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TechnoratiDetroit, the once-proud capital of industrialization is now the paragon of de-industrialization and urban decay.
General Motors' July 15 announcement that it will cut white-collar employment costs by 20 percent is just one more nail in the industrial coffin.
Actually, this job-cutting phenomenon isn't new. It's been going on since the 1960s when the car companies began automating blue-collar assembly line jobs. Since the 1980s they have been steadily chipping away at the white-collar jobs by offering middle managers early retirement buy-outs.
This is the next American revolution, said Dr. Grace Lee Boggs, 93, a long-time Detroit activist and a Bryn Mawr-educated philosopher.
"We are at a stage in human history that is as monumental as changing from a hunter/gatherer society to an agricultural society and from an agricultural society to and industrial society. Where we're headed now will be different because we have exhausted planetary space and human space for us to continue to look at things through the Cartesian measurement of material things."
In other words, a new epoch is emerging that emphasizes relationships and communities more than the accumulation of things -- and the counting of profits.
A trip to Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, a mere 30 minutes from downtown Detroit, illustrates how the nineteenth century Industrial Revolution grew into the twentieth century consumerist society, which was plush with inventions and conveniences that raised the living standards of middle class Americans. People could afford these products because so many of them left their farms and took higher-paying factory jobs in the cities. However, those good wages came at a price: people became mindless cogs in a giant machine, as Charlie Chaplin depicted in the film, "Modern Times."
Industrialization was a far cry from the first American Revolution of 1776, which was about people giving of themselves for the larger community, said Grace. That sentiment yielded to a European colonial mentality that justified taking natural resources from Africa, Asia and Latin America in order to manufacture products and sell them at huge profits.
"We need to face the way we used the world for our gains, pleasures, satisfactions," said Grace. "This is the way we evolve to a higher stage of humanity. And unless we want to live in terror for the rest of our lives, we need to change our view about acquiring things."
The industrial society also skirted social justice concerns by focusing on jobs and paychecks as a means of keeping the economy going and the people happy. It didn't face the fact that the workers were demeaned and deskilled or that some of the products they made (like military equipment) or some of the processes they used (which involved dangerous chemicals) could be harmful.
Actually, people have only had "jobs" for the past 100 years. These jobs had nothing to do with being productive, making products essential for living or deriving personal growth or the enjoyment of life. Jobs led people to believe that anything they did for pay was good -- no matter how destructive it was to the person, the community or the environment.
Now, in the twenty-first century after hundreds of thousands of jobs have been moved offshore and collapsed many local economies, Grace believes that the way has been cleared for the next American revolution, especially since a number of other factors make the need for change both obvious and necessary:
- Occupation of Iraq;
- Environmental degradation, species extinction and global warming;
- Polarization of the rich and poor in the United States and in the global North and South;
- Economic instability with trillions of dollars of debt, housing foreclosures and the loss of local small businesses and farms.
She said that the turning point occurred in 1999 when protesters' demonstrations effectively closed the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting held in Seattle. A worldwide movement was kicked off to challenge the rapacious global economy that was shifting the labor market to the lowest bidder in a kind of race to the bottom.
"We usually think of revolution as violence," said Grace. "However, revolution is more about envisioning what is possible when it appears that things are changing." She believes that Detroit, in particular, is fertile ground for this next revolution because it is such a devastated city.
Detroit has 70,000 vacant lots where neighborhoods and commercial properties once stood. And although the city looks like it has been bombed, Grace sees a silver lining: the city no longer has to adhere to the usual capitalist mantra of growth and expansion because it is absolutely clear that the industrial system is finished. This fact allows citizens to respond by starting something new all over again.
Grace and her husband, Jimmy Boggs (now deceased), a 30-year Chrysler autoworker, and a host of their friends began articulating the next revolution in the 1980s. Their work eventually planted the seeds for "Detroit Summer" in 1992 where young and old would re-generate their neighborhoods by developing community gardens and producing public works of art.
This effort further blossomed into forming a local agricultural network that is now impacting the city's food system by growing thousands of pounds of fresh, nutritious produce through organic agriculture techniques, finding alternative uses of blighted spaces, creating income generating activities, and diversifying crops and products for market.
Gardens are also affecting larger issues like reducing crime, cleaning up trash-strewn lots, connecting people to nature, nurturing leadership in citizens young and old and improving property values. What's more, gardens have rekindled people's hope in the future, a sentiment missing in Detroit since the "rebellion" of 1967.
This revolution urges citizens not to stand around and wait for leaders to initiate needed changes. Instead, individuals are learning that they can enlist others to help them rebuild their communities. Interestingly, it's the young who are especially stepping up to this challenge through local service programs, college projects, and the creation of small businesses and organizations.
"What we're witnessing is a national government that is incapable of solving the questions of our society and our world because politicians are so subject to lobbyists and corporations that fund their campaigns, that they can't do what needs to be done," said Grace.
