Program Notes

Guest speaker: Makana
Please support MAKAKAMUSIC.COM
[NOTE: All quotations are by Makana.]

“This whole war that we’re fighting is a war of consciousness versus ignorance, of controlling human behavior by controlling people’s thoughts, by directing their awareness.”

“There’s always going to be disagreements as to what the solutions are, and even what the problem is, but if people in their own personal process start to face their own fear and let go of the prison that they are in, and that prison is the concern about what someone else thinks of them, if they get over that then they can be free. And then it’s up to them to facilitate the change they want to see. But we have to at least help them to get to that point, and that’s what I try to do with my music.”

“The only way we can bring about a revolution of freedom is to bring about a revolution of perception.”

“There are millions of people like me, who care about their future and will say something.”

“Aloha isn’t about representing yourself in a way that people will like you. Aloha is about valuing the well being of the other person, because you realize that you’re interconnected to them by the nature of life.”

“I know this sounds kind of silly, but for years I’ve been thinking to myself, it’s the musicians’ fault why things are so fucked up, because they have been programming people to not care for so many years now. And hopefully the musicians will start to not be afraid to say the things they really want to say, because music does something to you. It hits your emotions, and it goes right past that part of your brain that controls you.”

“When we can transcend this illusion that we are so different from each other, then we become powerful.”

“I feel that in the process of what we’re attempting to facilitate, to consider how people orient themselves to these issues is of utmost importance. Not just to present these issues, but to really know how to get inside and behind the barriers that have been put in place there by systems, an education system and a media that work to create an unthinking workforce, and people that don’t challenge authority and status quo. So I’m a big fan of understanding how nature works.”

ALSO SEE:
How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the OWS Protests
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Transcript

00:00:00

Greetings from cyberdelic space.

00:00:19

This is Lorenzo and I’m your host here in the psychedelic salon.

00:00:24

And today is day 75 of Occupy Wall Street.

00:00:28

And to begin with, I would like to thank the following people who either made a direct donation to the salon,

00:00:34

or who paid for a copy of my Pay What You Can audiobook edition of the novel I wrote, The Genesis Generation. And these generous souls are… And I also received a generous donation from someone in Michigan who prefers to remain anonymous.

00:01:07

And to let you know that youth may fade but never die,

00:01:11

well, when I received the envelope that contained his check,

00:01:15

the first thing that I noticed was return address,

00:01:18

and it came from a city where one of my first girlfriends lived during my college years.

00:01:23

And for just the briefest of moments, my heart skipped a beat,

00:01:27

and I thought that, well, maybe she’d thought better about breaking up with me.

00:01:32

So, Anon, thanks also for that little skip down memory lane,

00:01:37

and for what it’s worth, now that about a half a century has passed,

00:01:41

well, my heart is healed and no longer broken,

00:01:44

so time actually does mend all wounds.

00:01:47

Anyway, I’d like to send a huge thank you out to all of you donors

00:01:51

who are helping me offset some of the expenses associated with these podcasts.

00:01:56

I simply couldn’t do it without you.

00:01:59

Now, let’s get on with creating some new memories.

00:02:02

And I mean that quite literally.

00:02:04

And I guess I should warn you ahead of time that Let’s get on with creating some new memories, and I mean that quite literally.

00:02:10

And I guess I should warn you ahead of time that the introduction I’m about to give for today’s speaker is probably way over the top and overly sentimental,

00:02:14

but this is something that I’ve just got this strange feeling about,

00:02:18

and I’d be remiss in not passing it along to you.

00:02:21

So, if you’ll bear with me for a moment,

00:02:24

I’d like you to join me for a very brief little trip down memory lane

00:02:28

and travel back to May of 1963.

00:02:32

I was just then finishing my junior year of college,

00:02:35

getting ready to leave for the summer,

00:02:37

and one of my roommates bought a vinyl LP titled The Freewheeling Bob Dylan,

00:02:43

which had just come out then,

00:02:45

and it was just a couple months after the Beatles released their first album,

00:02:49

so things were starting to change.

00:02:51

At the time, the era that we now think of as the 60s hadn’t actually begun.

00:02:57

The American War in Vietnam hadn’t yet officially been acknowledged,

00:03:01

and the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning to take root on a national level.

00:03:06

But for the most part, nobody but us young kids listening to the latest music

00:03:10

had much of a clue about what was going on under the surface of American life.

00:03:16

You know, we didn’t have the Internet back then.

00:03:18

All we had were the record stores where we could go into these little glass booths

00:03:22

and listen to a record before we bought it.

00:03:25

And so that’s where we hung out, and that’s where we first heard of Dylan.

00:03:29

Now, I don’t want to get into a Bob Dylan debate right now,

00:03:33

and I’ll be the first to admit that old Bob’s, well, he’s done some strange things as he got older.

00:03:39

But back in 1963, back before most of the rest of the country caught on,

00:03:44

us college kids were listening to Dylan singing Blown in the Wind and Masters of War.

00:03:50

At the time, all we knew was that Dylan’s music was resonating with what we’d been talking about long into the night,

00:03:57

as we gradually became aware that most of what we’d been taught in the classroom

00:04:01

was actually nothing but a pack of lies that were very cleverly designed to keep us in line.

00:04:08

Unfortunately, before it was all said and done, millions of us wound up being pressed into military service in a war that had no point.

00:04:16

Is this starting to sound familiar?

00:04:19

And so, now let’s snap back into the present and take a look at what’s taking place in almost every city, town, and village in the world.

00:04:28

And that is what future historians may call the Great Awakening or something like that.

00:04:33

Thanks in no small measure to the power we have with the tool called the Internet,

00:04:38

a final transition away from feudalism is at long last underway.

00:04:47

away from feudalism is at long last underway, and like the great sea explorers in ages past,

00:04:53

well, we’ve cast off from the shores with no charts and really no clear plan, but with an unbounded desire to create a safe, harmonious, and loving home for our entire species. And

00:05:00

don’t worry, I’ll get back to my reason for mentioning Dylan in just a minute. But let’s be clear about this. At least in my opinion, we have now reached a point due to

00:05:10

environmental degradation and overpopulation where our species is actually going to have to make a

00:05:17

choice between continuing on a path of war and overconsumption, which quite obviously leads only

00:05:23

to the complete extinction of our own species,

00:05:26

well, it is now up to us to either choose that competitive path,

00:05:30

or instead to choose a path of global harmony and cooperation.

00:05:35

And while the choice seems obvious, it certainly isn’t going to be easy to change paths.

00:05:41

Now, over the past several days, we saw elections being held in Egypt and that was a

00:05:46

good thing. But if you are following their revolution closely, the second phase has only

00:05:52

now just begun and that’s because their country is still 100% controlled by the military who are

00:05:58

basically serving about a thousand or so of the wealthiest families in Egypt. And yet 70% of the people there are still living in poverty.

00:06:07

But last January, they rose up and said no more.

00:06:11

Now their path will also be long and treacherous, just as ours will.

00:06:15

But together, us humans who are becoming ever more fully awake as to how this world really works,

00:06:21

well together we are going to build a world in which we can all live in peace and harmony and with each of us respecting what, well, maybe we sometimes think

00:06:30

of as strange behavior on the part of, well, almost everyone that isn’t in our own tribe.

00:06:36

And thinking outside the box like that, accepting other people’s way of life, that’s the essence of

00:06:42

what I call psychedelic thinking.

00:06:50

In my first podcast in this series, I played a recording of the talk that I gave at the 2001 MindStates conference, and since then there’s been a lot of debate about what psychedelic

00:06:56

thinking actually means.

00:06:58

As you know, the word psychedelic means mind manifesting or soul manifesting. So psychedelic thinking simply means getting out of your ego self and into your center, your core, the spiritual essence of who you are.

00:07:13

And from that point, think about whatever matter is at hand.

00:07:18

Recently, I heard a friend say that he thought of the ego as a fiction created by a child.

00:07:26

friends say that he thought of the ego as a fiction created by a child. And when I look back at my own behavior, there are certainly times when that was true for me. Trust me, you don’t want to

00:07:32

be around when little Larry, or worse yet, Haggerty the Horrible, when one of those guys takes charge.

00:07:39

And thankfully for my friends and family, I’ve been able to keep those two fictions at bay most of the time.

00:07:46

But enough of my rambling on about psychedelic thinking, Bob Dylan, and a global shift in consciousness.

00:07:53

Instead, I need to shut up and let you hear a young man who embodies all of that and more for me.

00:07:59

And, of course, I’m talking about the Hawaiian singer, Makana.

00:08:04

And, hey Makana, should you ever hear this,

00:08:07

I apologize in advance if calling you Makana the Mighty causes you any discomfort.

00:08:12

But I mean it quite literally.

00:08:14

You know, when I was growing up, one of my early comic book heroes was Mighty Mouse.

00:08:19

And after thinking about Makana and how he got through a $50 million security screen with his Occupy with Aloha t-shirt,

00:08:28

and then he sang a very powerful protest song to 20 so-called world leaders in their private little dinner gathering,

00:08:35

well, in my opinion, you have to have superpowers to pull something like that off.

