Me and Bobbie McGee

Have you ever had to face an opponent that had nothing to lose? 

Somewhere in our lives we’ve all run across someone that we had a fairly serious disagreement with.

Now you may be quite upset but you notice during the confrontation that this individual seems more than willing to go to extremes in order to win the battle. You do a quick calculation and decide that you have more to lose by engaging with this individual, it isn’t worth it, and so you moved on and chalked it up to a valuable lesson learned.

Well, consider for a moment what it took for that person to reach that state of mind? I have considered it, and I’m beginning to wonder if current conditions within these United States could be pushing the limits of otherwise rational thinking Americans.

Consider for a moment the case of Mohamed Bouazizi.

Mohamed Bouazizi, was the Tunisian fruit vendor whose death altered the entire Arab world.

The Egyptian uprising began when Bouazizi set himself on fire.

On December 17^th 2010 Bouazizi, doused himself with paint thinner and lit a match.  This act of desperation set off a series of street clashes that ultimately brought down the country’s autocratic ruler and inspired similar actions in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania.

When I think of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and the millions of others who sympathize with it, I begin to think of what happened in the Arab world. We tend to believe it could not happen here, but could it?

If you can’t get politicians to enforce regulations and policies that are in the best interests of the country, I feel there could be another force to intervene.  A force that none of us want to see.  Some spark could ignite that tinder and we could have an explosion.

The Occupy movements across this country are an example of citizens petitioning the government for redress. If none is forthcoming…then what?

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” When you have nothing left to lose nothing matters, not the law, not the government, not religion. Nothing.

Once you reach that point all bets are off.