She cited Paul Hawken's book, "Blessed Unrest," which discusses how small groups all over the world are rebuilding their communities from the ground up and changing the world because people are connecting to one another.
"We have the opportunity to take a great leap forward in these very challenging times," said Grace. "We need to change our institutions and ourselves. We need to seize opportunities. We need to launch our imaginations beyond the thinking of the past. We need to discern who we are and expand on our humanness and sacredness. That's how we change the world, which happens because WE will be the change."
Olga Bonfiglio, who grew up in Downriver Detroit and graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit, is now a professor at Kalamazoo College where she teaches a class in urban revitalization. Her website is www.OlgaBonfiglio.com and her e-mail address is olgabonfiglio@yahoo.com.
81 Comments so far
Show Alljust a simple comment- our new mantra
"BUY LOCAL"
[...] Though, my zucchini is doing a bit toooo well….
Recycle1 July 21st, 2008 9:32 am
Lol, lol! They're just doing what they do best : )
Some very interesting comments and approaches, in this thread.
I agree with those who focus on what amounts to a nebulous "system", as a starting point in a discussion of revolutionary ideas. The combined power of international finance [usury, debt-enslavement] and corporate-government plutocracies are too big, and too entrenched in our collective flesh, even for 6 billion souls to address such power head on. Moreover, we've had ample evidence as to the ease with which violent revolutionary movements can be infiltrated and "turned", ultimately to serve prevailing power structures [see the French revolution and post wwII Europe, for ex]. Let's avoid doing them that favor, again.
Our best course of action, imo, is to render the thieves *irrelevant*, by creating our own social structures and wealth. Of course, this implies an overhaul of consumer habits and a readiness to adapt. Yet, I'm optimistic that this can be done, and would venture to guess that worldwide adaptation and spontaneous boycott of toxic corporate goods is already well under way. Sales of Coca-cola are way down; Starbucks is closing franchises and eliminating jobs, right and left; Disneyworld is a source of ridicule; Ford and GM are finished; Monsanto has managed to make itself the most despised enterprise in the world ...
They're failing, in sum.
It's time that we use our spoiled, powerful 'Western' consumer leverage to put a garotte on the tax- and drug-funded, money laundering institutions, WTO, IMF, notably, whose sole raison d'être is indiscriminate wealth accumulation.
Stop buying useless crap, trade with neighbors, plant a garden(*), create real, substantiated local currencies.
(*) For those of us who do not have yards, there's plenty we can do. See Bountiful Container, a delightful, inspiring book.
I suggest the book Anatomy of a Revolution by Crane Brinton where he explores the inner workings of the Russian, American, French, and English revolutions. He states that all revolutions are not created equal but yet are based on the same principles.
I beleive if a revolution is needed, which it is, the nation must decide whether or not to fight before or after the war and what form of government should replace our own if a replacement is at all needed. Capitalism is not in a sense evil, but the people who are at the head and abuse this system are.
In my perfect world, I would wipe the entire government clean and start all over again, but that's not possible is it?
All of your comments inspire me, Nietzche especially. I hope as a future politician I can relay your ideas into action no holds barred and no quarter taken, lets run up the jolly roger America we raid against our government!
Scialistmatt, perhaps you are unaware that the pro-communist leadership of the Teamsters and other unions was physically removed by the capitalist thug police? The corrupt union leadership of today can largely be traced back to that.
Whatever I don't understand, one thing that I do is that the organized working class is the ONLY sector of society that is capable of bring down capitalism in the name of greater humanity. It appears that you have given up, and consider them too stupid to do the job.
You are wrong in saying that Marx and other early communists thought that workers' revolution was inevitable. If they thought that, why would they bother to agitate? It would be much less stressful to sit back, and wait for the inevitable, but they knew that success would depend upon their hard work.
PissantNobody,
You didn't answer my point about "bad leadership" not being the cause of the U.S. working class's failure to radicalize.
If the U.S. working class is potentially radical, based on its objective interests, and its failure to become explicitly radical is merely a matter of bad leadership, then shouldn't you be able to easily name at least 10 socialist/radical leaders in the U.S. who got corrupted or abandoned their ideals BEFORE they lost mass support?
I don't think you understand that the only special thing about a workers' revolution, even in Marx's thought, is that it was seen as inevitable based on the contradictions of capitalism. It wasn't going to be any different in *outcome* from any other type of socialist revolution; it was simply a socialist revolution that was actually going to happen rather than one that was going to continue being a pipe dream. But if the conditions of capitalism have changed, then a worker revolution might no longer be inevitable. Clearly, in the Western countries, it isn't impending.
Personally, I just absolutely LOVE all this undergraduate philosophical, and academically, thesis correct logic that incorporates all the correct posturing, i.e. scientific, theological, difference in dress, etc....
It enables the creative side in those of us who perceive this as just another bunch of assholes who will pay big bucks to keep their wives off their backs just to re-design the kitchen and/or the bathroom.
I don't want to get into Art as being "sofa correct." As a capital "P" Painter, I am an elitist of the sensibility that the similarity of this "drama" that continues it's regurgitation of putrid pablum is to place it's placebo where it belongs.
