BURN

Buddhist monks light themselves on fire in protest, punk monks light the world on fire in protest.

It is nothing new that i have difficulty understanding the minds of a majority of human beings but lately i find myself wondering if i belong to some separate species form most of the populous. The older i get, the more i search out the truth, the more estranged from our society i feel i become.

In the past few weeks a series of flames has caught my attention.  A Buddhist monk lit himself on fire in protest of China's occupation of Tibet and the Chinese government's interference with the decisions surrounding the next incarnation of the Dalai Llama. Also, rioters across England have been lighting, well, almost anything they can on fire.  At some level i believe i  understand both of these actions, it is the public reaction to both that i am completely confused about.

For years now all i have been hearing is people complaining about the governments across our planet.  How there has been such corruption of power, how politicians have been funneling wealth to the elite, and how the majority of people are not in any way represented or thought of by those is our governments.  Across boarders and countless languages the sentiment seems to be the same.

i continuously hear people exclaiming how we should be taking to the streets and how we should not stand for this.  But when these combustive events take place with humans doing just that the armchair revolutionaries dismiss these rebels as 'crazy' or 'extremists'.  Were these rants calling for action merely fueled by alcohol or were they just talking shit while the teacher was down the hall?

Apparently drawing a Hitler moustache on a portrait of the president and parading down the street wearing a tri-cornered hat and a holstered gun is OK because in reality that is all lip-service.  Those in power positions are not at all intimidated by these actions.  The politicians know that they are just a bunch of crying, spoiled babies and that ultimately those mental midget just want to be home in time to watch prime time television while snacking on high fructose corn syrup from Wallmart.  Give them a little coddling here and there and the crocodile tears will dry up and the big kids can go back to what they were doing.

But when people start lighting shit on fire, then folks start getting scared.

These are not words or idle temper tantrums, these are actions.  More so, these are actions that can not be ignored.  This is not just waves of air which you can block from your ears.  This is the destruction of the physical, the things you value far too much.  In these cases the method of destruction is fire - something out of control, burning, illuminating.  It is an attempt to shed some light on our world to the masses whom seem to be blinded in the shadows of daily life.

The Buddhist monk knows that the body is just a perceived sense of self and holding many back from doing what they know is right.  The English rioters know that people's greedy attachment to things - their cars, stores, merchandise - keeps them from doing what they know is right.  When words no longer work, sometimes we must attempt to destroy those barricades which seem to be stopping us from taking proper action.

These flames should be melting the wax from over our eyes allowing us to see more clearly what we know we should do.  These should be pilot lights, igniting fires inside each and every one of us.  This is your life, are you going to take ownership of it?

Instead of lighting gasoline on fire to propel us in vehicles to the local shopping center we should be lighting the world on fire and illuminating the value of our lives.  We all deserve better, and it is up to us to get it.