00:08:40

Not to mention super courage, big time super courage.

00:08:44

not to mention super courage, big time super courage.

00:08:48

Now, what I’m going to play right now is the recording of a meeting,

00:08:52

a virtual meeting in cyberspace, that is, that was historic.

00:08:54

At least that’s how I see it.

00:09:00

I don’t know what it was like the first time Bob Dylan met with some anti-war demonstrators or some civil rights demonstrators,

00:09:02

but I do know that in retrospect it would be quite interesting

00:09:05

if we could watch a video or hear a recording of those meetings.

00:09:09

And what I’m about to play, at least in my opinion, is a meeting that will one day also be considered historic.

00:09:16

This meeting, whose audio portion I’m about to play, took place on November 19th of this year,

00:09:23

which was just two days after the huge marches that took place all over the country

00:09:27

in celebration of the two-month anniversary of the occupation of Zuccotti Park.

00:09:32

I just happened to come across it during my scanning of the various video streams

00:09:37

coming from some of the Occupy sites that day,

00:09:39

and I’ve been looking for a recording of the entire meeting posted somewhere

00:09:44

so that I could get a better recording of it for you.

00:09:48

But so far I haven’t found a trace of it online, and so I’m going to play for you the part that I recorded at the time, which I think captured most of their meeting.

00:10:02

from watching and listening to it,

00:10:04

what appears to have taken place is that someone set up a big screen television

00:10:06

in a room probably somewhere near Zuccotti Park

00:10:10

and invited some of the people who were the very first occupiers of the park

00:10:14

to have a video Skype chat with Makana.

00:10:17

And as you’ll hear, most of them had not yet even had a chance

00:10:20

to listen to his powerful song,

00:10:22

the one that I played a couple of podcasts ago.

00:10:25

Basically, here were five or six people just in from the front lines,

00:10:29

and they were meeting with Makana for the first time, while, well, about 700 of us looked in.

00:10:36

As you’ll hear, the sound quality isn’t all that great,

00:10:39

because, well, it came through a laptop in the conference room that was focused on the big screen TV,

00:10:44

where we saw Makana in his living room, and he was streaming over his own laptop.

00:10:49

And so the audio we’re about to hear was coming from the speakers on the TV set.

00:10:54

Now, while the quality isn’t all that great, I think the content is.

00:10:59

And outside of the first few minutes of this conversation,

00:11:02

along with a short gap in the middle when my computer crashed

00:11:05

and I had to reboot and rejoin the feed.

00:11:08

Well, what you are now going to hear is a recording of the first meeting of a man

00:11:13

who may become to the Occupy movement what Dylan was to the 60s.

00:11:17

And it was a meeting between him and some of the people who inspired not only him,

00:11:22

but millions of others of us all over the world.

00:11:25

So anyway, around the same time, I had just come from New York.

00:11:31

I was in New York in early October, and my best friend got married.

00:11:35

And of course, as soon as I got off the plane, I went down to Zuccotti Park,

00:11:38

and I met some friends there, and I went down there about three times during my trip.

00:11:42

And I just talked to a lot of different people.

00:11:44

I mean, there were so many different ideas going on and perspectives and different walks of life.

00:11:50

And at that time, I knew I wanted to write a song, but it didn’t come to me, and I never forced it.

00:11:56

It has to just hit me, and then it comes out.

00:11:59

So I got home from New York, and I read this article in the New York Times that said,

00:12:04

The Movement Lacks a Melody. So I got home from New York and I read this article in the New York Times that said the

00:12:05

movement lacks a melody and it was just talking about the history of folk protest music and

00:12:11

Woody Guthrie and things like that and how back in the Bush era there were a lot of anti-war

00:12:19

songs that came out but it was more of a clear topic to write songs about because Bush

00:12:27

was an obvious Darth Vader type. He was like the bad cop. And so it was easy to write a

00:12:32

song about anti-war, but when it came to complex economic issues, it was something that was

00:12:38

a little more difficult to put into song that would create an emotional response.

00:12:42

So when I read that article, I thought to myself,

00:12:45

well, I’ve been writing on these topics for ten years,

00:12:47

and no one’s been listening to me.

00:12:49

Maybe this time I’ll write another song and someone will hear it

00:12:52

because people are paying attention to the issues

00:12:55

because of what you guys are doing.

00:12:57

And so I wrote the song in like two hours,

00:13:00

and I wanted to make a video for it to put on YouTube.

00:13:04

So my friend and I got together, and with the help of local public access TV,

00:13:08

we got some computers and started editing.

00:13:11

The video was released on Saturday, last Saturday, the day that I was to perform at APEC.

00:13:17

And that afternoon I got hundreds of messages from friends and fans and calls from family too saying, hey, are you playing

00:13:26

the Obama dinner tonight? You should really play this song. And my first reaction was,

00:13:31

you guys are crazy. You’re going to get me in trouble. There’s no way I’m playing this

00:13:34

song. But the idea started to grow in my head. And I met some friends who were in town and

00:13:44

they also suggested it. And I said, look, you know, and they also suggested it and I said,

00:13:46

look, you know, I’ll think about it, but it’s not my style.

00:13:50

I really respect and, you know, I want to just share my music and accommodate,

00:13:54

even though I have a strong feeling inside of me about these greater life issues.

00:13:58

So I went to the dinner and about halfway through, after playing an hour of Hawaiian slack key guitar, I decided

00:14:07

to play the song. And that moment was such a weird moment, because all at the same time

00:14:15

I was so elated, I was almost hysterical, but I was absolutely terrified as well, because

00:14:20

I wasn’t sure what was going to happen if somebody actually said, Hey, what’s this guy saying?

00:14:33

Now, in the dinner, it was probably the most secured place on the earth at that moment.

00:14:36

And there were a lot of layers of security.

00:14:41

And everybody was really nice, and I was really nice to everyone.

00:14:50

And I started making friends with people and just playing my Hawaiian music. So at some point the room with the world leaders was emptied out of staff and basically it was just them eating and me playing in the room and one marine.

00:14:56

And on the perimeter there were a lot of Secret Service. So I figured, you know, now’s a good time to do it. So I started playing the songs very softly.

00:15:06

And at first I sang the first line, and I was like, oh, you know, am I in trouble?

00:15:14

And then I went on.

00:15:16

And so how the room was organized was there were four tables.

00:15:21

There were about 40 people there.

00:15:22

So it was a tent top, tent top, tent top, and tent top.

00:15:25

And in the far corner were the Obamas.

00:15:28

And there was a running joke going on with the sound guy and I that was like,

00:15:32

if you’re not at the table, you’re on the plate.

00:15:35

Because I guess the most important economies to what he wanted to achieve were sitting with him.

00:15:43

And the rest of the smaller

00:15:46

concerns were on other tables. That was my personal interpretation. But they were kind

00:15:52

of sitting around not talking and it was quite uncomfortable so they started paying attention

00:15:56

to me. So that’s when I started to get these funny looks where people were, because they

00:16:06

were circular some people had their backs to me and they would just turn around really quick and give me a funny look.

00:16:10

And I didn’t have my glasses on, so it was hard to interpret if it was a look of like,

00:16:13

yeah, you’re great, or what the hell are you saying?

00:16:15

But more and more people would kind of turn around and look.

00:16:19

And the magic of the situation was that the protocol couldn’t be broken by anyone unless someone

00:16:26

first broke it.

00:16:27

So, because I didn’t come out and say, hey everybody listen to me, you need to hear this,

00:16:32

and interrupt them, which had been hauled out at, you know, best case scenario, just

00:16:36

hauled out, I decided to not break the protocol but just bend the protocol enough where I

00:16:42

was able to constantly, subliminally keep singing these

00:16:45

words for a very long period of time. And the last line of my song, We Are The Many,

00:16:51

says, the bidding of the many, not the few. And when I got the courage, I went into an

00:16:57

extended version of it and I kept saying that over and over like a mantra. And it became, I mean I’ll never forget it, it was very empowering

00:17:07

and yet it was very surreal. Like somebody’s doing a movie and they’re going to say cut,

00:17:12

okay that was cool, you know. So, and it was also difficult because I wanted everyone,

00:17:19

all my friends to be watching going, are you seeing this, are you seeing this? And it was

00:17:23

just me and my guitar tech. And the sound guy I think, who doesn’t work for me, he worked

00:17:27

for the organization that hired him. He saw when I pulled open my shirt and revealed the

00:17:33

Occupy with Aloha, and he kind of looked at me and he was like, oh boy. And it was cool.

00:17:41

And I just looked at him. I was like, I gave him that look. Like, we didn’t say anything,

00:17:44

but I gave him that look like, don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything crazy, you just relax.

00:17:50

And so I had my shirt open, though, and every time a staffer would walk in to kind of see what was going on, I would like face the other way and things.

00:17:59

But I think what was so hysterical about it and timeless about it was that it’s all about human behavior.

00:18:07

I mean, this whole war that we’re fighting is a war of consciousness versus ignorance,

00:18:13

of controlling human behavior by controlling people’s thoughts, by directing their awareness.

