Revolistion: List #1: Question of Sanity

Some of you said that you wanted some unfiltered, short-and-to-the point reading that you could chew on. Enter Revolistion, a column that will now be in every issue for your enjoyment and contemplation.

If half the shit that goes through my mind now were presented to me ten years ago, I’d swiftly declare that whoever thinks those thoughts clearly is in need of some strong psychiatric meds.

I wear a face mask to protect myself and others from disease, but I can definitively tell you that if I find myself suddenly living under an authoritarian regime, I will switch to a full face Halloween mask and rarely leave my house.

So many people I know have gone from anti-gun pacifists to owning one or more guns, including me. Most of us are female, LGBTQ+ or minorities.

If you identify as an intuitive or psychic, but are in denial about climate change, I call bullshit.

I am considering learning Krav Maga so that I know how to defend myself. I study the Tao Te Ching to find peace and understanding in the midst of chaos. These are conflicting philosophies. It’s hard not to be at war with yourself when the reality you see is the opposite of what you were taught to expect when you were a kid.

Sometimes when I get on a city bus, I enter an in-between space where people still read, read, smile, and yes, even have conversations with themselves. At rush hour, though, it’s just a tin can full of dead-eyed robots staring at boxes.  Did the organized drive for ultra-productivity and constant busyness do this? Or is it all flashing lights and beeps and poison like Vegas, and we’re just junkies for it? Either way, I guarantee you it didn’t happen on accident.

If you found out that you were probably going to die in five years, would you:

A.      Go into denial and pretend everything was fine until one day you just drop dead while in line at Dutch Bros.

B.      Quit your job, max out your credit card, buy as many fun drugs as possible and party until the money runs out.

C.      Focus on living the best life possible, work only when necessary, and make this last five years the best time of your life.

What if you weren’t definitely going to die in five years, but life would most likely get extremely hard after that time?

What if you weren’t going to die right now, but the planet you live on was going to quickly and forcefully become less inhabitable and in danger of collapse? Because that time is now. What are you going to do?

So many people are too busy taking selfies and commenting on things online to ask themselves the important questions. And to answer without Googling it, after a period of contemplation.

I dare you to risk having someone dislike you, today. I want you to go to that person who has the perfect Instagram-filtered life that you know and tell them something about yourself that you would normally never post online. Tell them that you pick your nose while you drive and that sometimes, you wave your farts in your own direction to see what they smell like. Do it, it’s freeing.

Think about what you would do if you were under surveillance daily. Then, consider doing that, immediately. Because you are under surveillance, daily.