Do you need a more graphic description?
Welcome to the Amerikan nightmare of bloodsucking corporate whoremongering that passes as an American Democratic Republic. Thanks to our laws following the European model, due to the inability of lawyers to create anything worth value beyond their bank account.
I could go on for years, like many before me. There is no accomplishment in that. It is only redundancy...
You have nothing to lose, but your sense of self.
Adios, Amigos.:)
In response to the posts directly above, I return to the assertion that there simply is no other way known to bring global peace and prosperity than through worldwide proletarian socialism. I read a lot of dreaming about love-drunk tribal groups somehow forming everywhere and remaining true to the cause, and references to wonderful European 'socialism', despite the fact that several of these paradises have been willing participants in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
What I am not hearing is an historically valid path to universal peace and sustainable egalitarian prosperity. You will not be able to present that because there is no such formula except what I have put already outlined! To fear global totalitarianism at the hands of a worker-based government is just an expression of profound historical pessimism - as if we humans can never rise above our wild and grunting ancestors. In many ways we truly have not, but the fact that we have achieved many social advances says that we can indeed aim even higher. Rape and murder is definitely part of our ancient past, but I feel safe in saying that none have you have sunk so low.
We CAN create a free and egalitarian world through workers revolution - and we MUST, or nuclear doom is just a matter of time.
Hi PissantNobody,
"If not awakening the working class to their objective unity, what do you propose?"
Well, first of all, for reasons outlined in my last post, I don't think that they do objectively share more interests with each other than with their own domestic capitalists. At least for the workers of the rich countries that is true. Objectively speaking, nationalism serves their material interests better than transnational class unity.
I'm hardly the first person to think this. Latin America had worker-based Communist parties for decades that were completely ineffective. Then Fidel came along and won power via a guerrilla rebellion of peasants. There was no party building, no mass of laborers behind that victory. The same thing was occurred in Nicaragua with the Sandinistas, China with Mao, Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh, and other places.
I'm *hardly* saying that I endorse all of these regimes, btw, I'm only citing them based on the fact that they all called themselves either socialist or communist.
And of course, from the very first, alongside Marxism there have *always* been other kinds of socialism which did not award any special role to the working class in their theories about how to get from here to there. There's Christian socialism, Rawlsian socialism, anarchism, and social democracy to name a few. One doesn't have to be a Marxist--much less a dogmatic one--to believe in the relatively common sense notion of production for use and not for profit.
To answer your question, I don't have a proposal for how to get to a more just economy. Maybe worker resentment against capitalist owners will play a big role. More likely third world resentment against first world decadence will play a role. And since capitalism is not ecologically sustainable, perhaps citizens of the world will come to their senses and roll back the inalienable rights of corporations for the sake of the planet via international agreements. TBH I don't think there will ever be a clear cut "break" where we achieve "socialism" overnight, but there are lots of factors I see that might be pushing us that way gradually.
>>"That Western workers are better paid, and are often wrapped up in petit bourgeois ideals has more to do with their corrupt leadership than anything else. That is why I put building of leadership (i.e., the Leninist party) as the top immediate priority. The formula is indeed simple in broad strokes, which is all I have present"
That is totally ridiculous in my opinion. You think that the decline of mass revolutionary parties in Western Europe--and their failure to ever form in the U.S.--was due to a lack of leadership? For the most part these leaders were clinging to the dream long after their mass support from workers had vaporized. How many socialist/communist leaders can you name who gave up their ideals, especially *before* their mass support dried up? Daniel DeLeon, Eugene Debs, James Cannon, William Foster, hell, Ralph Nader. None of these guys ever gave up their ideals, they simply couldn't get the votes.
It is true that most workers are less conservative than the union leaders are. There is most certainly an issue of bad leadership. But as a group, even the most radical workers aren't seeking the socialization of the means of production. Not even close. They just want bigger concessions from the companies than their bosses push for. They aren't socialists.
Hi thinkingmom,
Fair enough. If you are thinking that worldwide refers to a world government or something of the sort, then I probably share your apprehensions. When I read the phrase "worldwide socialism", what I think of is every country or most every country having the kind of economy which I favor. They might have gotten there quite independently of each other.
This article covers the local part of revolutionary strategy. I think it is superb as far as it goes. But . . .
The American corporate totalitarian regime does need to be overthrown. And local actions can help. But they are not enough. We cannot abandon citizen control of the federal government nor constitutional law.
Our local communities are sending their taxes to fund the empire abroad and a corporate totalitarian state at home.
We need:
A constitutional convention to fix its problems, starting with a series of amendments to enable us to recall the President and Vice-President from office by referendum; to elect the President and Vice-President by popular vote; to have a multi-party democracy in the House; to end disproportional representation in the Senate and to redistribute some of its powers to the House; and to end private money's involvement in all local, state and national elections, substituting public funds and media obligations to give all candidates and parties on any ballot equal access to our public airwaves.