00:18:19

And it was a demonstration of that in the dinner where the so-called world leaders who knew what I was saying were unable to speak up because the dinner was hosted by the President of America and they had no right to say anything about the so-called entertainment.

00:18:36

For all they know, he wanted me to say that, which of course he didn’t.

00:18:40

And the beauty of it was that he was engaged in conversation the entire time,

00:18:46

and the rest of them weren’t.

00:18:47

So I don’t know how it all lined up on the weekend of 11-11-11,

00:18:51

and all of these things came together, and the song came out that day,

00:18:54

and everything.

00:18:55

There was definitely a potentiality of it to go in any direction,

00:19:00

but the beautiful ending to the story is that it has seemed to inspire people worldwide,

00:19:07

and we’ve received thousands of messages from almost every country

00:19:12

where people are sharing that, not about the political message so much as that

00:19:19

I was able to be an example of facing my own fear

00:19:25

to say what I felt was right in my heart

00:19:28

in a context that otherwise I might not have

00:19:31

if I decided to silence myself

00:19:33

because I was worried about my status or my position

00:19:36

or someone else’s reaction.

00:19:39

And I think there’s always going to be disagreements

00:19:42

as to what solutions are and even what the problem is.

00:19:46

But if people in their own personal process start to face their own fear

00:19:50

and let go of the prison that they are in,

00:19:53

and that prison is the concern about what someone else thinks of them.

00:19:57

If they get over that, then they can be free,

00:20:00

and then it’s up to them to facilitate the change they want to see.

00:20:04

But we have to at least help them to get to that point.

00:20:06

And that’s what I try to do with my music.

00:20:17

I’m going to tune up for another song.

00:20:19

All right.

00:20:20

All right.

00:20:20

All right.

00:20:38

Have you folks heard the song We Are The Many?

00:20:39

No. I haven’t.

00:20:40

I’m happy to hear it.

00:20:41

All right.

00:20:42

Happy to share it with you.

00:20:44

Awesome.

00:20:52

So, this is the song I wrote, and of course the style I wrote it is honoring Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan and that era of using music to protest inequities and that sort of thing. And it’s a style that

00:21:11

has kind of gone into a slumber. And I’ve always honored these people, so that’s the

00:21:18

style I wrote the song in. And here it is, it’s called We Are the Men. Oh, and this is

00:21:23

the song I sang for 45 minutes at the ACA.

00:21:26

I’m sorry.

00:21:36

You come here, gather round the stage.

00:21:41

The time has come for us to voice our rage Against the ones who trapped us in a cage

00:21:52

To steal from us the value of our wage From underneath the vestiture of law The lobbyists at Washington do not

00:22:07

At Liberty the bureaucrats could fall

00:22:12

And until they’re pledged we won’t withdraw

00:22:18

We’ll occupy the streets

00:22:22

We’ll occupy the streets, we’ll occupy the courts, we’ll occupy the offices of you till you do.

00:22:33

The living of the many, not the few.

00:22:56

Our nation was built upon the right Of every person to improve their plight For the laws of this republic may be right And now if you own everything in sight

00:23:08

They own it real liability

00:23:14

They own that they are not like you and me

00:23:20

Their influence dictates the galaxy

00:23:25

And until they all stop, we are not free

00:23:31

We’ll occupy the streets

00:23:34

We’ll occupy the court

00:23:37

We’ll occupy the overseas of you

00:23:42

Till you do

00:24:06

When I sang this verse at the dinner, this one was a little scary because it’s so true

00:24:10

did he look at you

00:24:14

monopolies with guns and free trading agreements

00:24:24

but certain things belong to everyone.

00:24:29

Your pevery has left the people stunned.

00:24:36

So take heed of our notice to be dressed.

00:24:41

We have little to lose, we must confess.

00:24:45

Your empty words do leave us unimpressed

00:24:47

A growing number

00:24:50

joins us in protest

00:24:52

We occupy the streets

00:24:56

We occupy the courts

00:24:59

We occupy

00:25:01

the innocence of you

00:25:04

to do We are the path, the other sins of you, too, too.

00:25:08

We are the faith, not the fear.

00:25:23

The only time that the First Lady looked over

00:25:26

was during the first part of this verse.

00:25:33

You can’t divide us into sides

00:25:37

And from our peace you cannot hide

00:25:42

Denial serves to help and fight.

00:25:50

And our allegiance you can’t fight.

00:25:54

Who’s this line?

00:25:56

Our government is not for sale.

00:26:01

The banks do not deserve a bail.

00:26:04

The banks do not deserve a bail.

00:26:10

We will not reward those who fail.

00:26:15

We will not move till we prevail.

00:26:20

We will occupy the streets.

00:26:23

We will occupy the courts. We’ll occupy the offices of you, till you do.

00:26:32

We’ll occupy the streets, we’ll occupy the courts, we’ll occupy the offices of you, you are you. You’re the best. You are the best.

00:27:06

Yeah.

00:27:09

Yeah. Yeah.

00:27:13

Yeah.

00:27:14

Yeah.

00:27:17

Wow.

00:27:20

Beautiful.

00:27:22

Perfect.

00:27:23

I think we’re going to win this.

00:27:25

We’re going to keep putting thousands in the streets on Wall Street.

00:27:31

If you keep playing that song, I think we’re going to win this.

00:27:35

I will keep playing it.

00:27:38

I will keep playing it.

00:27:40

You know, sometimes people criticize those who protest.

00:27:48

I mean, this goes back for generations.

00:27:50

And they say things like, my favorite one that they say is,

00:27:55

this has costed cities enough money already.

00:27:58

Everyone should go and get a job and work like the rest of us.

00:28:03

I mean, when somebody says something like that,

00:28:05

do you know what my response is?

00:28:08

I stop arguing with them.

00:28:11

And from my heart, I genuinely uplift them

00:28:15

because I know even though that they’re misinformed,

00:28:19

they’re also caring.

00:28:22

They just don’t understand the overall situation

00:28:25

because there’s so much disinformation.

00:28:27

And my point is that the only way we can bring about a revolution of freedom

00:28:32

is through a revolution of perception.

00:28:36

So when people are judging or against or locked in their mindset

00:28:40

from a social psychology perspective,

00:28:42

we can’t engage them in argument

00:28:44

because now they have something at risk if they’re proven wrong. Yeah, they’re going

00:28:49

to lose face. That’s a human nature. So on Facebook earlier this morning, somebody was

00:28:56

justifying that wonderful woman who’s over 80 years old who got sprayed in the face with

00:29:02

pepper spray and they were saying, this is funny. And about

00:29:05

30 of my friends jumped on that person. When somebody says this is funny, what I interpret

00:29:11

it as is they’re very, very out of touch with the actuality and they’ve developed a mythology

00:29:17

in their mind. So they’re not my enemy. They’re the person I want to focus my love on. They’re

00:29:22

the person I want to sing to. They’re the person I want to include and not make them the enemy.

00:29:27

And just like when I had to go on Sean Hannity the other day,

00:29:31

he tried to polarize me into one camp.

00:29:34

And I refused to be polarized because no matter how many times they change the faces using elections,

00:29:40

the same problems are going on because the funding comes from the same source.

00:29:44

the same problems are going on because the funding comes from the same source.

00:29:52

So my dream is for this to include everyone because by default, we are representing everyone.

00:29:56

We are representing things that are affecting every single person.

00:29:59

And I always speak for myself.

00:30:04

I will never speak for anyone else because the movement is made up of individuals with their own thought process,

00:30:10

and that needs to be respected and I’m amazed at how everyone involved I’ve been watching has created a system that allows for people to voice themselves. It’s incredible and

00:30:17

but for me my perspective is that when we talk about the many and the few or the 99% and the 1%

00:30:23

it’s important to clarify what we mean and personally my view and with my song is that when we talk about the many and the few or the 99% and the 1%, it’s important to clarify what we mean.

00:30:26

And personally, my view and with my song

00:30:29

is that it’s not a competition

00:30:31

of people who have versus who don’t have.

00:30:35

I have many friends who are very wealthy

00:30:37

who acquired their wealth through honest transactions.

00:30:41

I don’t feel to divide people further

00:30:44

by creating a sense of polarization. What I’d like

00:30:49

to clarify for people is that there is a very, very, very, very small elite group of people who

00:30:55

control the money supply and control the policies. And these are the people that this is about,

00:31:02

because what they do is they legalize criminal activity and then

00:31:06

they have a monopoly on the military and on force to enforce it and that’s why you know what what

00:31:12

everyone is going through in the camps is is they’re pitting the people like us who have families to

00:31:18

feed and have bills to pay and have mortgages these common people are being pitted against

00:31:23

other common people and it’s a dividing cover tactic and it needs to end, and it needs to be peaceful,

00:31:28

and what you guys have been doing, from my perspective, is incredible.

00:31:31

I mean, it takes such a risk and a self-sacrifice.

00:31:35

I mean, if you get arrested, it’s on your record.

