I REFUSE.

I refuse to allow myself to be traumatized by the selective and biased media portrayal of current events. I will no longer allow myself to be rubbed raw by constant rancor in the press and the daily shredding of my psyche by the news cycle.

I refuse to continually check social media to see what everyone else is saying about what everybody else is saying about the latest distraction that has been manufactured and pumped out into the public consciousness.

I refuse to listen to anything that is designed to shape or massage or control my perception of a situation or event, and I refuse to be told how to think or feel about it. I will determine my thoughts and feelings independently, thank you, and if that means that I don’t want to talk about it endlessly until I’ve come to my own conclusions, then I guess I will have to live with not being very interesting at parties.

I refuse to allow myself to be led by people “in charge” who do not have my best interests at heart, or the best interests of anyone at heart. I refuse to get sucked into continually discussing their pathetic, absurd antics…and that includes those at all points along the political spectrum. By giving them our attention in this way, we are feeding their power by making them feel vital and legitimate. They are neither.

I refuse to participate in business practices by companies that respect humans so little that they do not acknowledge basic dignity, from their workers’ right to use their own discretion and judgment, down to determining when and if they can TAKE A BATHROOM BREAK. Is there really any legitimate need for me to have that pair of Nikes I ordered on Amazon delivered as if it were a heart speeding to the hospital for transplant? Hell no. Not if it means that a fellow human who’s just trying to make a living has to piss in a soda bottle. The reason these massive megalithic corporations and conglomerates feel so dead and inhuman is because their leaders are diseased at the level of the soul.

I refuse to play my assigned role in a game where the rules are put in place by those who see humans as nothing more than “capital” to be farmed and manipulated and governed as they seek to extract the last trillionth of a penny out of every rock, plant and living creature on Earth. I will no longer allow my precious lifeforce energy to feed the machine that is attempting to destroy me and everyone else on the planet.

I refuse.

So what am I going to do about it?

What can any of us do about it?

We can start by remembering that each of us CHOOSES where to apply our energy and attention and passion and effort, and we can actively decide to focus it on the things we value most, like our friends and loved ones and our communities and on living as our highest and best selves.

You don’t need to move into a hollow log out in the middle of nowhere. You also don’t need to sit huddled in the corner with your head between your knees. This is not about becoming an ostrich or a luddite.

It’s about taking back your own basic power, which starts with the power to choose.

You don’t need a coalition or an army or consensus or permission. You can simply decide to withdraw your energy from giving aid and comfort to support a system that’s rigged against us, and start applying that energy directly to the things you inherently know really matter.

And that, my friends, is how change REALLY happens.