This Is My Rifle: 6 Steps to Change the World

It’s been 6 months since my “This Is My Rifle” column first made it’s debut right here on RefinedHype and I can honestly say my life will never be the same. When Nathan S. first approached me about writing a column for the site, I was excited but at the same time I was nervous about sharing my personal opinions, since I am an artist and my not-so-popular theories could alienate potential fans of my music. Being an artist and also a person with a strong sense of values and principles can be a hard thing to balance at times because you always find yourself walking the fine-line between what’s best for you personally and what’s best for your career. You have to be careful of what you say and do publicly because if you push too much against public opinion you run the risk of doing irreversible damage to your career.

So needless to say, this entire column was a gamble for me. Since I’m still in the “working my way up” phase of my career, most artists in my position would be as delicate as humanly possible. Minimal personality, maximum agreeability is what I call it. But I, on the other hand, decided to do the opposite; I threw caution to the wind and let the crazy come all the way out. To say that I’m ecstatic to have come across so many intelligent people who have embraced the column is an understatement. Whether you agree with me or not, I appreciate every single comment, email, tweet and facebook message I receive in regards to both my music and the articles.

One commenter in particular has taken on the role of being my intellectual rival. He is the Boston Red Sox to my New York Yankees. From fact checking to correcting grammatical errors, he’s made sure that I am 100% on-point every single week, and if not, he’s made sure that I and everybody else reading knows about it. Last week he made the observation that I always sound angry and rather than point out what’s wrong with the world, I should devote more of my time to finding ways to fix it.

The truth is, I am angry and a lot of what I write comes out of that anger. There are days that I wish I could go back and unlearn a lot of what I know because the weight of what our world has become is too much to deal with. Even just having basic conversations with a lot of people has become a frustrating ordeal. Not because I think they’re stupid, but mostly because they can’t see the system that they’re lost in and it makes me angry to see so many good people blindly walking into the slaughter.

So today I’m going to write a comprehensive list of things we can do to actively change the world around us. Ways in which we can make a lasting impact with little to no effort at all. While I’m sure there are much larger actions we can take, the list below is just a few things that we can do in our daily lives to effectively bring an end to the tyranny of corporate rule.

Ronin, this one’s for you buddy.

6) EAT ORGANIC FOODS - The first step in this process is cutting fast food (McDonald’s, KFC, Taco Bell, etc) out of your diet completely. Since most of the food on their menus are made of chemicals, salt and sugar, aside from not feeding your money to the corporate machine, you’re also making a positive choice for your personal health. Next, make an effort to purchase only organic meats, fruits and vegetables. If you live in an area near local farms, drive out that way and ask where you will find the farmer’s market. Most small family owned farms will sell their products there and I can guarantee you this is really the only way to find truly organic food. If you live in the city and not near any rural areas, farmer’s markets and small butcher shops are still a safe bet, but be sure to read the labels on anything you’re purchasing. A lot of the big corporations own subsidiary “organic” companies that are literally selling the same product with a different sticker. Do some research and find companies that have a solid track record, preferably those that deal with smaller farms. Having spent many of my summers growing up on my Grandmother’s farm, I can tell you that eating organic foods will stimulate both your mental and physical health in ways you never knew possible. By supporting local farmers you’re also taking money away from the huge corporations, telling them that you’re not ok with eating chemically altered, genetically modified garbage and putting money back into the pockets of family owned businesses. Plus, because their products are locally produced, you’ll save money. Everybody wins.

5) TURN OFF THE TELEVISION - It’s a simple concept but also an extremely effective way to shut the corporations down. Massive conglomerates own all of the television networks and propaganda is their strongest weapon. Between the news programs, sitcoms, reality shows and commercials, TV is literally a 24-hour corporatist, brainwashing conveyor belt. Everything they want you to purchase, think and feel is fed to you at a pace so fast and overwhelming you don’t even notice it. If you have programs that you have to watch and can’t bear to miss (in my case, The Office, South Park and The Ultimate Fighter), there are various sites on the internet where you can stream new episodes almost as soon as they appear on television. Most of these sites have advertisers but their presence is minimal. If you like to keep up with world news and current events, sites like reuters.com and bbc.co.uk are always up to date and fairly accurate. If you’re like me and you’re extra suspicious of mainstream news sources, Alex Jones’ infowars.com is the place to be. There is also yet another alternative to television: books. Yeah, those things with words on pages that require only your eyes and imagination for entertainment. If you aren’t already making your way through one (and if you’re reading this article, you probably are), you should pick one up sometime. Who knows, you just might like it.

