Revolution #227, March 20, 2011
"Ready to Jump Out of My Seat": A Response to All Played Out
Revolution contributor Michael Slate recently played Bob Avakian’s spoken word piece "All Played Out" on his radio show, The Michael Slate Show on KPFK, Los Angeles. A listener emailed her response, and agreed to share it with our readers.
After listening to the spoken word piece All Played Out, by Bob Avakian my first and instant reaction was just WOW!! I was fully blown away, in so many ways! Ready to jump out of my seat and spread the word about revolution and how things don’t have to be this way.
At first I felt a bit on edge with what he was speaking to, especially on the point about racism and how the word nigger contains so much history full of hate and oppression. I thought, "Whoa, he did not just say that word..." I considered other people listening and what their reactions were like, the use of that word is one that is extremely controversial and to some extent it has been thrown out of order and is used in many ways to promote unity within the black community. But after listening to what Avakian had to say, how he explains that the word represents so much more even to this day. How it could never be referred to with a positive connotation. It really made me think. And I didn’t feel so uncomfortable anymore, if anything it brought to light the brutal history of this country and what it was founded upon. And why now more than ever things such as the oppression of black people are ALL PLAYED OUT.
Halfway through the piece I was so moved, that I wanted to just turn up the volume, all the way up and bump it for people to hear. It was extremely moving the way he spoke about women and how we could never be emancipated within a system that is fully backed by biblical bullshit. Avakian really shed a light to all of the fucked up shit that goes on in our society, in this country, and the impact it makes worldwide. He exposes the truth about the left and how far they are willing to go to change the way things are. How distorted and skewed our views are when it comes to communism, and why it is that we reject and neglect something so crucial, so incredibly necessary like the emancipation of all of humanity. And what I just LOVE was that he didn’t leave it at just that. He didn’t just explain how fucked up things are, how Played Out this entire system is and offered no solution as my sociology professor would, he mentioned the New Synthesis, the number of available communist literature that has been revised and applied to today’s world.
All together now, the first thing that came to mind was that THINGS DONT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY, and that there is a REAL leadership out there in the midst of all of this, pushing for REAL change, ready and willing to work together to break the chains. And what a beautiful, most inspiring way to expose this leadership with a spoken word piece, so poetically put together, that has me out of my seat and ready to get with this revolution. Props to Michael Slate for sharing such an inspiring piece.
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