00:31:38

I mean, there’s so many sacrifices being made by so many people,

00:31:41

and to marginalize that is incredibly insensitive and un-American.

00:31:46

So mahalo for what you guys are doing.

00:31:48

I think it’s a reflection of how much you care.

00:31:53

And my ability is to write songs and inspire people,

00:31:57

so if that can help, I’m happy to be of service.

00:32:00

Thank you. Thank you.

00:32:12

Want to hear another song?

00:32:13

Yeah!

00:32:20

This is a song I wrote

00:32:22

many years ago.

00:32:31

And it basically addresses the zeitgeist of what’s occurring today.

00:32:35

It’s a song called In the Land of the Free.

00:32:43

And it’s funny, you hear that, you know, we’re the land of the free and the home of the brave.

00:32:50

And you have to ask yourself, is that statement reflective of our actions?

00:32:57

And so I wrote this song to co-opt back those terms from the establishment.

00:33:03

In the land of the free. You hear the guitar and the free.

00:33:08

You hear the guitar okay?

00:33:08

Yeah. Yeah. To find that connection Feeling it run through my veins

00:33:26

Shutting down five of my senses

00:33:30

I’m using the one that remains

00:33:35

Newspaper headlines are chilling

00:33:39

Tearing the talk of the time

00:33:43

Coast into trading our freedom

00:33:48

In a nebulous war against crime

00:33:53

I have been fed

00:33:57

For so long

00:34:01

Someone’s idea of what’s right

00:34:05

But it

00:34:07

feels wrong

00:34:10

In the land of the free

00:34:16

Infotainment

00:34:19

is deception

00:34:20

All the channels agree

00:34:24

There can be just one perception

00:34:29

In the home of the brave

00:34:33

Descent is not uncharted

00:34:37

In the speed of sway

00:34:41

We the people are divided.

00:34:47

Work hard for the same money, money that can make hands meet.

00:34:56

Neighbor next door got paid off his job.

00:35:00

The family moved from our street.

00:35:03

The family moved from our street By the pit blend

00:35:08

By the gate

00:35:13

Working class slipping away

00:35:17

Law living in shame

00:35:22

The land of the free

00:35:28

Be the people

00:35:30

who face the trials

00:35:32

They want us to believe

00:35:36

In their slogans of denial

00:35:41

The home of the brave

00:35:45

Assumption

00:35:47

Wides the power

00:35:49

Because by what we pray

00:35:54

Leads the people

00:35:56

Disempowered It seems the judges know me

00:36:15

Setting me up for a fall

00:36:19

Others deciding my future

00:36:23

Evidence kept secret from all.

00:36:30

I’ve been held for so long, still I have never been told what I’ve done wrong.

00:36:50

In the land of the free, we the people are on trial.

00:36:58

They want you to believe in this of denial

00:37:05

of the grave

00:37:10

you can’t

00:37:11

see that fear

00:37:13

is ruling

00:37:14

you can’t

00:37:17

behave

00:37:18

because you’re watching

00:37:21

what you’re doing So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so,

00:37:47

so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so,

00:37:52

so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so,

00:37:57

so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so,

00:38:02

so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so tune for that song? Well, Amy, who was just here and had to go, she had a question for you.

00:38:08

Sure.

00:38:09

The question was, how did Obama respond to your songs and music?

00:38:17

The answer is he didn’t.

00:38:18

He had no response.

00:38:21

He personally had no response.

00:38:24

So he wasn’t listening? He was just engaging in conversation and wasn’t listening?

00:38:28

Well, the magic of the situation is that if he had a response, I would not have been able to do what I did.

00:38:37

So, again, the protocol is such that I wasn’t in their mind, so I don’t know what they were thinking.

00:38:44

I know that there were conversations going on and then I don’t know what they were thinking. I

00:38:45

know that there were conversations going on and then there weren’t. You know, it was a

00:38:48

dinner. But it would have been quite a scene to have me stop playing. And I was singing

00:38:58

in such a way that it wasn’t aggressive, it was very beautiful. I delivered it in a way that wasn’t offensive

00:39:07

musically, so that it would be a break of protocol for them to stop me and say, hey,

00:39:14

you know, I could always say, I’m just playing music. And so his reaction, what’s more important about his reaction is that no matter

00:39:29

if they spend $50 million to keep the voice of the people out of the negotiations that

00:39:34

shape the lives of the people, no matter if they spend $700,000 on non-lethal weaponry in Hawaii. In Hawaii, hello!

00:39:47

You know, no matter what they try to do to keep us out of these negotiations,

00:39:52

we can’t be kept out.

00:39:54

We cannot be kept out.

00:39:57

Because I’m one of millions.

00:40:00

There are millions of people like me that care about their own futures and will say something.

00:40:05

Yeah. There are millions of people like me that care about their own futures and will say something. Wow.

00:40:07

Do you guys use the spirit fingers in Honolulu?

00:40:11

Do you know how old we’re doing right now?

00:40:13

Yeah, I mean, I’ve seen it.

00:40:17

You’ve been down to Occupy Honolulu, right?

00:40:20

I have.

00:40:21

What did you think?

00:40:21

We usually do Shaka.

00:40:22

I mean, it’s a little different.

00:40:20

I have.

00:40:21

What did you think? We usually do Shaka.

00:40:22

I mean, it’s a little different.

00:40:25

How is it going down there,

00:40:27

and how does it compare to Liberty Square in New York?

00:40:31

Well, the big issue right now is the city council

00:40:33

is coincidentally attempting to pass a bill

00:40:39

that reclassifies certain parts of the sidewalk.

00:40:45

What? What?

00:40:47

Yeah, well, for me personally, the saddest part about APEC was that

00:40:53

the homeless families have already been marginalized and constantly put here and put there.

00:41:01

It’s politicians saving face.

00:41:03

and it’s politicians saving face.

00:41:06

And I felt such a personal disgust that on one hand the media is saying,

00:41:10

you know, we want to show the world that we live aloha

00:41:13

and then they’re sweeping the homeless aside.

00:41:14

That is the antithesis of aloha, the antithesis.

00:41:18

Aloha isn’t about representing yourself

00:41:20

in a way that people will like you.

00:41:22

Aloha is about valuing the well-being of the other person because you realize that you

00:41:26

are interconnected to them by the nature of life.

00:41:30

That’s my interpretation of Aloha.

00:41:32

That was not reflected in the President’s bringing APEC to Hawaii.

00:41:38

So now in regard to both the homeless issueess issue and control over my art.

00:41:46

And at that time, my passion was purely traditional Hawaiian music

00:41:50

because I had been blessed enough to learn from some of the old-time masters

00:41:53

who have now passed away.

00:41:55

So my concern was to honor my community and honor my teachers

00:42:01

because they had handed me something that is a community treasure chest of art.

00:42:07

It’s a traditional art form.

00:42:08

And when I said that to the companies, they laughed and they said,

00:42:11

yeah, but that kind of music doesn’t sell.

00:42:14

And so they were honest with me,

00:42:17

and so I was really happy and thankful for that.

00:42:19

But I told them, no, thank you, this isn’t for me.

00:42:21

And so I struggled for many years, and I still do to get my music out there.

00:42:25

But when I go to do a show,

00:42:27

I get to sing what’s in my heart,

00:42:28

and I’m never ripping off the audience.

00:42:31

And it’s really important that we start to realize

00:42:36

that our capital comes from having access to more integrity.

00:42:42

And not having the fear to follow that.

00:42:45

Because when you follow that,

00:42:47

there’s this unseen thing

00:42:49

that starts to support

00:42:50

everything that goes on.

00:42:52

It’s really, really magical.

00:42:55

So, you know, for musicians,

00:42:57

like in the past week,

00:42:59

I’ve received letters

00:43:00

from Harlow Guthrie

00:43:01

and a message from Bonnie Raitt

00:43:03

and Bill Kreitzman,

00:43:05

the Grateful Dead drummer, was at my show last night and he pledged his support for what we’re doing.

00:43:12

You have another fan too today. I spoke on the phone this morning with Joan Baez.

00:43:17

Wow.

00:43:18

And she sends you her love and thanks you for what you’re doing.

00:43:22

That’s awesome.

00:43:23

She’s in California.

00:43:26

She’s so amazing.

00:43:28

She works so she can be it.

00:43:31

I feel her presence.

00:43:35

I just, I know this sounds kind of silly,

00:43:37

but for years I’ve been thinking to myself,

00:43:40

it’s the musician’s fault why things are so fucked up.

00:43:43

Because they have been programming people to not care for so many years now.

00:43:47

And hopefully musicians will start to not be afraid to say what they really want to

00:43:54

say because music does something to you.

00:43:57

It hits your emotions and it goes right past that part of your brain that controls you.

00:44:04

And the more musicians start to do this, and really do it,

00:44:07

not people jumping on the bandwagon trying to get attention

00:44:10

from the sacrifices of millions of people,

00:44:13

but people who truly take time to understand what’s going on

00:44:15

and sing about it because they know that their lives depend on it.

00:44:19

Their livelihood depends on it, and their family’s lives depend on it.