For more info on the constitutional aspects of progressive change see:
Steven Hill's 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy
Dan Lazare's Frozen Republic
Larry Sabato's A More Perfect Union
Sanford Levinson's Our Undemocratic Constitution
Sheldon Wolin's Democracy Inc.
We need to study to figure this out. We need to act locally and to act nationally. The true "progressive platform" already exists. The Green Party platform (a new version is coming out for this election) is one part of it. So is Nader's platform. So is the Kucinich presidential platform. So is the Congressional Progressive Caucus's platform. And so are the various platforms of the state Democratic Party Progressive Caucuses.
We need coordinated progressive infiltration of every level of government from city and county to state and federal.
And we need to help Cindy jump-start that process.
Buddhism for the masses and a big screen t.v. to boot!!
Damn, I love freedom. Anybody seen any lately??
Honey, where are my Mickey Mouse ears?
:)
Really, don't hate me too much, I just have to be me, afterall. Otherwise, my body generates enormous amounts of heat to which my dog responds very negatively.
Matt, It's the "worldwide"part that is the nightmare (socialsit or production for profit/capitalism...or any other government form. Worldwide sounds like trouble to me). We can't even get our own house fixed...much less the world....Unless maybe you guys are hoping on an assist? I'm not afraid of socialism...I recognize that much of Europe has gone this road to the benefit of their citizens....But I'm not really convinced that REGULATED capitalism is a broken system either.I like freedom and the ability to exercise free will.I think it gives us a better chance to develop our "souls". I've been an environmentalist since the mid 1960s, and I recognize that personal greed shows it's face in communism and capitalism (and socialism)...I would like a society where "victimless" crimes aren't the business of the government. I also recognize that the "tribe" is the natural form of human loyalty...and from this stems nationalistic fervor as well as sports team loyalties.Which is why I don't think a global government is a good idea, it doesn't seem to be able to respond to "local tribal" differences. WHo would have "ultime" power...how could an individual exercise any "control" over their destiny? Something so big reeks of totalitarian abuse to me...It's like this global corporatism that is the source of my concerns. Power exercised far away by unknown players that affects my (and the rest of the world's) daily life.I can see the trainwreck coming and I can't get off......scary stuff.....And Nietzsche has my vote on the "crumbs from the table" philosphy (I think they call it trickle down economics)Phooey on that......BTW Nietzsche Thanks for your sentiments earlier...I am seeking.
socialistmatt: If not awakening the working class to their objective unity, what do you propose?
That Western workers are better paid, and are often wrapped up in petit bourgeois ideals has more to do with their corrupt leadership than anything else. That is why I put building of leadership (i.e., the Leninist party) as the top immediate priority. The formula is indeed simple in broad strokes, which is all I have presented. I am sorry if it seems repetitive and old-hat, but I cannot stop repeating it until we are singing it in a chorus. It is the truth, and it would be a moral crime for me to shut up when it is being denied at every turn.
Nietzsche: I agree that one must start with one's self, but having made a little headway in that department, wouldn't a growing role in larger goals be appropriate? Not everyone will be cut out to be a full time revolutionary, but everyone who wants to be fulfilled in life must pick up part of the burden of greater humanity's future. If we can agree on that, and it can be demonstrated that the most effective way to enhance humanity's future is to build a socialist world, then it follows that your healing powers should include advice to become politically active in the socialist movement to the degree that the client is able.
I wear shoes too, but it becomes shameful when I stop worrying about those who are shoeless due to the enforced poverty of Imperialism.
For someone struggling in poverty in New Orleans, this article not only hits the nail on the head but strengthens the resolve and inspires ..... there is great change happening here, even amid the concerted effort to suppress it.... Detroit is in so many ways a sister city to New Orleans.
The fact that it won't work on a global scale is not a good reason not to start with it right here. For decades racists promoted "states rights" as a code for "leave us alone to suppress racial minorities".
Some states already have started: California, Massachusetts, Washington have made halting, tentative steps with minor issues compared with bringing down corporate domination of the government, but it's a start.
I'm all for reform, just not for hanging around the corporate table hoping for crumbs.
PissantNobody,
Have you been following the last century of world history? Because even the Manifesto was not as formulaic as your posts, and it was written when these ideas were new to everybody.
No, an Indian steel worker doesn't have that much in common with an American steel worker. Because he probably replaced the American steel worker, since he most likely works for a Western corporation. And if he didn't replace him, the American still gets paid a lot more. Because the laborers in Western countries *have* organized and fought, just like you advocate, and as a result they are now basically riding the gravy train of their domestic capitalists by getting extremely high (in global terms) wages and an extremely high (in global terms) standard of living. They aren't exactly one strike away from a revolution.
