sent a diver, we sent a boat and we sent a helicopter. Why did you let yourself drown?"

People of faith have to do our part, also.