Declaration of Independence

The New Self-Governing Man/Wolf
"Not subject to control by others." Definition, baby; it's all about definition. "Not affiliated with a larger controlling unit." Damn right. My favorite definition of "independent": "c (2): being enough to free one from the necessity of working for a living...."

Yes, I am going indie, man. You know, I just learned this from James Brown, hearing an interview done with James and Al Sharpton 25 years ago where James says he can't get played on radio stations, even black radio stations, because of the record distributors being controlled by the Mafia and the mob had decided James either went along with their demands or he didn't get played. James said he went independent and started taking his records around to radio stations himself and getting them played. Then, later, I got to discussing this with a small gaggle of dinner companions at my favorite neighborhood Irish hangout and we all concurred, drunk though several of us were--not the Wolf Man, however;I'm teetotaling this week--that the only way to complete mental and economic success was through staying independent, by being men of the world not defined by nationality or religion, men totally free to dabble in their own independent pleasures, one a worldwide perfume dealer, another a boxing writer, another a restaurant owner, and the last, me, a guy who has a confused mind in terms of whether he's a man or a wolf and who is currently investigating going independent himself, to become an independent thinker, decider, writer, composer, songwriter, piano player, harmonica blower, owner of a courderoy jacket once worn by that great independent, Artie Shaw. Me, a caster of his bread upon the waters of rapid-flowing time. And then I tried to write a poem on a napkin and got as far as:

I knew a man
who slept in blue light
and wished the sun were blue

His son who was yellow
a sickly fellow
wondered if blue could help him, too

So the son went blue
turned green and mellow...

And that's as far as I got.

Independence is a tough row to hoe. The odds are against anybody or even a tribe or a nation going independent. The trend is to unify and create a union; first of independent rationalizers, then as independent citizens, unionized, and soon, suddenly no longer independent but dependent on a "larger controlling unit" and thus the cycle in the search for independence begins again.

My independence started when I became a rebellious child. It continued in college, there manifesting itself in me as the antagonist, raising my hand in all my classes and challenging the professor's definition of whatever it was he was trying to teach me. "Show me, dammit," I screamed after my raised hand was noticed and acknowledged, "don't bore me with your lecturing. Give me empirical evidence and not your boring words." Oh shit, you don't declare your independence while a college student. You don't have degree enough yet to do that, see? You aren't a master yet. You aren't a DOCTOR yet. Why DOCTORS are considered the ultimate source of life.

Am I saying colleges are training grounds for the plantation management system? I think maybe I am. College to me was my chance at independence from my parents and my past. College then to me became my grounds for my own individual beginning and not one ordained or disdained by my ancient parents and the heritage they brought to me through their unionizing their bloodlines in me, though DNA has totally replaced bloodline genesis now, hasn't it--it's even replaced the former total ID independence of fingerprinting--you know, your fingerprints are the only fingerprints like them in the whole animal world.

We are all going digital whether we like it or not. I want to go digital independently. Off on my own; a new adventure, an adventure in a new wonderland. A wonderland of speed and of, of course, great deception. There is much magic is digital existence.

thegrowlingwolf
for The Daily Growler