00:44:23

And it’s so urgent right

00:44:25

now. We can sit here on livestream and in our homes and watch and listen, but in a very

00:44:31

short time we may not have this opportunity. It’s really, really important. I mean, the

00:44:37

internet’s under attack. There are so many things that are going on right now. It’s so

00:44:40

urgent that people get off their okolesibs and start studying what they want.

00:44:47

So urgent.

00:44:49

I really appreciate what you’ve been saying about, I don’t have much to add to it,

00:44:58

but you’ve articulated beautifully the importance of inclusivity and the importance of, rather than alienating each other further,

00:45:06

and this divide and conquer

00:45:08

tactic, the importance

00:45:10

of really overcoming that by coming together

00:45:12

and treating each other,

00:45:14

no matter who we are, no matter how different

00:45:16

our opinions and our perspectives,

00:45:17

treating each other with love and using

00:45:19

that as our narrative. I think

00:45:22

that’s something that we all need

00:45:24

to adopt

00:45:25

to a much greater level

00:45:28

because that’s where

00:45:30

the change is actually going to occur because

00:45:31

otherwise we just perpetuate the same fighting

00:45:34

mentality and the same

00:45:35

you know, it’s what

00:45:38

has gotten us into the

00:45:39

position that we’re in today and we can’t

00:45:41

fight the problem with the same thing

00:45:43

that got us in the problem.

00:45:49

I really appreciate you saying that because that narrative needs to spread and you say it beautifully well although i believe in it i believe in it and i mean i you know this

00:45:58

week was an interesting learning experience for me i mean after sunday when i went on cnn and then

00:46:04

the news

00:46:05

just started coming and coming, I had never been through an experience like that. And

00:46:10

it was very, I mean, it was scary for me. You know, I couldn’t eat properly. It was

00:46:16

hard for me to sleep. I was getting thousands of messages. And most of them, 99% of them were extremely supportive. I won’t

00:46:28

quote them, they were just beyond what I would ever imagine. Part of them were not, part

00:46:34

of them were severe attacks and threats and people pretending to be coming from the State

00:46:41

Department or the White House. We checked into into it, and it wasn’t them.

00:46:46

It was just people pranking me.

00:46:49

We’ve got your back anyway.

00:46:52

What’s that?

00:46:52

You’re in the 99% now, so we’ve got your back.

00:46:56

Right on, thanks.

00:46:58

But one person wrote me a letter, and he basically said,

00:47:02

you know, you guys just want a bunch of free handouts and this and that.

00:47:07

And, you know, you should just go back home and buy.

00:47:09

And I wrote him back and I said, look, nowhere in my songs do I ask for free handouts.

00:47:13

And you will never hear me ask for free handouts from anyone else who’s worked on my behalf.

00:47:18

So, you know, before you go misjudging about what people are saying, you know, I just want you to listen to the actual words and not what the media has said. And I said, thank you so much for taking time

00:47:29

to share your opinion. I really appreciate what you shared with me. And he wrote back

00:47:33

and he wrote back, wow, you actually responded. Thanks for writing a song that represents

00:47:39

the feelings of so many people. And that was it.

00:47:43

That’s where the difference is going to occur.

00:47:45

And then I got a letter

00:47:47

when…

00:47:49

You guys know who Sean Hannity is?

00:47:51

Yeah.

00:47:53

So I didn’t know until the night before

00:47:55

because I don’t have a TV.

00:47:58

I have a TV in the house, but it’s only

00:47:59

hooked up to watch movies. That’s it.

00:48:01

We don’t have cable or anything.

00:48:03

So the night before, I

00:48:07

got a message from a Mr. Randall, who is the father of one of my longest time supporters

00:48:14

and friends, Mark Randall, who is a beautiful guy, he’s in the military, he’s been a supporter

00:48:20

of my music since I was a teenager. Really awesome guy. He’s got such a beautiful heart.

00:48:26

And he said, hey Makada, here’s a message from my dad.

00:48:28

I just want to forward it to you.

00:48:30

The message was so beautiful.

00:48:33

And basically he said, you know,

00:48:35

I’m a conservative Republican,

00:48:37

and until I saw your video of what you did at the APEC dinner,

00:48:42

or upon seeing your video of what you did at the APEC dinner, or upon seeing your video of what you did

00:48:45

at the APEC dinner, for the first time I understand what Occupy Wall Street is all about.

00:48:51

And that is my goal. This is not a partisan thing. Occupy Wall Street includes all sides

00:48:55

already, millions of people from both sides. But when we realize that there are no sides,

00:49:01

that there is only corruption and deceit and truth.

00:49:13

And that’s what brings me the greatest joy, is that when we can transcend this illusion that we are so different from each other, then we become powerful.

00:49:22

Can someone hear a song?

00:49:24

Yeah!

00:49:23

Is it your song?

00:49:24

Yeah!

00:49:30

So this song was co-written by myself and my friend Evan Tector.

00:49:35

And I will hopefully try to remember all the words.

00:49:41

It’s a song that is a true story about four different people from around the world.

00:49:43

And the chorus says,

00:49:45

Driven by this power, can you see? All I ever wanted was to be free.

00:49:47

And then the question, what is it that drives society?

00:50:12

Our soil was deep, the water was clean, a hundred generations.

00:50:21

The village would farm all that we needed, a self-sufficient nation.

00:50:27

Them foreigners came, lusting for oil. They paid an arm of government to displace our tribe. We fought as we could against rockets and bombs, Fled to the forest so many times.

00:50:33

I now run from Africa to leave behind me,

00:50:40

In America I’m a slave to the land of the free. I now run from Africa to leave behind

00:50:48

In America where justice is blind

00:50:52

Small jobs are found, I use cars with gas

00:50:55

I try to get my home back and no one ever asks

00:50:59

Driven by this power, can you see?

00:51:04

Driven by this power, can you see?

00:51:11

Oh, my little mom said it was to be free.

00:51:16

I wake before dawn.

00:51:20

In my one-room house, my family’s still asleep.

00:51:23

To the border I hitch.

00:51:45

Cars line up for miles. Women go forward at a creep. On a good day, I’m across by eight. Boss takes half of my pay if I’m a minute late. The factory churns out goods I can’t afford. But my peace is is renewed I pray to the Lord One day I’ll just stay

00:51:54

Why must I go back?

00:51:57

The cash I sent home

00:51:58

Won’t make up my family’s lack

00:52:00

The hell of that border

00:52:02

And city policy

00:52:03

Spreads deeper and deeper into each society

00:52:08

Everything got this spot, can you see?

00:52:16

All we ever wanted was to be free

00:52:23

I did okay in high school, I was taught to fit in.

00:52:27

That life is just like sports.

00:52:29

My parents brought me into a top business college.

00:52:34

I make friends on courses and courts.

00:52:37

Now my life is the corporation.

00:52:43

Profits are high, competition fierce.

00:52:47

Accountancy is tricky, we avoid my ability. The corporate veil is hard to pierce.

00:52:54

But I want new benefits, disability, make it bright.

00:52:58

We pull the strings around the globe, economic skills, might.

00:53:02

I can’t fight that hand, as long as it feeds me

00:53:06

The world has come to the side, I embrace complacency

00:53:10

Driven by this power, can you see?

00:53:17

All that you want is to be free.

00:53:28

When I was only seven, I had to learn survival games.

00:53:31

I didn’t know who played who’s.

00:53:34

Had to dig in the dump.

00:53:36

And beg in the streets. Ever since they closed down my school.

00:53:39

My mommy had no food.

00:53:41

After daddy stepped in on mine.

00:53:43

From years of malnutrition, my body ran out of time.

00:54:02

Why did we have to suffer?

00:54:04

Why can’t the land grow food?

00:54:06

Why can’t we use? What is it being used?

00:54:10

Who were the rich men and where did they come from?

00:54:13

Do they know we needed food, not guns?

00:54:18

Driven by this power, can you see?

00:54:25

We’ve only ever wanted us to be can you see? All the other ones

00:54:27

they want to be

00:54:33

Driven by this power

00:54:35

can you see?

00:54:40

All the other ones

00:54:42

they want to be

00:54:45

All the above wants there to be. To be free.

00:54:54

To be free.

00:55:02

To be free

00:55:05

To be free

00:55:13

To be free Thank you.

00:55:47

Where can we get that song?

00:55:55

I need to make it. Thank you.

00:56:06

Where can we get that song?

00:56:09

I need to make it.

00:56:12

What I’d really like to do is have four different people,

00:56:19

myself and three other singers, each person sing one of the verses

00:56:22

and have someone create a video, like an animation

00:56:25

around it to demonstrate the story of what drives us subliminally, what drives us through

00:56:35

our day, through our lives.

00:56:38

Sorry, guys.

00:56:40

You’re good.

00:56:41

You’re good.

00:56:42

I’m still here.

00:56:43

You’re still here.

00:56:47

Oh, you’re good. I’m still here. You’re still here.

00:56:58

Anything you guys feel like bringing up or any questions?

00:57:05

Ooh, questions, questions. Did you study psychology?

