December 2025
This isn’t academic, I have no grounds or credentials to explain how a thing works or what it’s all about. What I have is personal experience, intuition, & memories - which sometimes have patterns and guide me towards conclusions, of which I have corroborated and confirmed with various activists, poets, freaks, and philosophers. I trust them with everything, to the point where our lives and histories got all tangled up into one drawling narrative - a torn and tattered coattail of Protest- Consciousness. (I’m still brand new to it and I don’t know much, but I have found if you hold onto those coattails tightly enough you can hitch a ride on PC’s shoulders, and throw your body into its tall boots, adding a couple inches to the mass of dead egos that pile upon themselves, condensing our only confirmed human fate into living, breathing solidarity). You want in? Here, hitch a ride.
Protest Baby, Step 1: Accept with complete finality the infeasibility of our predicament. We are working within a system which exists to crush and dissimilate any and all Outsiders. You are likely to be crushed emotionally, completely drained, and totally ostracized. But don’t cry, baby! Remember when you could only crawl around helplessly, unable to make words, but only babbling? When nobody knew what you were crying about, and everybody was taller than you? It might have seemed impossible then, but you studied the ABC’s, you learned how to walk and speak and make friends. You’ve been here before, right? at the impasse of the known and the unknown? Step 1: Shake off your fears. Take the leap.
While you’re falling off the cliff… Step 2: Befriend other sky divers. You can do this before you take the leap or during. Join hands with a group of dedicated friends before you jump, or roll around in the sky till you stumble upon a few other solo-divers. Either way, it is imperative to make a genuine commitment at this point. Develop a set of goals with your friends, hone in on your unique strengths and weaknesses. Be trusting and kind to your comrades and check in on each other consistently and patiently (you are falling off a cliff together, after all). Be completely open to radical change within yourself and your ideals. Set your goals as far out as you can possibly dream, or just start small. It’s completely up to you - what do you want to do here? Raise awareness for a topic you’re passionate about, or raise funds, implement structural change? Organize a protest or a sit-in, vote your way to the top, topple the whole empire at the seams? Are you making physical change or are you working with the hearts and minds of other people? Make your commitments and stick to it. Encourage and support your friends, and affirm within yourself constantly, for example: I am committed to the liberation of myself and all beings everywhere, or, I will work towards the happiness and health of the human race, or, I will play in the ever-changing world of birth and death, never forgetting my Deathless Essence. Employ any and all psychological tools or methods to further your confidence and commitment to life and goodness. Start to gradually expand your consciousness beyond preconceived limitations.
Step 3, take your first steps: Delve into your idea, pace out the plan, look ahead and prepare for potential mishaps. See if something like your idea has been done before, and who can support you along the way. Look towards your peers for support, seek allies and advice from the wise. Research not only the political history of your immediate environment, but also the political history surrounding and pervading the entire culture of protest. Read your friend’s poems. Delight in your unique role in the great dance of existence. Know your role, but don’t get sucked into it. Play with ideas like Good & Evil and never take anything too seriously. Always be honest with yourself.
Step 4, stick the landing: Mmm, delicious nothingness, can you taste freedom within the landscape of unfolding mirrors? You’ve taken your first steps and made conscious decisions to protest the tamasic normalcy of Establishment. Congratulations, Outsider, the FBI is now on your tail. Remember your commitment! Be a freak, embrace your weirdness, express yourself as Joy and be kind to everyone everywhere. And then you’re suddenly untouchable, by the way. You can protest, you can participate, you can put your body on the line, you can stand alone against an impenetrable bureaucracy, you can think for yourself and reject all hatred, you can shout and scream and say NO with burning anger, and simultaneously with burning love, knowing love is life and eternal. Knowing it’s all a dream and you’re the dreamer, learning how to dance all over again. Nothingness nothingness nothingness… You wrote it this way, didn’t you?
Step 5 (and this is the really fun part): Watch the dance go on, continuously disconnecting your consciousness from the limited human condition and re-identifying with the cosmic sea of life. It starts with disappointment, then commitment, then heartbreak, then love, then a gradual, quiet, dawning realization of who you are and what you’re a part of. Observe with awe the transformation of your protest from the physical plane to the furthest reaches of the cosmos, and you will find that love is the only way through. Attend that peace protest with peace in your heart - it’s not going to work any other way. So now that we're all tangled up in this narrative…
Step 6: Ummmm. You got any ideas?