Images transcend the glow from my screen and permeate my thought patterns, turning the usual mundane thoughts of view numbers and similar links to metaphors between the actuality of what I see before me and a certain social phenomena that has been making itself known to me...
Two lion tamers are being filmed in the middle of of a circus ring. The shot is obstructed only by the fence around the ring which makes the onlookers feel separated and safe from the danger that stalks around the ring in the shape of muscle, fur, and teeth. The tamers continually pop whips at these majestic creatures, scaring them into doing their bidding, running up and down steel balance beams and sitting on stools much to small for the creatures' hulking frame. All events being instigated by these ring leaders are clearly not in the best interest of the lions and they have absolutely no interest or desire to complete the requested tasks, they do them to avoid a potentially painful confrontation with those who have entitled themselves as the masters. The discomfort in the animals is easily detected and the longer this goes on, the closer to lashing out at the tamers some of the lions become. In an instant, one lion, confounded by the audacity of these frail creatures, makes what must be the lion tamer's worst nightmare, come true.
The lion lifts it's massive head to let out a preemptive snarl and proceeds to barrel over the tamer, cornering him, making haste to violate his physicality. The other tamer begins to pop her whip around the head of the offending lion, realizing the urgency of the synapsis. The beast has become the master of the moment.
I watched, partly horrified that these beautiful beasts are handled in such a manner and partly routing for the lions to take over entirely. The scenario twisted it's way into my subconsciousness and suddenly the lion tamers became police, blatantly utilizing over excessive force, an the lions became citizens.....who had quite simply had enough of being forced, by threat of caged violence, to do tasks which serve them no purpose.
The other lions see and feel the genuine frustration coming out of the attacking lion and begin to come up off the silly little stools themselves. Another tamer enters the ring and another circles outside the fence with a fire hose (all too familiar to anyone who has ever witnessed crowd control in a potential riot situation). The momentum is shifting swiftly and the viewers outside the cage even begin to make exits to avoid being victim to the very real mutiny occurring before them. The parallel between this happening and people watching police brutality videos from the safety of their couches is astounding and at that moment I realized that if we as a society ever want to change anything real, not necessarily just police brutality, we need to be much more like the lions and a whole lot less like the fearful onlookers.
Don't be afraid to lash out at the injustices being served to you and your fellow man. Barrel over those showing the audacity to infringe on your basic rights as a human. Encourage others to join you in your efforts to overtake the power where you see fit, and to exert your prowess where it is actually useful, not where you have been told is acceptable......
..in short; don't be gullible customers, be fed up lions. Be lions, my friends, be lions....
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