00:57:10

I haven’t gone to college and taken any classes

00:57:12

one of my favorite books

00:57:14

is called Influence

00:57:15

really like that book

00:57:17

my first introduction

00:57:20

to psychology was when Peter Gabriel

00:57:22

recorded a song called Milgrams 37

00:57:24

and I was like what is that? So I looked it up.

00:57:28

But I feel that in the process of what we’re

00:57:32

attempting to facilitate,

00:57:36

to consider how people orient themselves to these issues

00:57:40

is of utmost importance, not just to present the issues,

00:57:44

but to really know how to get inside and behind the barriers

00:57:50

that have been put in place there by a system,

00:57:53

an education system and a media that works to create an unthinking workforce

00:57:58

and people that don’t challenge authority and status quo.

00:58:03

So I’m a big fan.

00:58:06

I’m a big fan of understanding how nature works.

00:58:11

Could the open mic be somehow incorporated

00:58:13

in your rendition of the song?

00:58:16

Say again?

00:58:17

People’s mics, right.

00:58:19

We’re trying to think about how we can combine music

00:58:21

and the people’s mics.

00:58:24

Oh, yeah, sure. Well,

00:58:25

I’ll work on something. I think the best way

00:58:27

to do it is short

00:58:29

lines, not long

00:58:32

complex words that

00:58:33

roll off the tongue. I mean, the chorus

00:58:36

is simple, you know, for we are the many,

00:58:37

we’ll occupy the streets, and then

00:58:39

everybody could sing

00:58:40

an opposite line, like

00:58:43

one person sings a line, and they sing a line.

00:58:46

Or you could divide the crowd into parts where it was like a choir.

00:58:50

I mean, that’s how choirs work.

00:58:51

You have one part of the crowd singing this line,

00:58:53

one part of the crowd singing that line.

00:58:55

I’ve actually been contacted by choirs who are rearranging the song now.

00:59:00

It’s totally possible.

00:59:03

I wish you had been with us on September 17th when we took the park.

00:59:09

That was a really glorious day.

00:59:11

I would have liked to be there, but I may be able to come visit you folks soon.

00:59:15

Good. Yes, please do. Please, please, please.

00:59:19

I played for my friend’s travel agency last year for Christmas,

00:59:25

and he offered me a three-round-script flight

00:59:27

anywhere that I have to use before the end of the year.

00:59:30

So utilizing it to come to New York.

00:59:34

Well, maybe we can one-up the White House

00:59:36

and actually try to cover some of their expenses.

00:59:40

We’re not like that.

00:59:43

We handle our books a little better, I think.

00:59:47

Do they give any rationale

00:59:50

for why they don’t fund their musical guests?

00:59:58

Well, you know, no, they don’t.

01:00:02

I didn’t expect that.

01:00:03

The budget is for work. I didn’t expect that. The Vatid is for war.

01:00:06

I wasn’t really

01:00:08

concerned with that, but what did

01:00:10

personally bother me was that I was there

01:00:12

for six hours in a very

01:00:14

secure area with no food, and they

01:00:15

said they would feed me.

01:00:18

But, small sacrifice.

01:00:20

They didn’t feed you?

01:00:21

They were eating and they didn’t feed you?

01:00:23

That’s insane.

01:00:26

That is insane.

01:00:28

That’s a good smile.

01:00:30

Question authority!

01:00:32

Yes, that’s right.

01:00:34

You know, do you know with Lionel, there was a…

01:00:36

one of our…

01:00:38

I think our first big supporter was a musician.

01:00:40

Do you know…

01:00:42

Have you heard of Lupe Fiasco?

01:00:44

Oh, totally! He’s cool.

01:00:48

He was like the first sort of big name to get behind us.

01:00:52

But he actually donated the tents that we

01:00:56

put up on the third day. Oh!

01:01:00

And then they beat us down and stole our tents and our tarps.

01:01:04

And we were going to actually donate those, like Lupe said, and then they beat us down and stole our tents and our tarps.

01:01:07

And we were going to actually donate those tents.

01:01:09

Like Lupe said, I’m giving you these tents,

01:01:12

but when you’re done with them, we have to donate them to the homeless.

01:01:15

And the NYPD took them and won’t give them back.

01:01:19

But he was really behind us from the start.

01:01:21

And on the first day, on September 17th,

01:01:27

our first kickoff event was the New York Fun Exchange. We had music, we had artists and stilt walkers and all these things. It was really beautiful.

01:01:32

Awesome.

01:01:33

Yeah, we really kicked it off the prison.

01:01:35

Well, community is the answer to everything in my opinion. Community is the decentralization

01:01:41

of authority. It’s a structure that is sensitive to the needs.

01:01:46

If you look back to the history of Hawaii,

01:01:49

and it’s a long history,

01:01:51

but oftentimes we look at the history of Hawaii

01:01:54

as a chief system that was very violent.

01:01:57

There were a lot of wars.

01:01:59

But prior to that, there were many generations

01:02:01

where there was no weapon making in Hawaii,

01:02:04

and everything was ruled by something called the AHA Council.

01:02:07

The AHA Council ruled in different districts.

01:02:11

Each district had an AHA Council, from my understanding.

01:02:14

And the AHA Councils would bring to the table

01:02:18

issues that were of conflict or of influence

01:02:22

over the decisions made that would affect the community,

01:02:27

through a process called hobo pono pono.

01:02:30

Hobo pono pono is based on the word pono.

01:02:34

And the word pono, although after the missionaries arrived,

01:02:37

they translated it as righteousness.

01:02:39

Righteousness is a subjective term.

01:02:42

The term pono, in my definition, means balance, homeostasis,

01:02:46

that which nature always strives to achieve through its natural processes.

01:02:50

So through the term pono, you have ho’oponopono,

01:02:54

which is the coming together through discussions to bring about balance in the community.

01:03:00

It may not seem like a futuristic idea or something that involves a lot of technology,

01:03:05

or it may seem like, wow, I might have to be involved in my own governance.

01:03:09

Well, you better get involved if you want to be represented.

01:03:12

There is another example that I recommend this book to people.

01:03:17

It’s a story by Starhawk.

01:03:19

It’s called The Fifth Sacred Thing.

01:03:21

It’s one of my favorite stories, and it talks about post-apocalyptic California,

01:03:27

where in LA, they’ve really gone away from the vision that we have and gone into a highly

01:03:33

militarized society where only the super rich have lawns and grass and everyone else is dying

01:03:39

of starvation. And in San Francisco, they’ve completely let go of this system and they’ve

01:03:44

created a matriarchal

01:03:45

society where everyone serves in the community and all of the resources that are necessary

01:03:50

for life, fire, air, earth and water, are available to the community through public

01:03:54

works management.

01:03:56

And they talk about the point when the army comes up from LA and it tries to come and

01:04:01

take over San Francisco and San Francisco doesn’t have a military at that point.

01:04:07

And it’s really amazing because what she says in the book is such a profound thing.

01:04:10

You know, how do you stop an army?

01:04:11

Well, you have to look at them as individuals

01:04:13

and the individuals in that army

01:04:15

who are working against the people

01:04:17

that they are among, that they are one of,

01:04:20

have to realize that the decisions

01:04:22

haven’t already been made.

01:04:24

You decide to pick up the gun. You decide to haven’t already been made. You decide to pick

01:04:25

up the gun. You decide to pick up the baton. You decide to do all these things. No order

01:04:29

makes you hit a civilian. No order makes you strike someone. You have to make a decision

01:04:35

as a thinking individual to attack another human being who is unarmed and standing there

01:04:39

exercising their amendment. So it’s a choice, and the way that people are ruled is that they are

01:04:46

told all the decisions have been made, you just carry it out, and we will make sure that you are

01:04:51

paid so that you can survive. That’s not freedom. That’s not a free society. That’s blackmail.

01:04:58

And our police forces and our militaries are blackmailed and the individuals that comprise them are

01:05:05

making huge sacrifices trying to survive.

01:05:08

And they’re being blackmailed to attack the people that they should be protecting.

01:05:13

So in this book, it has a really amazing scenario.

01:05:17

Once again, it’s called Starhawk and it’s called the Fifth Sacred Thing.

01:05:21

But again, referring back to what we were talking about, you know, this country needs a big ho’oponopono

01:05:26

right now. And the only way it’s

01:05:28

going to come about is for us to realize

01:05:30

that, again, there are

01:05:32

a tiny select group of people

01:05:34

pulling a divide and conquer on us

01:05:36

and trying to get us to fight amongst ourselves.

01:05:39

And we

01:05:40

can’t allow that to happen.

01:05:47

There’s a song called Redirection.

01:05:52

If you listen to the earth, you will find

01:05:57

There are two kinds of people who dwell in this time

01:06:04

Those who choose to be free

01:06:11

and those who choose to control you and me if you can quiet your mind for a moment

01:06:24

breathing the sound

01:06:25

of the earth, the sky

01:06:27

let your perspective be

01:06:32

forgotten

01:06:33

and I’ll use them to

01:06:37

open wide

01:06:38

you will

01:06:41

feel the intoxication

01:06:44

of your soul, let it all go, let it go.

