Change is hard

Change is Hard. One of the oldest axioms running. Let's look at it closely. What does it mean and how altruistic is it?

You have all heard the stories about people who refuse to change their behavior even when they understand that it is killing them. I won't go any further than to mention three that are widely accepted in our society. Fast food. Alcohol. Tobacco. Killers all, yet condoned, promoted, supervised and subsidized by both your Big Brother Bob and Your Uncle Sam. Ask the obese, the addicted or the recovering how hard a change in life style truly is. That is our jump off point. I am going to take it a platform higher and state a few observations about our society, here on the day that Barack Obama will accept the Democratic nomination. My main need here is to try to understand why, as of this moment, he is running head to head with Mr. McCain in the polls. How the heck can this be? Why?

Because change is hard.

We have been successfully brainwashed by Rove, Cheney, two Bushes and countless neo-cons to buy into the politics, and therefore, the society, of fear. We are geldings. And as long as we remain sans testes, and max our credit cards, they giggle and cajole behind closed board room doors. Because they know that change is hard.

Because it is easier to:

Spend $4 for a Big Mac than cook your own soup.
Watch reality TV than volunteer in your community.
Listen to your iPod than listen to your spouse.
Read the paper than search for alternatives.
Drive your car than ride your bike.
Buy into rather than question.
Stay sedated than clean and sober.
Accept the loss of civil rights because of a war on terror.
Accept the loss of choice because of a war on drugs.
Accept the loss of young men and women because of a power struggle over oil.
Look the other way as torture is legalized.
Build a fence than negotiate.
Drop bombs than force dialogues.
Cheat, lie and steal than work, hope and pray.
Blame the other guy than accept responsibilities.
Make money the end instead of the means.
Not get involved than risk being called unpatriotic.
Not practice civil disobedience than risk having to hire a lawyer.
Be silently outraged than vocally appalled.
Be with them than against them.
Take the path of least resistance than the road to glory.
Do nothing than do something.
Moan, groan, bitch and complain than laugh, sing, commend and praise.
Be negative than positive.
Do the right thing than to do what is right.
Be a gelding than be a wild mustang.

So, my dear friends, it seems that 50% of the population would just as soon complain about the prices of gas, heating oil, corn flakes and milk, than suggest that there is a solution. That half of us would rather allow an illegal war to continue without accountability than to speak up in protest. That we don't mind losing our homes, our jobs, our children or our dreams. That it is somehow OK to have our government slide every day closer to fascism and a police state. That it is OK to weigh 350 pounds and think QOL is a 42 inch plasma screen. So we drink and smoke and make sure we have plenty of ammo.

Because change is hard.

And they know it, and they count on us to be spineless lemmings and be distracted by all their smoke screens. And to then avoid the one thing that we truly, desperately and immediately need: CHANGE.

But change is hard.