Archives for October 2017

On Becoming a Revolutionary

October 9, 2017 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I’ve referred to this old post recently, so I thought I would resurrect it to a position in the RM archives as well.

After all, it’s a post on becoming a revolutionary, which certainly is a relevant concept…

What is it about Latin America that tugs so hard on the heart strings?

In my own experience I can testify that there is some mysterious quality about this region that makes it irresistibly addicting.

Yes…I’m a Latin America junkie!

I’ve traveled around it a bit, having spent time in Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia and, of course, Costa Rica.

But I know that there’s so much more to see and experience.

One of my favorite movies is The Motorcycle Diaries, which chronicles the travels of a young Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Alberto Granado as they embark on a journey of self-discovery, traveling from Argentina to Venezuela on an old beat up motorcycle they named, La Poderosa (or the almighty one).

I love to travel and when I do, like Guevara and Granado, I like to get down and dirty and find out what life is all about in the places I visit. Maybe that’s one reason I came here in 2001 and never left.

Towards the end of the movie, while Guevara and Granado are spending time as volunteers in the San Pablo leper colony on the banks of the Amazon in Peru, Guevara makes a farewell speech in which he speaks of a united Latin America, a speech which forecasts the later events of his life.

Of course, it’s well known that Guevara went on to join Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba and was ultimately captured and executed in Bolivia under the direction of the CIA.

Guevara was a Marxist, hated by the U.S. for trying to spread the evil of communism throughout Latin America. But Guevara was more than anything else, an idealist.

He believed in armed revolution as the solution to social injustice.

[I believe he was wrong on that point, by the way.]

Throughout history Latin America has spawned its dictators and its revolutionaries. There just seems to be something about this place that ignites a higher than normal level of passion…and that can be infectious.

The passion of Latin America is evident in its wars and revolutions, legendary outlaws like Pablo Escobar, music, poetry and literature from the likes of Pablo Neruda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and in many other ways.

It is an alluring and exotic place, filled with beautiful people, danger, romance and adventure.

I have a few good reasons to leave this place and go “home.”

But the problem is that Latin America has taken hold of me. It’s like being hopelessly in love and once that happens to you, you just can’t leave.

It’s not that easy.

If you do you are going to pay a heavy price, maybe for the rest of your life.

The price of always longing for what was.

The price of always wondering what could have been.

Sure I can leave Latin America, but that longing will remain in my heart. And if I tried I’m sure that before long I’d return.

I believe there are others who know exactly what I’m talking about.

There’s a strange and mysterious spell that’s cast on anyone who comes here and falls in love with this place. It changes you.

Material pursuit isn’t what drives you anymore.

You become an idealist.

You become a revolutionary.

You become like Che Guevara.

photo credit: [osto] via Compfight cc

The Inciting Incident

October 6, 2017 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

On September 17, 2011 a group of young rabble-rousers pitched some tents in Zuccotti Park in the heart of Manhattan’s financial district. Their intention? To “Occupy Wall Street.” Their ultimate goal? Bring attention to social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the perceived undue influence of corporations on government. Were they successful?

The attempt was immediately dismissed by entrenched powers of the status quo as a bunch of anarchist hippie wannabes who really only wanted an excuse to get high.

But they did get the world’s attention. And the drama that ensued created scenarios as surreal as those revealing the disparity in wealth of the Capitol against the poverty of District 12 in the Hunger Games.

I admit deep feelings of kindred spirit with the OWS movement. Like I have said many times recently, Revolutionary Misfit also desires to bring attention to things like social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the perceived undue influence of corporations on government.

But there is a difference. One problem that the OWS movement faced was in deciding exactly what change they wanted and how in the world it could be practically implemented. It sort of had the makings of a typical union strike where the employees decide to cause enough disruption that management has no choice but to cave into their demands. But OWS would have had to have caused a lot more disruption than several thousands of tents pitched inside a park to get the entire financial apparatus of the largest economy in the world to cave into their elusively expressed demands.

I have no visions of such Tahrir Square-like grandeur. In fact, the only change I want to inspire is inside the heads of potential followers of this blog. That is change that is indeed practical and possible and can actually and ultimately have world changing reverberations.

The only change I want to inspire is inside the heads of potential followers of this blog. That is change that is indeed practical and possible and can actually and ultimately have world changing reverberations.

A change from within…rather than without…if you will.