01:07:08

I had to send to the earth what I found Two kinds of noises that resound

01:07:14

Coming from a place known as fear

01:07:21

Is this the sound that you hear?

01:07:29

I am a single man, I strive to be one with the universe

01:07:36

You’re my song

01:07:39

And if you listen to your heart, you’ll remember who you were long ago. I’m coming home I’m coming home I’m coming home

01:08:06

I’m coming home

01:08:08

I’m coming home

01:08:10

I’m coming home

01:08:12

I’m coming home

01:08:14

Thank you.

01:08:16

Well, I think I’d like to share one more song before I go eat because I’m starving.

01:08:29

And I’m gonna go visit my friend Dave’s,

01:08:32

he started a farm here, so I’m gonna go visit that

01:08:34

and then I’m gonna go do a sound check.

01:08:38

But I’m gonna move the computer over to the piano

01:08:41

and try to see if I can play this little ditty for you.

01:08:44

And while I do that, is there anything else we’d like to bring up in the dialogue?

01:08:53

We have a request to be able to take a picture with you at the end.

01:08:58

We kind of said don’t move after the song.

01:09:00

That could be challenging. Okay. Also, for those of you

01:09:06

out there who haven’t seen our music

01:09:08

video yet of the song

01:09:09

that is in support of this movement

01:09:11

and of people’s rights,

01:09:14

it’s called

01:09:16

We Are The Many.

01:09:17

And if you go on YouTube

01:09:19

and put in my name, Makana,

01:09:21

M-A-K-A-N-A,

01:09:24

and the title, We Are the Many.

01:09:26

You will be able to hear it.

01:09:28

And underneath the video, there’s a free download of the song.

01:09:31

We’ve offered it for free to everyone.

01:09:33

And we’ve had a lot of emails, I mean, hundreds of emails

01:09:36

from different OWS camps around the country,

01:09:40

and in Spain, in Peru, Argentina, Amsterdam, Japan, Russia,

01:09:47

and people are starting to sing the songs.

01:09:50

So we’ve been asked a lot for a chord chart,

01:09:53

and my guitar tech, who I’d also like to recognize for a moment,

01:09:58

someone who did a lot to inspire people.

01:10:02

His name is Budgie, and he’s been my guitar tech for about 15 years,

01:10:06

and he’s the one who videoed me playing the song at the dinner at APEC.

01:10:11

So, yay, Budgie.

01:10:13

Thanks for risking your okole and the screen capture in the video

01:10:20

when other phones were being confiscated.

01:10:28

But, yeah, check it out. YouTube. We are the many. Makana. And Dave, can you give me an

01:10:32

office? So, wait, sorry, I missed that.

01:10:36

The video on YouTube is the one from the dinner?

01:10:40

There’s two videos on YouTube. If you go to YouTube.com

01:10:44

Makana videos,

01:10:45

you can see both of them.

01:10:47

One of them is a video called Occupy with Allah,

01:10:51

and that has footage from the dinner

01:10:53

and talks about what happened.

01:10:55

And then the song that has been inspiring a lot of people

01:10:57

is called We Are the Many,

01:10:59

and you can search for that on YouTube.

01:11:01

We Are the Many, Makara.

01:11:06

I should probably ask

01:11:09

if anybody on the live stream has questions

01:11:12

because there’s lots more of them.

01:11:14

Sure.

01:11:15

There’s many more of them than there are of us.

01:11:17

Does anyone out there have any questions

01:11:19

for Makana?

01:11:20

We will relay that

01:11:22

to him and see if we can get some questions

01:11:24

answered. So please, if you have any questions for Makana, ask them relay that to him and see if we can get some questions answered. So please, if you have any

01:11:26

questions for Makana, ask them

01:11:28

now in the chat.

01:11:30

There’s so many thousands of questions.

01:11:32

Do you have a way of

01:11:33

reading their questions?

01:11:36

Yep, just one second.

01:11:38

I want to see if some come through right now.

01:11:39

Coming in right now. Wait one second.

01:11:41

Okay, great.

01:11:42

How many do we have watching right now?

01:11:45

About 700.

01:11:46

700 on Acrobat NYC, and then do we get onto Global too?

01:11:50

I can’t see it right now, so I’m not sure.

01:11:52

I think so, though.

01:11:53

700 more eyes on this record.

01:11:56

You mean one-eyed Cyclops people or 1,400 eyes?

01:12:03

So they’re asking…

01:12:05

They’re asking where does he perform

01:12:11

and does he have any tour plans for

01:12:12

the mainland?

01:12:14

All of the information that we will

01:12:17

put up for live performances is at

01:12:18

makanamusic.com

01:12:20

M-A-K-A-N-A music.com

01:12:23

and I don’t have a tour currently

01:12:25

planned

01:12:25

I’m working on

01:12:27

recording music

01:12:28

I’m an independent

01:12:28

artist

01:12:29

I don’t have

01:12:30

a label behind me

01:12:31

so it’s

01:12:33

a little more

01:12:34

challenging for us

01:12:35

to get things

01:12:36

organized like that

01:12:37

but

01:12:37

our intention

01:12:39

is to get out

01:12:39

on tour

01:12:40

and

01:12:41

inspire and record

01:12:42

a lot of the songs

01:12:43

that I played

01:12:43

for you folks today

01:12:44

so that’s all going to be happening in the next few months and inspire and record a lot of the songs that I played for you folks today.

01:12:48

So that’s all I’m going to be having in the next few months.

01:12:51

And if anyone has any connections or links to help to get me out there to play for them,

01:12:53

just email us at the website.

01:12:56

And, you know, I’m just here to share my music.

01:12:59

I’m very blessed to be able to have a career

01:13:02

of playing traditional Hawaiian music

01:13:04

and contemporary Hawaiian music.

01:13:05

The people of Hawaii and around the world have supported me in that music.

01:13:09

I will continue to play my Hawaiian music.

01:13:12

It’s my passion.

01:13:14

But at the forefront of my creativity right now are songs that are relevant to what is going on in society.

01:13:21

One of my biggest inspirations was Thomas Mokfuno, who is a

01:13:25

freedom singer from Zimbabwe. And he said, you know, we as musicians have a responsibility

01:13:30

to sing about what is going on in the lives of the people. And so that’s my mission right

01:13:37

now.

01:13:38

So just lots of people saying that they’re very inspired by the things that you’re saying uh you’re a poet warrior and uh also wondering if you’ve considered crowdfunding for a tour oh sure yeah i haven’t

01:13:53

thought about that that would be great um i’ll uh talk to my friends and see if we can uh i guess

01:14:00

go to one of those you go to a website or something and put that up.

01:14:07

Yeah, I mean.

01:14:08

We should work with you.

01:14:10

We should work with you to get a tour going.

01:14:17

We’re trying to get a whole bunch of artists in support to do like a solidarity tour around different occupations.

01:14:19

At least the ones that haven’t been torn apart.

01:14:21

Right. Well, you know, one of the things I wanted to bring up was that we’re blessed with perfect climate here 24-7, 365 days a year in Hawaii, but it is not the case in many other places.

01:14:34

And we’re entering winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and I don’t want people to get discouraged or think that the movement is slowing down.

01:14:44

or think that the movement is slowing down.

01:14:48

And so one of the things I tell people is, first of all,

01:14:55

the camps are physical representations of a movement that is much bigger than the camp.

01:14:59

Just like you guys said to me, there are only a few people sitting in this room,

01:15:01

but there are many more people involved right now.

01:15:06

And so I was just having a thought, maybe we can talk about it later, but what if we, in my mind I see this town hall kind of thing happening.

01:15:13

I’ve always wanted more of a town hall thing where we had music and dialogues

01:15:16

and rallies in big town halls that were indoors so people weren’t freezing.

01:15:21

And we could create events like that maybe around the country.

01:15:24

I don’t know, what do you guys think about that idea?

01:15:26

Yeah.

01:15:28

Sounds great.

01:15:29

It’s a success.

01:15:31

Cool.

01:15:31

I think it’s a success.

01:15:32

And, uh…

01:15:33

This is a song that I’m working on,

01:15:40

and I’m just going to play you a part of it.

01:15:45

I’m a very beginner piano player, but I write on the piano,

01:15:48

and it’s called Play It Again, Sam.

01:15:50

And Sam, of course, you know, there’s the reference to the classic Casablanca film,

01:15:54

but also Sam as Uncle Sam,

01:15:57

and a song about what a lot of people are going through right now

01:16:01

is struggling with the loss of their ability to achieve

01:16:07

what has always been considered the American dream.

01:16:12

So I’m going to play this for you.

01:16:13

It’s called Play It Again, Sam.

01:16:16

And a couple of the keys on the piano are missing, so I’ll do my best.

01:16:20

Can you hear the piano okay?

01:16:21

Okay.

01:16:35

I woke up today So very confused

01:16:38

Don’t know what I’ve gained

01:16:41

Or what I’ve got to lose

01:16:45

Fire in my eyes

01:16:49

Is burning through my brain

01:16:51

The stress in my mind

01:16:55

Is all I need

01:16:58

I woke up today

01:17:01

So very confused.

