We Need A New John Brown

We could use a “new John Brown” in the US. We need compassionate and courageous leaders who aren’t afraid to speak truth to power. They’re out there calling to us. Find them. Fight with them and win.

We Need A New John Brown

by C.A. Matthews

You never know what you’ll come across at your local library. I’m just surprised we didn’t come across this DVD earlier. You may have seen The Good Lord Bird, a mini-series of seven episodes based on the novel by James McBride of the same name. It played on Showtime about six years ago, but we hadn’t seen it, and it sounded like an interesting title.

As we watched the series, I started thinking about the state of things today and how it’s a good time to watch a show about an abolitionist who literally shook up a nation. John Brown is often credited with being one of the main catalysts that started the American Civil War. I think his experiences as an activist could teach us a lot.

Ethan Hawke gives a stunning performance as a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer when it came to doing whatever he deemed necessary to end slavery. A self-described “militant Christian,” Brown wasn’t afraid to use force if he felt it would gain the freedom of the enslaved. But was he as “crazy” and dangerously impulsive as he’s been described? We’ll never know for certain, but Brown was both revered and feared in equal measure throughout his lifetime—and even beyond—so much so that he often warrants only a short footnote in a high school history text.

It seems American activists who aren’t afraid to stand up to the immoral powers-that-be in Washington DC aren’t people we’re supposed to learn about. Funny that.

The Good Lord Bird is a fictionalized account of John Brown’s last days, but the show stealer is a precocious enslaved boy, Henry a.k.a. “Onion”, portrayed to perfection by Joshua Caleb Johnson. Somehow Henry is mistaken for a girl after his father is killed in one of Brown’s shoot outs with slave owners. Contrite, Brown “adopts Henrietta” as his own child. Henry is an excellent narrator of the saga, telling us all he experiences with innocence and passion. He follows the resolute John Brown and his sons, along with an “army” of a dozen or so whites, blacks, and even a Native American to their ultimate confrontation with the pro-slavery government troops at the Harpers Ferry federal armory.

Watching this story of John Brown’s life got me thinking: We really could use a “new John Brown” in the US. We need a compassionate and courageous leader who isn’t afraid to tell truth to power. It doesn’t have to be an middle-aged, white male, either. It could be a “Joanna Brown” or a person of any age, race, ethnicity, religion, or gender identity. And why settle for one when we could use dozens of John Browns spread across the country? Americans definitely need charismatic and decisive leaders who aren’t afraid to take their “troops” into battle against the evil foe of the oligarchy.

What characteristics should we look for in this new John Brown(s)? I say that one thing in activism that has been ignored in recent years is the important role religion and spirituality play in American culture. Most white Americans’ ancestors immigrated to the New World in order to practice their faith without fear or hindrance. Native American cultures are highly spiritual, combining their love of the land and nature along with their beliefs in the Great Spirit. Even those who were captured and enslaved found comfort in their religion and rituals.

We can’t deny this aspect of American culture if we want to raise up strong leaders to lead the people in taking on the ruling elite. It’s perhaps the only thing that truly unites Americans—this ardent need to express our spirituality.

John Brown personified this spiritual aspect of American culture with his dynamic mixture of “Love thy neighbor” while simultaneously not being afraid to destroy the evils of slavery that drove Americans apart. You could say he met this tension with varying degrees of success, but he certainly didn’t hold back. Brown sought to keep the peace between the races by providing freedom and equality for all. He knew it would be an uphill battle within a pro-slavery capitalist system. In the end, it was his inner strength to physically fight for the rights of all peoples that made (and still makes) some label John Brown as an “insane” or “violent” individual. Which leads me to my next point:

“A sane person to an insane society must appear insane.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House

John Brown scared people. I don’t think it had so much to do with how some thought him capable of violence—as carrying a firearm and shoot outs were fairly common in the 1850s—but because of the clarity of his vision. Brown saw clearly how the evils of slavery were destroying his country from within. He saw how those who dehumanize others ultimately dehumanize themselves. The slave owners were every bit as “enslaved” to the corrupt system of capitalism as their enslaved workers were to them. All were suffering.

What many antebellum Americans deemed “crazy” or unreasonable about John Brown was the fact that he didn’t keep quiet like most people in that time period did, whether they personally approved of slavery or not. In other words, Brown wasn’t exactly polite all the time, and he couldn’t help but mention the elephant in the room—slavery—every chance he got.

Brown wasn’t afraid to point out the villains who kept slavery legal, either. He pointed them out and held them responsible for their sins. It was this moral clarity and willingness to do whatever it takes that made John Brown attractive to his fellow abolitionists and all those tired of the corrupt system that maintained the status quo of slavery. He never once compromised his position. He never once stayed silent on the issue.

