Provocation

A thought that just came to me... Some individuals, whether to "prove a point" or to "protest" engage in provocation of another individual or a group of individuals. sOMetimes this even goes as far as to blatantly pull the chain of police officers or soldiers in a way so that they are "forced" to be "aggressive" and/or retaliatory towards them. These activists then go out with the clear intention of creating the instant of the agents of the "system" being bullies and brainwashed robots of the oppressors. I understand the desire to enact change and to be seen as a face of change in the world considering everything that is going on these days. Everything is overwhelming us on all levels. The world is changing and sometimes it feels like it is stuffy to the point of explosion. It seems as if everyone is caught in a spinning vortex of dizzy bewilderment. The anxieties and the intensities have been clearly expressing themselves in many forms on many levels. The whole idea of being "passive" has been created to be at best apathetic and at worse lazy and not giving a shit about the world. There is a place for everything and everything has its place, yet one thing that has been going through my mind is the issue of provocation... To provoke is to create a tension. When someone or some being is provoked, that being lashes out and the being (whether guilty or not) is forced to pay the consequences. There is a recent news story about a bear and two monkeys in a Shanghai park who were forced to engage in a bike race. sOMething happened and the bear got freaked out and maimed one of the monkeys. This is a perfect illustration of the confines and artificial confinement and the danger of provocation in such a situation. All over the world beings at all levels are dealing with the tension of uncertainty and confinement. Another well known example is bull fighting. This is a very good example. You confine an animal and tempt and lure it and attack it and it becomes an aggressor that the audience can cheer down and when the bullfighter eventually, always, achieves his "victory," then the mad angry bull is tossed aside. God forbid any provoked animal reacts to the provocation...At that time it becomes that which is wrong and must be attacked and disposed of. Ok, so back to the point. I find much that needs to be made more mature in contemporary activism. To me it must begin with a deep groundedness. I don't believe that any successful activism can go into it with aggression, of of course this is "well meaning" aggression, inspired by love, but it needs to go a bit deeper... Good moments for reflection can really create beautiful art. Progress is often small. How can we know progress and get what we desire if we are not mindful of it? Anger toward the injustice is not sufficient alone. Sometimes it makes the angry person look like someone who is running around with his or her head cut off. I think it is important to remember the momentary interactions of the day, and all the small, meaningful ways one can enact change in the world. It is simply perhaps to just be a peaceful inspiring presence? One of the best ways to do this is to take the time to create a space to allow someone to just tell their perspective without worrying that they will be judged or criticized for their views. There can be many ways to do this during a day. It can bee as simple as spending a couple of minutes listening to someone on the sidewalk share a bit of his or her frustrations about their life. Really consider this...consider the universe and all that is in it. In the most expansive totality all the minute semantics that we get heavily into and invest with so much emotion, as if our little rage of the moments really makes a big difference... Yes, activism must consider the bigger picture. Perhaps it should in tune with thee cosmic consciousness. The whole notion of a cosmic consciousness is a beautiful thing. Look out side at the sun or the moon and the stars. Whenever you can during the day, allow your inner visionary to emerge. It is all good. It is a big expansive pulse of existence that can push us into it. So, then how important is it really to expend so much time and stress in trying to create a scenario where you can catch, on tape, a police officer or whatever abusing you? What, really is the point about the whole idea to create a great activist movement? Reflect on this, reflect on the truth of what activism means and reflect on what happens when one gets too involved and/or congested in some idealistic concept. It is very easy to get caught up in our stuff. However it manifests. No one has the right to walk around in smug superiority of his or her position. No one can claim to say that he or she has the upper, more noble position. It is just that, a position and in the universe there are many positions. Some of these positions, and perspectives are so grand and so far out side what we can even understand now from our own perspective, where we sit now.