Wednesday, December 10, 2008: instead of preparing for the holidays, a small band of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteers were researching the works of Gracchus Babeuf's "Plebian Manifesto" - a dissertation that had been published more than fifty years prior to the famed 'Communist Manifesto" published by Karl Marx. Both men were obsessed with socialism as the answer to man's socio-economic-political dilemas. Unlike contemporary socialists who tend to have a disdain for prosperity and success, Babeuf and Marx viewed socialism as the "great equalizer" that could ensure every member of society shared in the common good of their community. Babeuf had once written: "...we reach for something more sublime and more just: the common good or the community of goods! No more individual property in land: the land belongs to no one. We demand, we want, the common enjoyment of the fruits of the land: the fruits belong to all."
Native American Indians, of course, shared such beliefs. They regarded the land as sacred...something that their gods had provided for the good of their society. It was only after Europeans settled at Jamestown, 401 years ago, that fences started isolating plots of land that 'belonged' to a particular farmer and his family.
"...and the sign said, 'long-haired freaky people need not apply. So I put my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why. He said, 'You look like a fine young man; in fact, I think you'll do.' So I took off my hat and said, 'Imagine that...ME workin' for you!'...." "Signs, signs, everywhere signs...breakin' up the scenery, blockin' my mind. Do this, don't do that...can't you read the signs?" The song was, indeed, a "sign of the times".
Over the course of world events, civilizations erected signs and built walls - usually to keep other people "out". Hadrian's Wall kept wild tribes from invading what is now Scotland in 122 A.D. - and, until 367 A.D. One doubts that 'Do Not Trespass' signs were posted since literacy probably wasn't a mainstay of the countryside at that time. One of the ancient wonders of the world was the Great Wall of China that protected that nation from invasion by northern tribal enemies. During World War I the infamous Maginot Line was supposed to keep German armies from invading France. It took Ronald Reagan to demand, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this [Berlin] wall!" And, several years later, that intrusive blockage which divided a city finally was dismantled and sparked the beginning of the end of the Cold War. By the mid-1990's, a paranoid United States government began erecting fences and walls to try and keep illegal aliens from sneaking acorss the U.S.-Mexican border. As the problem of "illegals" became more prevalent, a mish-mash of walls and barriers encroached upon the landscape to little avail. Signs could be ignored; walls could be hurdled, tunneled under, or blasted open.
"....and the sign said, 'Anybody caught trespassin' will be shot on sight. So I [climbed on the fence] and I said to the man, 'Hey, what gives you the right...to put up a sign to keep me out [or] to keep other people in? If God was here, He'd tell you to your face, Man, you're some kind of sinner!'..."
Signs and walls. Do Not Enter. Members Only. Jacket and Tie Required. Gated Community. Parking for Residents Only. No Standing, Stopping or Loitering. Private Property. No Trespassing. No Soliciting. Restricted Area. You Must Be 21 to Enter. No Parking. Passport Required for Entry into Canada. Stop. Yield. Photo ID Required.
As the world became more populated, it also became more reclusive.
As land became less available, it became more valuable. Real estate was 'big business'. Even land owned by the government was often "off limits" to "we, the people...".
".....and the sign said, 'Everybody welcome, come in kneel down and pray'. And when they passed the plate at the end of it all, I didn't have a penny to pay. So I found me a pen and a paper, and I made up my own little sign. It said, 'Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' about me...I'm alive and doin' fine!' Sings, signs, everywhere signs....breakin' up the scenery, blockin' my mind. Do this, don't do that...can't you read the signs...'?"
Part of the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. mission was to tear down the "signs" and the "walls" that kept people out or kept people in. A new sense of equality and opportunity for everyone was the order of the day. A new concept of a socialistic pure democracy that would continue to embrace the free enterprise system and - at the same time - keep the 'greedheads' from hoarding it all so that others might not share in the bountiful American reward. If America's founding fathers' experiment of a democratic republic had worked for almost 250 years, could a new socioeconomic-political venture be established that might last even longer and sustain a 'new' United States of America well into the 22nd century, and beyond??
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. needed free-thinkers - men and women of depth and vision. People like Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Hancock. People whose modern minds had not been diluted by fruitless television blabber, hapless TV commercials, valueless "movie magazines", corruptive political psychobabble, moronic 'rap' music, materialistic covetousness, obsessiveness over money and power, or a mindless need to exclude others from particular spheres of influence or education. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. needed an eclectic assembly of people who could actually think for themselves instead of rushing out to buy a new car just because some blabbermouth announcer told them to do so. There were 'common people' out there (in fact, there were many who had already become O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members). It was just a matter of gathering these great minds together and putting them to work. "I think we should call Bob Ryan," Colin Powell told John McCain. "But call him early in the morning, before he's had time to suck down his first six-pack."