Woebeit America talks a good game about rugged individualism, diversity and freedom of choice, but Black folk’s certainly should be aware that most problems bedeviling the land of the free are fostered by intolerance. When it comes to different strokes for different folks, I’m an expert, insofar as I’m a nonconformist by nature. It’s not because I’m a born maverick, who purposely dares to be different, it is that most popular pursuits simply don’t make sense to me. For instance, other than being stone tone deaf, I never liked dancing, because dancing seems silly to me.

I dislike eating out, because watching people shove food in their mouths and chewing like cows on a cud, or hogs swilling from the troth aren’t very pleasant sights. Hey, I even turn TV or movie scenes off when actors start pushing groceries down their gullets. And that popular gimmick, depicting the sloppy hero guzzling milk straight out of the container, is one of my all time turn offs. Evidently that scene is something that macho bachelors relate to. Even so, I can’t imagine getting up in the morning, even with a hangover and walking to my refrigerator (in my underwear, scratching and yawning of course), and drinking milk or anything else straight out of the container.   Sorry, but I was raised to brush my teeth before putting anything in my mouth. No, I’ve never kissed my date (or wife), after a night of wild and passionate sex before vanquishing morning breath. Trivial examples aside, what I’m saying is, when I say I’m different, I’m talking different.

Unfortunately, TV and movies influence much of today’s behavior; therefore many malleable-minded people are programmed like computers, although they truly think they are being different. Conversely, being different for most people, is that they make the difference.
For sure, in spite of that popular cliché, “We’re not a monolithic people,” there is a preponderance of evidence that people, indeed, are creatures of habit. I don’t know if it’s inherent to our connate herd instinct, but most people are inclined to go along with the crowd. Mayhaps, it makes sense to do as the Romans when in Rome? Then again, my momma’s logic convinced me to act differently from my peers, although she was wasn’t too much different from other parents when she admonished me for acting a fool with my friends: “I guess if those fools had jumped off a bridge, you would have too?” Even so, when I think back, it has always intrigued me that a nation that was founded on differences generally educate its children to conform and perform.

Ergo, I was chastised whenever I failed to act like everybody else, but at the same time I was being told to think for myself. Hey, it’s a small wonder why I ended up in the Twilight Zone. My cranial circuits got shorted out. As a child I got so confused trying to figure out how I could be myself and still act like people I thought were stupid, I accepted being a misfit. Square business, I actually worked at being different and unique because I was fortunate enough to have a sibling (18-months-older), that was a sho’ nuff genius. Old crazy Junior ingrained in my mind that what makes one inclined to go along with the crowd was plain, old-fashioned intellectual laziness.

People tend to do what takes the least amount of activity. Mental or otherwise and that’s why humans basically hate change. They don’t like to think, or move out of their comfortable boxes. Thus, evil in high places is well aware of that human fragility and has always exploited it, to keep us divided and confused. Fortunately, I lived in an era when uniqueness and creativity was rewarded. True enterprise, in the “good old days,” was based on supply and demand. That’s why mothers told their daughters, “Anything scarce is precious,” and as a result little boys had to control their hormones or give their sexual desires a helping hand. Oops, there I go into the Outer Limits again!

For sure, everybody with a cell phone know mass production radically changed America’s capitalist economy, to consumer exploitation. Ergo, our social engineers, i.e., educators, media, manufacturers and ministers surreptitiously changed individuals’ mindsets, to follow trends. It became slick to possess the latest style, or hottest brand name.
Hey, it wasn’t hard to dupe consumers. After all, human beings are basically homogeneous creatures. So be there, or be square! America’s melting pot is a great concept, but it goes against human nature, insofar herds generally reject different folks, with different strokes.
Ergo, the majority rules in most societies. Especially America, where
people are cracking, not facting when they praise creative thinking. Truthfully, there is a general disdain for originality and uniqueness in 2002 America, although our nation’s mythology encourages individuality. The primary reason I’m different (other than being a crazy old African warrior), is that I respect other people’s differences. On the other hand, most of America’s problems are intolerance toward different folks, with different strokes. It grieves me when gullible, made in America Africans, are wont to buy into arrogant, intolerant European’s politically-correct mindsets.

I hear my brothers and sisters say America started going to hell in a hand basket when they took prayer out of school, without any regard, whatsoever, that they have been brainwashed to challenge the very constitution that was responsible for the few civil rights that we’ve grudgingly been afforded in the past 136 years.

Black folks actually hate Madalyn Murray (O’Hair) with a passion, because they think she was responsible for taking prayer out of public schools. Truth is, in 1959, when the hated atheist initially clashed with Baltimore, Maryland’s school system, a Black Atheist group was first to come to her aid. We’ll talk about that history later.

Meanwhile, if the principal hadn’t forced Madalyn’s son to participate in reverential Bible reading and unison prayer, she never would’ve filed the Murray v. Curlett, et al lawsuit.
On June 17, 1963, (pursuant to Art. 77, Sec. 202 of the Anointed Code of Maryland), prayer in public schools was ruled unconstitutional. Hey, don’t blame O’Hair’s atheism. Hell, if the bigots had simply allowed different strokes for different folks, she never would’ve been provoked. As usual, America’s intolerance created the problem. I wonder does anybody know where I’m coming from?