01:17:05

Don’t know where I stand, and if I still can choose.

01:17:13

Where my life will go, who I want to be.

01:17:19

Do I have the power to make my dreams reality?

01:17:25

To make my dreams reality Play it again, Sam

01:17:28

Play the one I love

01:17:32

Before the tears are crying

01:17:35

I need some strength on my body

01:17:39

Play it again, Sam

01:17:42

Play the one I love. Play the water, love.

01:17:47

Before the tears are crying.

01:17:50

The leaves are straight.

01:17:52

Falling down the bottom.

01:17:56

Thank you, Sam.

01:18:02

So beautiful.

01:18:04

So beautiful.

01:18:06

Thank you so much, you guys. Thank you so much, you guys,

01:18:10

for helping me to share this inspiration with people

01:18:11

and for being here.

01:18:13

It’s great to meet you.

01:18:14

Great to meet you, too.

01:18:17

Eric, our photographer,

01:18:18

wants to get a picture,

01:18:19

so I guess we should all go.

01:18:20

You stay there.

01:18:22

You guys go.

01:18:22

Let’s go to you.

01:18:26

No, you can’t. You have to lie You stay there. You stay there.

01:18:28

You stay there.

01:18:30

You stay there.

01:18:32

You stay there.

01:18:34

You stay there.

01:18:36

You stay there.

01:18:38

You stay there.

01:18:40

You stay there.

01:18:42

You stay there.

01:18:44

You stay there. You stay there. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Are we going to do the, wait, how do we do the, this thing?

01:18:48

Yeah, this.

01:18:49

Let’s just close to the monitor.

01:18:52

Your face is close to the monitor on the monitor.

01:18:55

Thanks.

01:18:56

All right.

01:18:57

Yeah.

01:18:58

Right on.

01:18:59

OK.

01:19:03

Your head might come a little higher

01:19:05

there you go

01:19:06

ok guys

01:19:08

1

01:19:09

2

01:19:11

1 more

01:19:13

alright

01:19:17

thank you

01:19:17

thank you

01:19:22

thank you so much

01:19:23

thanks all you guys.

01:19:25

Appreciate it.

01:19:26

Let’s stay in touch. Maybe I’ll visit you soon.

01:19:29

You were just watching Makana

01:19:31

playing live from Honolulu, Hawaii.

01:19:35

Makana is the songwriter

01:19:37

of the song

01:19:38

that he played at the

01:19:41

APEC conference in Hawaii.

01:19:43

Thank you, guys.

01:19:44

Thank you.

01:19:45

It was amazing.

01:19:47

Yeah, The Money is the name of that song.

01:19:50

Check out makanamusic.com for more information about Makana.

01:19:55

Thank you so much for tuning in.

01:19:57

We’re going to take a short break,

01:19:58

and should be back with more live content soon.

01:20:01

Time is 6.48 p.mpm Eastern Standard Time. You are watching

01:20:05

Occupy NYC.

01:20:08

Thanks for tuning in.

01:20:12

That was a nice sound. Sorry about that.

01:20:14

Have a great night, folks.

01:20:17

You’re listening to the Psychedelic Salon,

01:20:20

where people are changing their lives

01:20:22

one thought at a time.

01:20:26

Well, there’s certainly a lot more that I’d like to talk about right now,

01:20:29

but I’m going to have to save that for the next time.

01:20:33

What I am going to do right now, however,

01:20:35

is to play a brief statement that Deepak Chopra made at Occupy Los Angeles

01:20:40

just a few days before a mercenary army of over 1,400 well-trained military stormtroopers

01:20:47

swooped down on well about 200 peaceful protesters and locked them up for exercising what in the

01:20:54

days of old were called their first amendment rights. And of course these military style

01:20:59

battles are now taking place almost daily in cities big and small all over the world,

01:21:05

as the people of the world are finally beginning to rise up and cast off their chains of debt

01:21:11

and discouragement, and at long last begin to retake this planet back from those few

01:21:18

wealthy families who have been keeping their boots on the necks of us working people for

01:21:22

far too long now.

01:21:23

So now here are a few comments by Deepak Chopra.

01:21:52

So, first of all, I do not come here to give counsel. I just want to share some ideas with humility and hopefully with some creativity.

01:22:04

With humility and hopefully with some creativity.

01:22:08

With humility and hopefully with some creativity.

01:22:10

So the first thing is… So the first thing is…

01:22:11

The Occupy movement is unstoppable.

01:22:15

The Occupy movement is unstoppable.

01:22:20

It’s like a child that has been born…

01:22:24

It is like a child that has been born cannot return to the womb.

01:22:31

So it is unstoppable.

01:22:35

But a child is fragile

01:22:37

and has to be nurtured with love and caring.

01:22:42

It has to be nurtured with love and caring. There is moral outrage, even moral outrage, is still rage.

01:23:10

And we understand consciousness.

01:23:15

We do not want to engage in more rage in the consciousness.

01:23:21

We do not want to engage in more rage in the consciousness.

01:23:26

No problem will be solved at the level of consciousness at which it was created.

01:23:41

So remember, what do we want?

01:23:46

We want social justice.

01:23:51

We want economic justice.

01:23:56

Political justice.

01:23:59

Sustainability.

01:24:03

Peace.

01:24:04

Health and well-being, happiness.

01:24:09

Let’s not forget that outcome.

01:24:14

And as long as we keep that in our consciousness,

01:24:17

then the love that is here and the action that is motivated by that love will achieve the outcome.

01:24:36

Love without action is meaningless.

01:24:40

And action without love is irrelevant. What we are starting with the Occupy movement

01:24:53

is a movement of love in action. So just keep that in mind. If next week they evict us,

01:25:09

move somewhere else close by

01:25:11

and occupy.

01:25:13

And if they come there and evict us,

01:25:22

move again and occupy.

01:25:30

Keep moving and keep occupying.

01:25:33

Keep moving and keep occupying.

01:25:36

And let us also occupy ourselves.

01:25:39

Let us also occupy ourselves.

01:25:42

That’s our next stage. Occupy yourself.

01:25:46

Occupy yourself.

01:25:48

We are the 100%.

01:25:50

We are the 100%.

01:25:53

Love in action.

01:25:55

Love in action.

01:25:56

Thank you.

01:25:57

Thank you.

01:25:58

Love you.

01:26:03

And for now, this is Lorenzo signing off from Cyberdelic Space.

01:26:07

Be well, my friends.

01:26:09

And let’s go out listening one more time to Makana’s anthem, We Are the Many.

01:26:14

We Are the Many Thank you. To steal from us the value of our wage.

01:26:49

From underneath the vestiture of law.

01:26:54

The lobbyists at Washington do not.

01:26:59

At liberty the bureaucrats guffaw.

01:27:05

And until they are perched we won’t withdraw We’ll occupy the streets

01:27:09

We’ll occupy the courts

01:27:12

We’ll occupy the offices of you

01:27:16

Till you do

01:27:18

The bidding of the many, not the few Our nation was built upon the rights

01:27:37

Of every person to improve their plight

01:27:43

The laws of this

01:27:46

republic they rewrite

01:27:48

And now a few own

01:27:52

everything in sight

01:27:54

They own it free of liability

01:27:58

They own that they are not like you

01:28:04

and me

01:28:05

Their influence dictates legality

01:28:10

And until they are stopped, we are not free

01:28:16

We’ll occupy the streets

01:28:20

We’ll occupy the courts

01:28:22

We’ll occupy the offices of you

01:28:27

Till you do

01:28:29

The bidding of the many, not the few

01:28:35

You enforce your monopolies with guns

01:28:49

While sacrificing our daughters and sons

01:28:54

But certain things belong to everyone

01:28:59

Your thievery has left the people none

01:29:05

So take heed of our notice to redress

01:29:11

We had little to lose, we must confess

01:29:16

Your empty words do leave us unimpressed

01:29:22

A growing number join us in protest

01:29:27

we occupy the streets

01:29:31

we occupy the courts

01:29:34

we occupy the offices

01:29:36

of you

01:29:38

till you do

01:29:40

the bidding of the many

01:29:44

not the

01:29:46

few

01:29:46

you can’t

01:29:57

divide us in two sides

01:30:00

and from our gaze

01:30:04

you cannot hide

01:30:05

Denial serves to amplify

01:30:11

And our allegiance you can’t buy

01:30:16

Our government is not for sale

01:30:22

The banks do not deserve

01:30:26

a bail

01:30:27

We will not reward those

01:30:32

who fail

01:30:33

We’ll not move till we prevail

01:30:38

We’ll occupy the streets

01:30:43

We’ll occupy the courts We’ll occupy the streets, we’ll occupy the courts, we’ll occupy the arms of the youth.

01:30:50

Till you do the bidding of the many, not the few.

01:31:00

We’ll occupy the streets, We’ll occupy the courts.

01:31:05

We’ll occupy the offices of you till you do.

01:31:14

The bidding of the many, not the few.

01:31:19

We are the many.

01:31:23

You are the few.