I'm not saying that the working class can't ever again be an important agent of social change. Marx's ideas about the WC were definitely brilliant at the time, and they can also help us think about the modern global economy with greater clarity. But they aren't just formulas that can be applied without thought and the necessary updates in a changing world.
thinkingmom,
"worldwide socialism sounds more like a nightmare to me"
Production being carried out to meet human need, with concern for environmental sustainability and other important factors, sounds like a nightmare? But production for profit (human need doesn't even enter in under capitalism except when the government mandates it) doesn't? I don't think you know what socialism is. The dictionary.com definition, while not exactly deep, would yet be preferable to the slanderous right-wing definition that you seem to have bought into.
But thinkingman, can your formula even possibly work on a global scale? In classical terms, it is utopian.
The globalization movement and the "elites" who are orchestrating it have set up a world in which a part of what pissant is saying is true..that the "proletariat" is now trans-national...BUT the steel worker AND his boss ANd his boss's boss are all a part of said "proletariat"...We are all in this sinking ship together...and we still have plenty in common with our neighbors and our bosses. Some dream of worldwide socialism sounds more like a nightmare to me...My vote goes towards divesting power and bringing everything into a more local framework. I continue to like the idea of breaking up large corporations ( amassed power) and returning more regulation to state's rights..."United States" was the original framework...not "The FEDERAL "government...bigger power network (whether in government or business) creates less accountability and more chance for abuse if you ask me.
Nietzsche: No, you can't save the world. No individual can, nor would it be desireable to have an individual do it. You can and should, however, be part of an organized movement of many people to get the job done. To abdicate this responsibility is cowardice, cynicism, or profound blindness for a person of your obviously learning. None are very flattering, but I don't see any other categories to put you in.
Organized labor has the power, if under the right leadership. There is a reason that the chorus of hatred is especially reserved for strident labor actions, because the capitalists know very well that the working class is the only group in society that can take away their illegitimate wealth. Further, the proletariat is trans-national, and stands alone in its ability to represent the masses of the world. A moment's thought will reveal to anyone that a steel worker in India has more in common with a steel worker in Canada than either of them do with their bosses, who might live only a mile down the road.
To all but those who have given up and would prefer to wear shoes in a world where most are barefooted, I offer this formula: Build the leadership; that is, build the party of global proletarian socialism, and integrate it into key sectors of industrial workers. Anything else falls into those unfortunate categoies that mark Nietzsche.
Well, I can't disagree with any of that. The outlook for change at the moment is bleak.
I would save the world if I could. I have nothing against seizing opportunities to beat the masters at their own game. Unfortunately those opportunities do not present themselves with frequency.
In the meantime I find it easier to wear shoes than to carpet the planet.
They have all the money. You try to compete with them where money is power, I'm afraid your chances are rather poor. I intend to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh. They think that kind of power is an illusion. I assure you, I am real.
Nietzsche said: "I try to be the change I want to see. My lifestyle is frugal and I like it that way...
All we have to do to defeat the system is to just stop. Maybe it won't be easy, but I promise it will be less difficult than chasing the wind."
Wow, seriously? What are you doing on a progressive site then? Isn't this all about seeking political solutions? Isn't that what we all want and are doing here?
Giving the power over government to hardcore conservatives (really, regressives) and "dropping out" has also been tried. You would've liked the 60's. Unfortunately, that movement also failed to change anything significantly. The hippies opened cooperative anarchist bookstores, or became low-level clerks and wage slaves, or sold out and climbed the corporate ladders.
I'm afraid we've no option but to use our heads and seize our opportunities. Not live by platitudes and overly simplistic historical lessons about what "can never" or "will always" work.
By all means, live Green and try not to be party to the exploitation of people. Even work actively to ameliorate the effects of exploitation by joining some kind of nonprofit agency. But there never comes a time when you can say "I've done all I can". As long as the wrong people are still calling all the shots, in society and government and everywhere else, those who care about the world have a job to do. The only people who ever settle on an ironclad solution are those whose goal is merely to ease their own mental discomfort, not to actually make society the best place that it can possibly be.
It is a struggle--between two different visions, two different sets of priorities, and two different ways of running the world. If you think that you can settle on any one simple strategy when you are facing human opponents, who are themselves creative and dynamic, then you are wrong. That is an obvious formula to let them win. You have to be as determined as they are; and they are driven by self-interest. That's tough to match, but you have to do it.
The lessons to be learned from the Bible is that one should NOT take it literally.
There are pearls of wisdom scattered throughout, but in reading it one can also learn how the use of Religion can be used to control and subjugate populations and how Religion is often used to absolve oneself of blame for atrocities.
This not limited to just the Bible. Any religous text or screed that is claimed to be the word of God and to be taken literaly , has the same problem.
I try to put myself in the place of the author, or the editors at Nicea (Iraneus etc) and ask myself...Ok if i wanted to use this as a means of Political control, what passages, texts and screeds would I include to ensure such became the case?
You can then see how very clever those people were.
Then apply that lesson to the leaders of today who use the same techniques.
The Bible shows the evolution of God as a human creation. It's more like human history than one big threat from a supernatural being.
I know it has been used to defend slavery, slaughter, and the abuse of the poor by the rich. I know how cynically Constantine compiled it for political purposes.
