An Open Letter to Revolutionaries

Dear revolutionaries,

Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud and the father of modern propaganda, believed the opinions of the masses must be managed by elites. He believed a society can’t survive without being controlled.

But who are we if we don’t even try?

Asserting our freedom is a daunting thing, because then we are burdened with responsibility. We can no longer relax against the scaffolding of a culture built to coddle us, to manufacture risklessness. The United States of Adult Day Care is over.

It’s not with revolutionary zeal but with awe and humility that we must assume this new power. We are all burdened now.

We must acknowledge the comfort of living in a world rigged by elites — there’s a certain relief that whatever goes wrong, it wasn’t our fault, and we can’t do anything about it. We can play at manliness, shoot guns and shout slogans, without having to reflect on what the real battles are, and whether we’ve ever fought in them.

Those days are over.

Our only comfort now is our worthiness of the power we assume.

My personal experience is that Truth is real. It exists, it’s a force of nature. It harmonizes and blesses and loves, and God is behind it. When the burden of power weighs on you, I encourage you to simply seek honesty — and that often means seeking God. If you don’t know what it is that you don’t know, pray.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe — Truth itself will respond to your desire to know it.

Love you.

—Mike