Overdue Revolution

Be forewarned: This post isn't that meaty. It's just my sleep-deprived rantings on yet another day of introspection bordering on despair.

. . .

I loved studying Constitutional Law. (Especially the obscenity stuff, but that's mostly because I'm intrigued/obsessed with the depoliticization of sexual expression as speech ... and because I like things pornographic and obscene. Previous obscenity posts here, here, and here.)

Next to free speech and the pornography/obscenity question, my other favorite parts of Con Law included learning about the various interpretive methods for applying disparate understandings of what The Document actually meant, and what the various Founders thought about The Document. Thomas Jefferson's view most sang to my anarchist soul. He believed that every generation should throw out the Constitution lock, stock, and barrel, and start over. Talk about a living document. Nothing says you're alive like dying and being reborn. The Phoenix Constitution.

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember and overthrow it." -Thomas Jefferson

Aren't we rather overdue for some revolution? I am increasingly skeptical that the McDonald's-eating, Wal-Mart-shopping, FoxNews-watching masses will rise out of their apathetic stupor to question, let alone challenge, the policies which are eroding the civil rights and liberties for which our veterans, our dissidents, and our radical activists have contributed blood, sweat, tears, and lives to ensure and protect. And I am decreasingly confident that those of us who do question and challenge have the energy, will, or resources to continue fighting the good fight. Maybe I'll feel differently after attending the Rebellious Lawyering Conference in a few weeks. I need some inspiration.