The Echelon

It is not easy to describe and explain the Echelon. But I will try because I promised you a story about Me, the Band and the Echelon.

Me, you know me already, or at least that bit about me that I shared on here. I was unhappy with my life and the Music of 30 Seconds to Mars helped me and changed me. The Process of Change was fucking hard, it made me insecure, I questioned myself and I cried a lot. I am still very emotional when it comes to everything related to me and the whole Band/Echelon thing. I means a lot to me.

The Band is called 30 Seconds to Mars, they have been around since 1998 but actually became famous only a few years ago. Most people probably got to know them because they publically fought a war with their record company who had sued them for 30 Million Dollars, apparently because they broke their contract. Following the lawsuit they released an Album called ”This is War” and they have been on tour for most of the time during the last two years. They are Jared Leto, known by a lot of people because of his acting career, his brother Shannon and Tomo, who used to be a Fan himself and was lucky he is such an excellent guitarist so he would be able to become a band member when the Band needed a new guitarist.

At the beginning there was the Echelon and the Mars Army, the Army being their overall group of Fans and the Echelon being a group of dedicated Fans organized in Street Teams who would promote the band on the Streets or online, posting Flyers or doing small Missions like collectively requesting a certain song to be played on the radio, to make other people aware of the band. But over time it evolved, with the Internet, Twitter and Facebook connecting people worldwide and now the Echelon involves every dedicated Fan.

Becoming an Echelon means entering a worldwide group of fiercely dedicated fans, People who would live and breathe the band every day, who discuss every little thing about them, who listen to their music every day, who go to see them live as often as possible and much more. Some of them even follow the band around the World/Country/Continent they live in. But the Echelon is more. I am sure there are other bands with equally dedicated fans that follow them around. But the Echelon is also about connecting with others, connecting people around the world, the love for this band brings together people from all age groups, religions, gender, believes  and countries. Most of them feel that the music has helped them during difficult times in their lives. All of them will be able to tell you how Mars and their music has helped or changed them and how happy and grateful they are for meeting others who can relate. If you enter the World of the Echelon you are greeted with a warm welcome, you are accepted as who you are, people won’t judge you, and the Echelon know if you love the band, you surely can’t be a bad person. We, the Echelon, call ourselves a family and the Band also calls us their own, worldwide, kind of crazy and dysfunctional family. As there are members all over the world you are never alone, no matter what time one of us is online, if you ask something or need someone to talk, there is always someone there.

I read something about Jared Leto once where he said he was always kind of an outsider, an odd kid; he and his brother grew up in communes, the parents separated and their mother became part of a group of hippies, always on the move, so they already kind of grew up in a dysfunctional family environment. The music they make is also kind of odd and special, it doesn’t really fit, same with the Music Videos, they are all special, especially the one for Hurricane, which was banned from a lot of TV Stations for being too sexual.

I was an Outsider as a kid and even though it bothered me, I didn’t think about adapting to fit in. I just became friends with others who were like me. But when you grow up, get married and have kids it is necessary to adapt to the life and world around you, to fit in with the other normal, married couples with kids (or at least that is what I thought I had to do). I did that, but apparently it didn’t fit me. I wasn’t myself anymore and therefore unhappy. Finding Mars and becoming an Echelon helped me realize that no one should adapt just for the heck of it, people either like you the (crazy) way you are, or not. I learned that everyone should follow their dreams, to be the person they are or want to be, no matter what others think. That everything is possible if you just believe in it and yourself.

I have found friends through the Echelon, that are like me, right now they are still only online friends because they are scattered around the country and the world, but I hope to see some of them soon at one of the concerts. I feel like I can tell them a lot of things and they will still like me, they will care and help, laugh and cry with me. I have never made friends so fast like I did with the people I met on my Echelon Groups.

The Echelon in a Phenomenon, who knows if it is just a trend and will long be forgotten in a decade or two. It is odd and weird, most people call it a Cult, it makes them uncomfortable that people care about it so much, some people have called it a sect and say that everyone of the fans has been brainwashed (which by the way is not true). It is different, it is something new, that hasn’t been there before, it is worldwide and that probably scares a lot of people. If you are not a part of it you won’t understand it. That is OK as long as you respect me and the others for what we do and like and for who we are. I might not be part of it anymore in 10 years but I will always remember how it helped me in a time when I really needed it.

As Jared Leto once said:

“Some people ask us if this is a cult, I say this, it’s something special, it’s not for everyone, it’s only for those who understand”

If you want to learn more, ask. Or go online. There are hundreds of pages on the web that will tell you about the Band and the Echelon. BBC 1 shot a short film and also recorded a one-hour Radio Documentary about Mars and the Echelon. Listen, read and enjoy…

Be who you want to be, follow your dreams……..Jump and touch the Sky!!!

Irene