614 martial law might not look like what you think

When martial law arrives, it might not look like what we think.

Sometimes I like to remove the labels to see what might be really going on. 

Our language has a strong control over our thoughts. How we see the world around us is "framed" by the language we use to describe it. 

Language is coded with all of the good and bad of human culture: Euro-centrism and scarcity, equality and abundance. Which words we pick change our impression of the world we are witnessing. 

"A missionary spreading the good news to unsaved souls" sounds a lot different than "a foreign cult leader poisoning innocent minds." But they're both describing the same thing.

When we remove the labels, we might not see the truth, but maybe we get a bit closer. Or attempt to. 

"An outsider attempting to convince a group that they're wrong and their right" is another way of describing the missionary's situation, but it removes the labels of religion and nationality that have deep ties for most of us. 

Lately, in opposite world, we have a lot of labels being thrown around. Often in deliberate attempts to scare. Terrorist. Dictator. Communist. Fascist.

Many of these labels have us continuing to argue out a culture war, when most of us are victims in a financial siege. 

Many of these labels, like "white," have us unconsciously buying into a system of oppression. Even when we think we're being woke. Even when we think we're being an ally. "White" is a term of other-ing, other-ing is a system of oppression. "White" was invented to unify various European-descende.d people against people from other parts of the world. "White" was sold as a way of feeling better about yourself, even if you're getting the shit end of the stick.

As many of us sit and cringe at the latest news coming out of our phones, or gloat, depending on which labels you choose to identity with, now is a fine time to look at some situations we're in and remove the labels. 

So here we go. 

When martial law arrives, it might not look like what we think. The same with revolution, or protest. 

Currently, a lot of us are bemoaning the end of democracy in the United States. We have an apparent dictator on the rise throwing out the norms traditions and laws we have known throughout our lives. There are lots of people joining him, and many opposing him, but  seemingly powerless to do anything.

On the other hand, a lot of us are celebrating the winner of a democratic election, who is fighting the deep state to create or recreate a country unburdened by bureaucratic regulations. 

Those are all labels. 

What do we have if we remove the labels? 

People staring at their phones. 

Some like what they see, some don't. 

What are we seeing? People sitting in their cars, bemoaning. People in suburban kitchens, celebrating. People sitting in front of bookshelves, expert analyzing. People walking in nature, advising. People watching other videos, pointing and laughing, reacting, digesting, amplifying. 

But the most common element to it all is we're looking at our phones constantly. If you want to know who's taking over the world, it's your phone.

One of the scary things we're looking for in our current scary political environment, is for a dictator to trump up some sort of emergency, and declare martial law. Take away our most basic rights to freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of movement. 

Well that happened the first time we had this particular president. I've never been locked in my house before, told I can't go to work, until March of 2020, when we had a pandemic. It was labeled as a health crisis. Whatever it was, I was told to stay home. And I did. 

Some people saw that moment and labeled it as liberal scientists and elected officials lashing out against the conservative president. They defied the stay-at-home orders, they ignored wearing masks.

Some people saw the stay-at-home orders of the Pandemic as a necessary scientific step to protect vulnerable groups, to preserve lives and ultimately the economy and functioning society.

What did you see if you remove the labels? 

Government telling us what to do. A test of power. Control. 

Or possibly, one hell of a protest movement. A general strike. People taking time off until the government had to relent and send us checks.

Now play that out into the future. When martial law comes, or protest, or revolution, it might not be labeled as such. 

I don't know what it will be. I don't know what we'll call it. I don't know what they'll call it. I don't know what the cause will be, I don't know what the answer will be. 

But I do have some ideas for gauging what is actually happening to us. Without whatever label it's given. We can ask simple questions.

Questions like, "Do I have more freedom now, or did I before?" 

"Do I have more rights now, or did I before?" 

"Do I have more happiness now, or did I before?" 

"Do I have more love now, or did I before?" 

"Do I have more friends and family now, or did I before?" 

"Do I have more of my needs met now, food, housing, healthcare, or did I before?"