4) PURCHASE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY - Let’s be honest, nobody needs 50 different pairs of Jordans. Yeah, it’s nice to have a variety of expensive things but greed and excess are the benchmark traits that the corporate elite feed on. In their eyes you are nothing more than a slave, created to work for their companies and then put your hard earned money back into their pockets. To put it simply, you were born to buy. So make your impact by not spending everything you earn on things you don’t need. A few pairs of shoes for different occasions is more than enough. It’s entirely possible to be fashionable and aware at the same time. Minimize your purchases and invest your money in things that will help you progress as a person. Whatever it may be, it’ll be a lot more rewarding than a closet full of shit you never use.

3) BE CONSUMER CONSCIOUS - When you do purchase material goods, be conscious of where the product is coming from and whom it benefits. Do some research into the corporations that you’re supporting. Nine times out of ten I guarantee that you will not like what you find. Remember, most of the major brands are all owned by the same small handful of corporations. Make an effort to support companies that have good humanitarian and environmental track records. Stay away from Wal-Mart and make your purchases at small local businesses. If you have no choice but to shop at the large department stores, try and buy domestic goods. You will still be giving your money to the corporations but you will also be pumping money back into your country’s economy as well as helping to put an end to the brutal and inhumane foreign sweatshops. Overall, just be aware of what you’re contributing to at all times.

2) TAKE NATURAL MEDICINE - There is a silent evil that exists in North America and one that I will be exposing in this column in the near future. The evil that I’m referring to is the pharmaceutical companies. These corporations are at the very center of the corrupt corporatist system that we live in and they have every single human being in this continent (and most of the modern world) on a string. They have manipulated us so much that we now believe the only solution to all of our problems is in the form of a pill filled with chemicals and other agents that do nothing but harm rather than heal. The pharmaceutical industry is a multi-billion dollar business fueled by a perpetually sick population. It’s their job to keep us unhealthy (curing disease = loss of profits) and they cannot be trusted under any circumstance. You can fight back against this industry by taking natural medicines. Again, do some research and find natural alternatives to pharmaceuticals. Whatever your ailment may be, there is a natural remedy for literally every single disease on this planet. If the universe creates something that will hurt you, it also will create something to cure it. The basic law of the universe is balance and it always occurs, no matter what.

1) DON’T VOTE - This is the big one. Even though your vote doesn’t count (trust me, it doesn’t) you can send a huge message by not going to the polls. It’s through this way that we can openly show that we don’t approve of our system. If enough people fall silent and don’t support any of it, it forces the politicians and the corporations that feed them into submission. At the end of the day, we have the power and it’s through our deafening silence that we can send the biggest message. They need us to fall for their bullshit hook, line and sinker. When we ignore them it scares them because they know that we’re aware of what they’re up to and we’re gonna go our own way. Basically, the corporations and politicians are the equivalent of an insecure teenage girl.

I know it’s almost impossible to actively apply all of the points outlined above to our daily lives. But if we even make a slight effort in one of those areas, we are taking steps towards creating a positive outcome. Changing the world will not happen overnight but it’s something that is within our power to achieve, one tiny decision at a time. It’s through our silence and our pocketbooks that our revolution will occur. Our refusal to comply and accept this system is the only way to dramatically alter it. If just 5% of the combined Canadian and American populations took action, the result would be astronomical. I personally believe it’s our duty to strive for truth and freedom. We were not born for mediocrity; it’s something that we all fell into at an early age. This is our opportunity to do something that none before us were able to accomplish.

Let’s show the world what “Change” and “Hope” really means.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his most recent album, "Marvelous World Of Color", here and you can contact him here and here.)