You tend to find what you look for.
It won't be long before China buys one of the (at one time) big three. I just don't see one or two of them staving off bankruptcy this time around. They did it to themselves, so I have little sympathy for the complete failure to grasp the reality of their product mismanagement and inability to correct a systemic myopic vision.
I have not driven since the day after CheneyOilCo stole the election and installed their monkeypuppet 7+ years ago... so I will not shed a tear for any of them.
"The Bible is a gold mine..." Really? It has some great literary gems here and there, but for the most part it is a violent compilation of hearsay regarding a vengeful God that throws those that disobey into the ultimate terrorist enterprise: Hell! Far from being a "gem" this creation of the first council of Nicea in 325 A.D. has done much to keep people ignorant, controlled, and killing.
Thank you all. It is a real treat for me to know that other people besides me know about the existence of an ultimate reality in which all partial realities participate and without which they would not exist.
My heart goes out to you working mom. I'm old now, and have a measure of peace. It did not come easily. It was to people like you and me that Jesus said seek and you will find.
I'm not really religious. Religion requires faith. As I said, I don't need faith, I know. There is a difference.
The Bible is a gold mine, as is the Dhammapada, The Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita. AND The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley. I reread these and a few other gems continually.
And I work. Work is my prayer. What I say I want means nothing. Through my work I co-create the reality in which we all live---as do we all whether we know it or not.
The capitalist class has done all it can to keep the working class ignorant of history and this article proves just how successful it's been. It's funny and sad, watching today's generation struggling with ideas about how to change the system, thinking that they've come up with some new answers and discoveries. This is only happening out of ignorance not knowing that this has all been done before. It's all been well thought out and researched and philosophized to death over a hundred years ago. Go and read K. Marx and his analysis of Utopian Socialism. Growing carrots to overthrow global capitalism, indeed. SIGH.
I am sooooo onboard with Olga's vision.....create community thru connections & interactions w/ our neighbors, family and friends and USE YOUR CLEAVERNESS TO CREATE A POSITIVE & IMAGINATIVE SOCIETY...one you actually want to LIVE in.
We are only limited by our limited thinking.
peace!
Sioiuxrose-we refer to your finding the vegetables when you needed them as karma in this house. What goes around, comes around, etc. Big believers in that, which is why I think even small changes can reap large rewards.
rtdrury-we're doing the sames things, it seems. Our gardens of the past few years have gotten a neighbor three doors up to put one in her front yard, where there was once grass. She has beans growing like no one's business and we plan to share crops with each other and the neighbors. Though, my zucchini is doing a bit toooo well....
"Revolution - this comes from the middle. Remember that. Find ways to starve the King (like buying less gasoline - 18.4 cents tax per gallon)."
Great point, jimbob. I would extend that to buying less of what supports the current system and more of what supports a system we would like to see: local farmers and foods, local artisans, local small businesses which sell locally made products. Of course, as a whole, it is necessary to just consume less.
Most people on these boards severely underestimate and slander the American citizens.
If you actually talked to Americans, instead of just bitching about how they should be more like you, you'd realize that most Americans know things are as screwed up as we do.
What they don't have is a way to change things. So, they just get along as best they can. And sure, they watch American idol to take their minds off of it.
But, what you will see is that if you offer them a way to change things, they'll turn off American idol and come join you.
This is the lesson of both the fall of the Soviet Union and the Obama campaign. The Soviet Union went from looking like a police state that had things tightly under control to a collapse with millions of people in the streets causing and celebrating that collapse in just a handful of years. The key is that when people realized they could change things, they came out into the streets and did just that.
The is also the lesson of the Obama campaign. A party hack politician in his personal grab for power goes around chanting meaningless matras of 'change'. His pollsters tell him that 'change' polls well, so he sees how many times he can shove the word into each speech. The people react and come to him in the millions.
Of course, they are all fooled. This is not real change, and they'll quickly go back to American idol as they realize this. But the key is in noticing how they reacted.
Offer them real change, and they'll come out in the millions.
The key is to do all the hard work before then. To slowly build the movement to the point where someday it can look like a tsunami. We have to do all the hard work to build the movement, put out ideas, and slowly get more people thinking out way. We need to do that to someday get to the point where the people as a mass can see it as a means of really getting some changes made around here. Then be ready for a heck of a ride when it all breaks lose, because its going to happen fast and probably surprise most of the people who've been dreaming about it when it comes.
And if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Obama
Everything's just gonna stay the same
Don't you know it's gonna be
Fucked up
(with apologies to the great John Lennon)
When does one know when one has grown spiritually? Isn't spirituality an ego self-serving substitute for materialism masked over as being more of the same mentality of accumulation? We decide what we want to accumulate or not. Unfortunately, there is as much spiritual accumulation going on as there is material accumulation. Both create diversions from human being (versus human doing). Living simply so others may simply live applies to both material and spiritual accumulation.
