America is the fantastic illusion of a national democracy: one person, one vote. Amerikaos is the inescapable fact of a planetary plutocracy: one dollar, one vote. America is the great myth of motivation - the carrot on the stick for a dream that many would like to live. Amerikaos is the stark reality of relationships - near and far, work and rest, product and process; life as it is.   This global city is being forced to face the global ghetto. Can you feel it? The great vibrating within the soil...the ripples swelling to waves...the monumental pressure within the air? If it were not for the blood pouring in the streets, the tension could be almost beautiful. If it were not for the screams that echo and reverberate across the world, it might be a moment to pause and watch. For this is a time of birthing and the pain is extraordinary - as earthshaking as the new set of relationships that is being born. These are the last days of an empire. Therefore it is not so much a time for observation as much as participation. Massive participation. We are mothers. We are fathers. We are midwives. We are connected. Prepare to release the computer in front of you in exchange for the relationship you have to the people who built it. Prepare to feel the nerves of the planet pass through your bodily frame. Prepare to unfold. And they have called this the moment of truth...   Amerikaos. Pity the poor soul.   The emperor is blind. Can't you help him to see? Help him to see that the world is not as simple as "good" and "evil". Help him to see that the world is full of colors beyond the dichotomy of light and darkness. And that sometimes reality is nearly the opposite of what it seems to be. Help his majesty see the fact that the crumbling power he seeks to maintain is destined to fall and that if he is not very careful he will choke upon the very power he wields. Help him see the irony of a mighty king being brought to his knees by a helpless child in a faraway land. Remind him that kings are elected - not by sturdy votes of confidence - but by the thin air of silence. And silence is to be shattered. This is destiny. He can choose to accept it or choose to fight it but he cannot stop it. For the world belongs to all of us, not the tiny elite who can buy their way into power, who can buy access to the airwaves, who can buy all the weapons ever invented. The world is all of ours and we are taking it. This fact can be feared, it can be hidden, but it cannot be denied. Therefore it shall manifest. The future lies not in the hands of the wealthy - their hands are too busy grasping onto the present -so fearful of losing it. Indeed, the future lies in the hands of those who have none. In all that is shunned, deformed, and wounded there is a calling. Can you hear it? The future is an enormous, creative process and it is happening now. Charity is helping the emperor down from his throne as the empire falls. Charity comes from the small empty hands who have everything to gain from giving all that they have in their possession to give. The moment is now. The wave is upon us.   Amerikaos.   18/3/03 Go to the homepage for the Interim Government of the Republic of Un-America   In fond remembrance: Rachel Corrie.