Sol Luckman

In an argument yesterday with a family member over the festering wound that is our country, the coming Untied States of America, I was, for the first time in my life, that I know of, called a zealot.

This epithet was launched in my direction on the heels of a discussion about free will and self-determinism, concepts which my liberal relative—let's call him Babbit—clearly felt to be out of style, old-fashioned, even a little naïve.

When I pressed the issue, arguing that no one should be forced to buy health insurance, for example, that it was unconstitutional, he replied, 'You know, the Constitution is really outdated.'

Now, while I enjoy a good time, I'm certainly not a Teabagger. And I can see plain as day—along with the rest of the 99 Percent—that we live under the yoke of a corporate kleptocracy over which our elected chief has very little direct control, even if he were inclined to take a stand (which by all indications, he is not) for the greater good.

Nevertheless, I was caught a little off guard and had to massage my jaw up off the tile floor in the aftermath of Babbit's summary dismissal of the wisdom of our well-meaning but misguided forefathers, who apparently knew nothing about fighting tyranny or preventing it from happening again and penned a quaint, disposable document in their rustic ignorance called the Constitution.

When I could speak again, and suggested that he do some homework on any number of issues that could be addressed by following the Constitution, ranging from Fraudclosuregate to the real truth behind 9/11 to the many problems created by the Federal Reserve System to the illegal targeting of American citizens for assassination …

When I recommended that he consider how Big Pharma and Big Insurance have colluded to make a mockery of our health care system, which is really a 'sick care' system designed not to cure anything but to profit from a purgatory of disease management …

When I implied that he was a somnambulist whose dangerous semiconsciousness merely helped prop up a corrupted system long based on economic slavery and genocide …

When I proclaimed that the system was broken and could not be fixed, but had to crash and burn so that something better could rise up from its ashes …

I guess I offended Babbit, because he promptly labeled me a zealot.

Not that I was unaccustomed to perspectives similar to my relative's. The lamestream media labels anyone with ideas dangerous to the global parasite that is the system a zealot.

The media goes on, with smug faux logic, just like Babbit did, to say there is no proof of any such claims of corporate and government (one and the same, basically) wrongdoing—when there is an abundant and ever-increasing mountain of proof of all these crimes and more by our 'leaders' available to anyone willing to do due diligence.

My advice to Babbit and his brainwashed ilk: stop talking, start thinking for yourself, and try using Google.

At first I was furious that anyone had dared to call me a zealot. But then I got to wondering, 'What is a zealot?'

To have zeal, according to my handy Oxford Dictionary, means to have 'earnestness or fervor in advancing a cause or rendering service.'

That doesn't sound so bad. How 'zeal' got turned into 'zealot,' meaning 'an uncompromising or extreme partisan,' is a fascinating story involving—get this—an ancient Jewish resistance movement who fought against Roman occupation until AD 70.

Now, who on earth do you think gave those brave Jews fighting to maintain their culture and dignity (not unlike today's protesters) against an oppressive state the negative attribution zealots? Clue: history belongs to the victors.

My point? It's a good thing to be a zealot, by God, to have some fire in your veins … to possess a human spirit that is still alive and kicking ... to desire to be of service in freeing humanity from centuries of enslavement.

If you want to be something grand, to do something with your time here on this planet worth celebrating and remembering, be a fanatic: for truth, for liberty, for life, for love.

I'm not in a position at this moment to join the Occupy Wall Street protests (learn more here, here, here and here), which in my opinion are the best thing the world has seen in decades and will end up making the 60s look like the 50s.

For now, this is my contribution to this fabulously amorphous and eclectic movement. If you feel as I do about it, I encourage you to support it in your own way, large or small, public or private.

And if you run into any Babbits, try to love them—I know it's hard—despite themselves.

Things are going to get really tough for them soon when their precious world and worldview come crashing down around their pink little ears and they start to wake up.

And then the fun begins. Because after years of being made fun of by the Babbits of our slumbering species, we finally get to rub the light of truth we've known all along in their blinking, sleep-crusted eyes. Or not.