This is what we need to see in a new John Brown—a leader who doesn’t compromise with evil. This includes leadership who won’t compromise with “lesser evils” or those who try to have it both ways. These faux leaders have led the US down many dangerous paths. These charlatans in political office blame “the other party” or “communists” or “unions” when things go wrong. But it would be crystal clear to a new John Brown that these faux leaders have been cooperating with or profiting from evil all along and need to be stopped.

Faux leadership manipulating elections is just another way to keep Americans divided. Americans being tricked into voting for only one of two candidates paid off by the military-industrial complex and AIPAC is an evil a new John Brown wouldn’t shut up about, no matter how impolite such truthfulness might come across to the ruling elites.

As John Brown would have said, “There ain’t such a thing as a moral slave owner!” The fact that one person owns another human being and/or treats them as an inferior proves their lack of morality. A modern example of “slave owners” are Zionists who treat Palestinians and other ethnic groups as inferiors, waging constant genocide upon others to steal their land and resources. John Brown would have had nothing to do with today’s Zionists or any American leaders who cooperate with them—and neither should we.

So, why haven’t we see a new John Brown(s) rise up in America within the last 160 years? Good question. My thought is that perhaps bold moral and spiritual leaders have risen up, but they were shot down by the corrupt system before their message could be heard and fully understood by all. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X spring to mind. Shot down in their prime, can you imagine what positive changes could have occurred had these two Americans lived even a decade or two longer?

It’s sad to think what all Americans have lost because of the sick, degenerate ruling elite. The oligarchy has assassinated our righteous leaders and freely kidnapped, raped and murdered children with the help of Zionist agents such as Jeffrey Epstein. It’s sad how the American people have been propagandized into thinking the apartheid regime of Israel has “the most moral army in the world” while the IDF is actively mass murdering hundreds of thousands in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon in a seemingly endless genocide. John Brown must be spinning in his grave because none of these evil people have been held responsible for their war crimes yet.

Remember that John Brown lived before radio, television, and the internet. His fame spread mainly through word of mouth. People heard him speak in person and told others about the energy and passion they witnessed and his vision of a world where all are equal. The,y in turn, shared his message with others, who shared it with others, and so on and so on. In this day and age of the internet, we’ve lost touch with just how impactful a first person witness can be in inspiring others to take action.

Seeing John Brown in person left a strong impression and many found the experience life-changing. People freely gave Brown money for the abolitionist cause and signed up to fight alongside him at Harpers Ferry. We rarely see leaders like John Brown promoted in today’s corporate media, mainly because the ruling elite finds them “dangerous” or “threatening”. So the corporate media ignores or censors John Brown(s) and runs their reputations into the ground before they gain too much traction with the working classes.

The current label favored in the West for those possessing John Brown’s moral strength and clarity of vision is usually “terrorist.”

Billionaires don’t want ordinary people following charismatic figures who’ll fight for love and equality because those things might cut into the capitalists’ profits. Keeping ordinary folks divided and fighting among themselves benefits those at the top, not us at the bottom. The mainstream media will tell us to stop looking for a John Brown because none are trustworthy.

The elites and their corporate-owned-and-operated media have dulled many Americans sense of moral outrage. We fall for the lie that there is no longer a need for a new John Brown. We learn that it’s prudent to cooperate with our betters—such as allowing billionaire Tech Bros to build a power-hogging, water-polluting data center next to our homes without protest. Life is much easier if we do as we’re told.

John Brown has been painted as a strange, nutcase of a man, the kind of original leader to be avoided at all costs. Who needs an activist stirring up trouble when we can stay silent and enjoy McDonalds and Netflix?

And so the status quo remains unshaken. We remain enslaved to our masters. And corruption and racism is still with us today, no different than it was in 19^th century America.

We need a new John Brown. And we definitely could use more than one to preach real freedom to a country that has grown exponentially in size and population since 1859. If there ever was a time for a loud, proud, anti-war, anti-corruption, anti-Zionist, anti-pedophile, pro-worker leader with the clarity of vision and moral courage of a John Brown, today is the day.

The Abolitionists worked tirelessly for many decades before they saw the abolishment of slavery in the US. They are still fighting slavery today in our retributive for-profit prisons. They are still fighting for freedom for immigrants trapped unfairly in ICE custody. Releasing the captives has become the modern cause of a John Brown—this is our new Harpers Ferry. Activists must boldly take on an immoral government that has only the billionaires’ interests in mind.

Will American activists experience defeat and be martyred for the cause like John Brown and some of his followers were? It’s possible. Then again, we won’t know if we can achieve victory or not until we try. We can learn from the examples of other activists, such as the Red Ponchos, but ultimately we must find and develop our own American-style of leadership and carry on the good fight in our own way.

We need new John Browns. They’re out there calling to us. Open your heart and listen for them. Find them and nurture them. Fight with them and win.

Conscientious Objectors: Call the G.I. Rights Hotline at 1-877-447-4487 or the Center for Conscience & War at 1-800-379-2679.

What would John Brown do? Why, he’d read Indie Journalism, of course!

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