Redefine the "American Way of Life"
Wake up from the American Dream. We've all arrived at school in our underclothes and our classmates are pointing and laughing. Only, we're not in panties, but wearing every garment we've ever owned and we've dragged our dressing tables and shoeshine boxes behind all the way.
We talk through the lecture and take phone calls during exams. We are, in short, burdened and distracted; defined by the accumulation of things rather than the manner in which we think. It's as though we now think in things, in terms of things. Our expression is by way of things and our security is defined by the surety of things. Can we call ourselves a free nation when we are so strapped-in by the bridle of material evidence?
I think not.
If we could fight this local war on terror with only two words, they would be: Have Less.
Stuff is padding against the world. It creates a barrier between the possesors and all that surround them. Tear down the walls of stuff, the mountains of accumulation. Exist within the environment. As Americans, we should be a nation of active producers, not pale, passive consumers. We should produce ideas, hopes, inventions of all kind. And most importantly, we have the power to produce peace, rather than consume war. So be productive, produce a laugh, a smile a warm feeling for someone else. This should be our American way of life, untethered from the price of gas or tea in China. Have less, live more and keep fighting — it's going to be a long war.
