The Ant and the Grasshopper

I bet a lot of you watched 'A Bug's Life' at least once. I watched it while growing up, as I'm sure a fair amount of you did as well. Some of you have kids who have seen it.

I also bet that a lot of you remember the story that preceded that movie; the basis of it. The hardworking ant does so much work to provide for the colony all year round and the lazy grasshopper who did no work was unprepared and expected the ant to take care of it.

In 'A Bug's Life', we cheered for the ants and applauded Flik's courage. We booed the grasshopper who only sought to use the ants and have them put in hard work all for their own benefit while the ants suffered.

We are the ants. We work hard all year round to provide for ourselves and our families; those of us who can work. The grasshoppers at the top of the chain keep telling us it's not enough; they just can't support us in this time of need, yet we have worked hard to support them and promote them in this hierarchy of greed.

We're given luxuries and the illusion of freedom to make us apathetic; made to be cynical and untrusting, so we continue to fail to come together for a common goal. We all have to trust somebody at some point and who is there that's worth trusting in this day and age where nobility and honour are things of the past?

We're slaves from the minute we're born. We become indebted to society and will have to work the entire rest of our lives to secure any type of freedom; and even that only lasts as long as the money. We are told from birth that we're free, but if you look around you, you realize you have to pay to live.

The government keeps taking away our freedoms here and there where they can; watching for any threat against them. They are not afraid to attack the public to ensure fear, and they know how to cover it up to make it look like someone else did it.

People deep in conspiracy theories say to follow the money. They're not far off. Our vote for president does not matter. We vote and it passes through the electoral college; a group of up and coming politicians who are eager for promotion through the ranks of politics and are willing to please those who are able to make such things happen. A good amount of them come from colleges of prominence; you tend to have to come from a family of money.

Our votes go to the Electoral College and they get to decide whether or not our votes mean anything at all; they then vote how they want to regardless.

All of our presidents have come from highly acclaimed colleges that you really have to be a member of a family with money to attend. They attended private schools while growing up, which also costs a good amount of money. They are indoctrinated from an early age by these schools to run this country through politics and legalese.

The Republican and Democrat parties are the only two parties that really get noticed; again due to money. There is an almost limitless amount of money pushed forth to pay for advertising, etc. for those two parties. By the end of every election, only those two parties are left standing, because they got the most attention.

But that's just the outer shell of Government. The true power lays in Congress, which is based in Washington D.C., which is not even a part of the United States. It is a District of Columbia. They have their own convoluted methods of getting into office and all of them love the smell of money; which can conveniently be taken without anyone's knowledge because, technically, they are not in the US.

Our laws themselves are a convoluted mess that constantly undermine our Constitution and really only work to make criminals out of people who can not maneuver through the loopholes of the law and makes criminals out of people who have harmed no one and nothing. When it works, you feel reassured that the system is working, making you forget just how much they get wrong and how much they allow to go on.

Intelligent enough to run their sweatshops and work the system, but never intended to be smart enough to see through it; that was their hope. How they have manipulated the American population because they need us for support; yet abandon us when we need it most and keep cutting away that support so more and more people die and they can count it off as an 'unavoidable sacrifice' while they pursue 'greater good' around the world.

People are corrupted on a daily basis; made to be confused because they're allowed to do almost anything they want and can get away with. Nobody is really allowed to discipline their children any more due to the laws. Everyone's afraid of getting arrested for it. Or, worse yet, they truly believe their child should have everything and overlook all of the bad things they do because they're so blinded with love. Or worst yet, they don't love their children at all and do nothing but make of their lives a living hell where the children can only hope to go out and do the same instead of giving in to the call of suicide.

Eventually it's going to crumble; it's all going to fall apart. Everything they ever worked for will be gone and we'll be left to pick up the pieces and try to put it all together. No doubt, some other enterprising individual will seek to control us in similar manners, manipulating us and telling us we need government; that someone needs to run things for everyone else.

When does the cycle end? If you truly believe it can be achieved without violence, you are naive and you've fallen for what they want you to believe. I really pity you because when violence does break out; as it always does when two immovable objects collide; you will be caught by surprise; you will panic and you will almost surely perish in the ensuing chaos.

Imagine a world free of grasshoppers; free of those who only seek to take advantage of people. A world where we take care of each other and the other animals on this planet. A world where technology and education were equal for everyone and people didn't have to live in fear or insecurity, because everyone was happy and able to get along.

There is no way to get that without violence, because there is no way the people in charge will allow it to happen. It's not profitable to them; they don't get to be in charge; they don't get to have power because everyone is equal and we all have power as equals. We'll all be intelligent and knowledgeable enough not to be manipulated and corrupted into allowing others to take freedom from us. Everything we do will be by choice and it won't be pressed on us under duress.

I'm not saying to go out and start a fight or to start a war. Just wake up; be aware of what's going on. Be prepared. The more they try to stop change, the more change persists and when it finally happens, the result is infinitely more chaotic than if people had just allowed it to happen naturally. This is the result of all the negativity and hate that has been allowed to circulate because for way too damn long, the good among us have fought and then inevitably stopped fighting because we believed the fight to be over.

We, as a species, always need to remain vigilant against being taken advantage of in any way; we need to be wary of the people who know how to say the things we like to hear so they can get something from us that we inevitably fail to realize is taken until it's too late. We know how cunning and how ruthless people can be at times and lies rush ever ready to the surface when pressed by necessity.

Being a 'hero' is discouraged by society in this day and age. Bullies run things and people love to laugh at the person who tries; they wear them down until they're nothing. Meanwhile, people walk by who never do a thing to help. They do nothing out of fear, because they believe it impossible of themselves to be a hero; they believe themselves to be weak, because that's the insecurity that's inevitably driven in when we're continually overwhelmed. It's divide and conquer at its best and those with popularity from being top dog hate to give it up.

The thing is, we're all heroes if we allow ourselves to be. We are all stronger than most of us will ever realize and hopefully will never have to realize. If we all stood up at once, the bullies would be outnumbered. If we all were heroes, none of us would have to be ostracized or become so full of negativity that we become the bullies we once hated; lashing out in pain and bitterness.

The only people who are sheep are those who haven't woken up to realize that they're the lions charged with keeping the wolves away.