So what is the inciting incident for the Revolutionary Misfits? All revolutions need one. I can’t really say it’s one thing in particular. For me, the instigator of this blog and the idea of impact mindfulness, the “incident” really is an amalgamation of happenings that helped form a world-view. Many have taken place over the course of my lifetime. But what brought it to a more current event-related head is the fact that the world, all of a sudden, seems headed in a disastrous direction.

The economic collapse of 2008 is certainly an indicator. Also, the fact that global warming is not just a cool documentary anymore…it has become a reality we face on a day to day basis. Global income disparity is rapidly widening to gulf-like proportions. At the same time dictators are falling under the weight of Facebook and Twitter inspired and organized protests. The ability to have an amplified voice is at our disposal like no time ever before in the history of mankind.

It seems that the universe is crying out for people to have an impact.

It is giving us this chance and it might just be our last. I don’t mean to sound apocalyptic, but really things are sort of fucked up. And really, it is within our power, and maybe even it is our duty, to say something and do something about it.

Revolutionary Misfit seeks a change. But not from one type or form of governing to another, but in one type or form of thinking to another. From one that is hell-bent on me to one that is laser-like focused on us. Making a difference for the good of us all. Having an impact and inspiring others to do no less.

The only thing Revolutionary Misfit really seeks to “occupy” is a small slice of your attention…that’s where it all has to begin.

On Fessing Up – Finally

October 3, 2017 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

My last post addressed the issue of the need to be right as the one that might be at the heart of the growing division in our country…

Today’s post is about fessing up – finally, or the admirable trait of knowing when to admit wrongness.

Sometimes we are forced to do so. Like when the facts begin to reveal themselves…

Let’s take a quick inventory and based on that, make an assessment regarding timeliness…

Just this year we’ve seen the following evidence transpire…right before our very eyes…

Racism rearing its ugly head, openly and defiantly, in ways we haven’t seen in some time…with white men holding tiki torches marching to defend the statue of a man who led a rebellion against America, resulting in its bloodiest war, in order to defend the right to enslave humans…

and in the aftermath of the ensuing chaos, a President who saw “good people” on both sides of that issue…

Back to back…to back…category 5 hurricanes and catastrophic once in a thousand-year level flooding with widespread damage and resulting human misery…

A President who insults just about everyone, almost daily, with his twitter feed, in ways that would make Don Rickles blush…and in ways that threaten to ignite global nuclear conflict…

Another worst mass shooting in history by a fellow citizen with an arsenal of weapons that allowed him to mow down almost 60 people in less then 16 minutes…

And despite all that you have this entrenched ultra right-wing who just can’t bring themselves to admit a few things, such as…

That racism really is a pernicious problem in American culture…

That global warming is a real and increasing threat to our lives…

That our sitting President is more than a bit unhinged…

That banning assault weapons makes perfectly good sense, will save (and would’ve saved) many lives, and doing so does not negate the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution in any way.

The last post made what I believe to be the salient point that it’s the stories we tend to tell (and attach ourselves to) that give rise to this reluctance against fessing up…

But sometimes the facts just speak for themselves too loudly to be ignored.

It’s sort of like the scientific method. Now, I’m not a scientist, but I do know it works something like this…

One scientist proposes a theory. At this point it’s no more than an educated guess or hypothesis…in other worlds…a “story”…

That theory is put to the test. It is subject to ridicule and rejection by the rest of the scientific community.

If the theory is able to weather that storm it gets to become accepted truth…a scientific fact.

If not? Well then it’s swept into the dustheap of rejected scientific history.

I don’t mean to pick on the right-wing here…well, maybe I do…perhaps I should.

You see, it seems there are some stories that they’re clinging to that have now been shown to be just flat out wrong.

Many of their stories are failing the fact test.

However, it appears that rather than to be willing to let them go, as any good and honest scientist would in the face of overwhelming factual evidence, they just cling to them all the harder…

They claim that any evidence (or “news”) to the contrary is not factual…it’s fake news they clamor!

Now just imagine if scientists operated that way. Imagine the chaos it would cause in the world!

The very idea of scientific truth would cease to exist.

Every theory (or story) would hold claim to truth and its proponents would take the position that any factual evidence to the contrary is contrived.

I dare say that this breakdown in the scientific method would produce a world that you and I would not want to live in!

Well, this breakdown in political thought is pretty much creating that same level of chaos in our society and our world.

Where will this ultimately lead us?

Not sure about that one…I’m still holding out hope that these folks will come around…

I’ve still got faith that as the factual evidence grows to overwhelming proportions…as it surely is…

that fessing up – finally will appear to be their only option.

Archives for October 2017

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