Holy synchronicities, Batman! I was thinking of Grace Lee Boggs just yesterday. I saw her on Democracy Now! back in January http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/22/ive_never_had_this_much_hope.
This is how white I am: I had never heard of her. Now I'm glad you have reminded me of her. Thanks for the great article. As a Zen poet and student of comparative mythology, I bow in your general direction (forwarding service requested).
Did you see Francis Moore Lappé's interview with Amy Goodman? http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/9/as_global_food_crisis_tops_g8
And for that shift in frame, I humbly recommend my own site:
http://zelikowednomore.blogspot.com/
She, too, speaks with eloquent paassion about the need for a "shift in frame."
Recycle1: 'How about some posts on what each of us are doing to "change" and some ways that we are reaching out to others?'
We're doing all kinds of things to become independent from the elites to make the elites irrelevant. We're growing our own food, walking, riding the bus instead of driving, etc.
USAn: 'replacing a system "one person at a time" cannot work'
When the people stop going to Walmart, one person at a time, eventually Walmart will go away. When the people stop paying wartaxes, one person at a time, eventually the Pentagon will go away.
When the people break out of the capitalist indoctrination they will envision the new system and build it.
thinkingmom: 'We can in NO WAY become independent, self sufficient or free…within the current system…'
Sure we can and we are. We don't need 90% of the capitalist warez. Self-sufficiency is a wonderful universe of possibilities and alternatives. You will see when you get rid of the internal obstacles - then you can get rid of the external obstacles. The power is in the hands of the people, always.
Sorry to rain on anyone's parade but until you NAME the culprits and TARGET them for action, you're pi**ing in the wind. The culprits are the ELITES and the action is to STARVE THEM.
there are many that are coming to a way of life through concise thought and an understanding that we all... people and nature are interconnected through the energy that i personally believe is what sparked all life... and though this may sound like I'm starting to skip into spiritual/religious realms... nonetheless we cannot escape the reality that beneath our consciousness resides a force of life that we can intellectually ignore all we want to.... or classify it in acceptable religious beliefs.... but its there and its making its presence known and felt in spades!
if you pay attention to nature... if things get too out of whack... nature... will right things... sometimes through incredible acts of impersonal violence...
and we as ppl have in an incredibly arrogant way overstepped our welcome with nature... we dont take anything in the natural world into account when we look at wars and leaders that have lost their perspective... this too has been a balance out of sorts that needs to be put back into place...
we've been a credit society for some time now... and its been a fantasy of a moneyed life... but it's a false one.. and the time is here that we're being asked to pay our past due bill...
we've assigned so much value to the possession of things... and many ppl have begun to believe this fantasy and made their reality and if you try to tell them otherwise... if you try to shake them of their fantasy.... things get ugly for us ppl that dont have a voice in a system that values money... power... position and greed above all...
so the question many wonder... is how will we as a race survive a transition that is inevitable if we're to survive in this great plane of existence...
do we cleave to the examples laid out by mother nature and do so with violence in an attempt to restore order and balance... well yeah... we can go that route... and then what?
if the meek inherit the earth... just how meek will they remain... because if we fight this "revolution" of bringing ppl in the fantasy realm of the haves and have nots back to reality in a violent manner... we're just repeating many pages of history...
and if we do so peacefully... are we going to be subjected to a financial tantrum from those that have realized that more and more ppl dont want to play the game by their rules anymore...
whenever one of my children display their displeasure over a decision that i've made that directly impacts them... with a tantrum... i would simply ignore them and wait for it to pass and once they realized that they couldnt get their way thru this method... they'd stop that particular form of behavior...but they wouldnt give up their need to get what they wanted because its a part of human nature! so they'll test the limits in other ways....
is this what we can expect from those in power that want to keep it and keep the status quo regardless of how much the rest of us say we want things to be different?
if we simply... one at time... or groups at a time.... ignore their rules and play by our own that will bring us back to connection with the energies of the earth and leave us living healthier lives... in all areas of importance... physically... spiritually and emotionally... will they just leave us alone and find some other way to play with power?
or while we're trying to adjust to living a life of true harmony and bliss and not one that we've been programmed to believe is the only way to live .... the american dream ... striving to have it all... will they take our inattention as weakness and take us over completely.... finally stripping us of all remaining rights that we believe are inherent with being higher sentient beings?
will they enslaves us if too many ppl buck the system they've put in place?
so then that leaves us to two options... take our chances and simply ignore them... live our lives by encouraging the growth local communities and economies and hope that they just leave us be?
or do we have to fight them off... drive them away and THEN live life this way? (when have you seen anyone in power give that up peacefully?)
we've had thousands of years of conditioning that there is no way to be any other way....
even though we could probably exist for a time... side by side... those that want to live in a modern world and have and take all that they can without any regard to the planet beneath them... and those that want to work on smaller scales?
or would the struggle to take more then whats their fair due start all over again?
personally i think that we wont be able to escape a violent clash as these two diverse ways of thinking cannot coexist in the same space... and the energy that we're connected to thru all living life is tired of being ignored...
