33 years ago today, a group called the Weather Underground bombed a police station in New York in response to officers killing Clifford Glover, a black 10 year old. This was just one attack from the group, in a series of bombings that started several years earlier and continued for several years more. The Weather Underground was just one of a series of groups.

These were not foreign revolutionaries, or people from oppressed groups, they were middle to upper class white kids, violently reacting to what they saw as the unjust actions of a corrupt state. Whether justified or vilified, their actions sprung from passionate anger brought on by real, tangible events happening all around them. Thousands of youth around the nation were protesting, rioting, marching, and generally making it difficult for law enforcement across the board.

Growing up in middle class suburban America, attending public school from kindergarten through high school, I never heard of these people. It's as if that whole section of America's history was cut out of the textbooks. Sure we learned about the Vietnam War...or at least saw the pictures.Watergate came up a few times.

But these people, these Americans, violently retaliated for the actions of their government. Never did they claim their goal was the destruction of this country, but rather to expose and react to the government's misdeeds.

I did learn about Prozac in high school, first hand, through experience. I learned the side effects of Ritalin, and the ensuing zombie like state. I remember losing all my drive and sense of exploration or innovation. I recall that most of the school day was spent preparing to learn, or arranging things so that learning could take place. I don?t recall very much information at all, from my days in school.

Then I remember going to college. So much movement, so much activity. People finally free from their parents and living on their own. Interacting, experimenting, embracing new feelings and new ideas.

Yet, still no passion. Sure a few people might be angry about the war in Iraq, making independent photo montages about how 9/11 was a hoax and Bush is an idiot. No mass rallys, no violent retaliation to speak of, just the occasional blog or concert, which all seem to end up really being about m
ovies and beer.

So what happens when the youth are unable to process the events around them, but are doped down on regulatory drugs and a constant influx of visual and audio stimuli? My generation.

Our country is huge, its influence unparalleled. We have our hands in just about everything. My generation has its hands on video games, beer bottles, tv remotes, coffee cups, joints, and each other.

Are we not speaking out because theres nothing to say, or because we don?t know how to say anything, and dont have the desire to Have the pharmaceutical and media powers in this country risen on a platform of mind control for the benefit of the state? In the early 1900?s this countries government openly admitted they could not longer control the people through force and would need to find an alternative.

Maybe one found them. Just look at the public relations industry, which deals in billions of dollars every year. The government takes full advantage of their services, an industry who?s creed has always been, "Controlling the public mind".1

I'll tell you this much, if youre being influenced by powers you?re not aware of, you will be the last person to know. You religiously watch your favorite show, take a few tokes without hurting your conscious, make sure your new health plan has good prescription coverage and throw up a blog post here and there about how much you hate the war in Iraq (although you know as much about it as you do the war in Vietnam).

We are disconnected, disinterested, and dedicated to doing nothing. Thats my generation.

Is there solution? Absolutley, its the same one thats always been there. Self-education. Ask questions, taking nothing for granted. I try and remember what Oswald Chambers said, "Always make a practice of provoking your own mind to think out what it accepts easily. Our position is not ours until we make it ours by suffering."2

If you are under the control of an institution or influenced by forces you do not see, it's your fault. It's your mind, use it. You have a promise from the only truly honest Person in the universe, that if you seek the Truth, you'll find it. Don?t take that for granted.

1. For more information on this conept, see Noam Comsky's "Media Control" speech, available here.
2. To read Oswald Chamber's "My utomost For His Highest" online, go here.