when you put pressure on both ends of the stick... eventually it will break.... think we're starting to witness some stress cracks... what happens from here will be for the history books to decide…
Basically, they take our money and use it to fuck us over, most of the time.
thinkingmom
as the pace of change increases - and it is increasing - desperation, confusion, panic and resignation all seem to compete for our attention. the codes of conduct and life principles that have guided us along the way seem to be so much "hot air," seemingly contributing more to problems than solutions. but in a way, it has always been thus. during the hundreds of years of slavery, individuals must have wrestled with perceptions of safety and risk as they contemplated resistance. it took as much courage to "wait for the right time" as it did to commit to openly making a break - lives were in the balance all along the way.
as much as it is tempting to see only the immediate crises in our lives, this is about much more than our own personal stories. for those who have children, who work especially hard at helping them prepare for some kind of future, there is really no other option besides taking the long view - the revolution may or may not happen tomarrow, next week, next year. but there is an equivalent uprising, and it is always happening inside us. if we have the courage to look deeply without falling into despair, without needing to see profound change immediately, we will survive, we will grow, we will assist in a broader transformation and our children and theirs will live to fight their own battles.
good luck - oh, they've stood up, but the people didn't back them up. There is NOTHING a single individual can do to change the course this country is on. And when those brave souls do stand up, we all sit and watch as the corporate media and "opinion shapers" rip them to shreds. So many (more than any other time in history I would say) have stood up: Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Cindy Sheehan, Joe Wilson, Scott Ritter, Richard Clarke, the retired Generals, the diplomats, the whistleblowers, the celebrities and all the others who have put their careers/reputations/lives on the line to speak truth to power -- but no one has their backs.
It is a fundamental flaw of American culture -- we have no understanding of solidarity, the essential ingredient in the notion of "we the people" in a democratic society.
thinkingmom: I spent years sorting out Christianity, and finally threw it out as a hopeless collection of disjointed, contradictory, and often demostrably incorrect writings. Examples are not at all hard to find.
You will not find great guidance in the Bible, beyond a few principles that a dear Aunt could give you in a much less confusing way. To me, Jesus' message was bone simple: Act in a spirit of love all the time. Yet, the institutions of Christianity seem to have put that on the back burner. As if a real 'god' would be concerned about whether you were sprinkled or immersed!
Further, the Bible offers no useful insight whatever about how to dethrone imperialism. In fact, the old "Render into Caeser..." quote seems to say that you should do nothing to remove bandits from office. You will have to read something more recent and cogent if you want a prescription for bringing justice to earth. I'm certainly no 'saint', but I can run circles around the idiotic Bible, so you might even start with my posting, above.
This has been one of the best discussions I have seen on CD for a while. Thank you all!
Some here seem to be pretty organized in their vision of how we can change the world to be a better place. Some seem to think that we have to change the "system" before anything can really be accomplished. Me, I haven't really thought it out that well. I just know that the only thing I have control over is my own actions. And there are certain things that I have done in the past that I don't think contributed very much to the sustainability of the planet. So I have changed many of those things.
Yes, life is much simpler now. I have a lot less stuff. And sometimes just getting by is a challenge. But I have to say that I am a lot happier. I am more connected to my neighbors and my community. For me, being interdependent is very rewarding on a number of levels. It really is true that what goes around comes around.
I don't know....I have this theory that everyone is either a "feeder" or an "eater". I happen to be a feeder. It gives me great pleasure to feed others. Literally. I'm not sure why. It just seems to be something innate. And because this is how I receive joy, I have to find the "eaters" to feed. And those eaters sure like to connect with us feeders too. I really like this sort of interdependence. It's a simple way of defining community I guess.
jimbob...you should read Thom Hartmann's book..Unequal Protection The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights...In it he does a good summary of what the American Revolution was really about...and my takeaway was that it wasn't about taxes per se...but about priveledge for the East India Tea Company (a corporation who had a privledged relationship with Britain and who paid NO import taxes or tariffs on business to America) while taxing small American businesses and goods...hence the impetus for the "Boston Tea Party"...The AMercian revolution wasn't about taxation without representation...it was about the outrage of corporate privledge...how far we've come eh?
This is a fundamental question...and i can not find solace in either answer bantered about here...Jesus himself...taught about "salvation" within the system of the Roman empire..but at the same time encouraged radicalism in his turn the other cheek, if a man asks your coat give to him your cloak etc...these were all radical proposals against the "system" as referenced in a CD article a couple years ago...But he also taught about inner peace....Somewhere among all his teachings I'm sure is the solace I seek (since it seems he was balancing the peace of the inner person while battling within an empire situation)...but I haven't found it yet... And on the other hand...ask yourself whether the slaves in antebellum America should have/could have just "become the change they wished to see in the world?" and for those who found peace within the system... I think we call those people "Uncle Tom's" now...The globalization system has made us all "slaves" of a sort....We can in NO WAY become independent, self sufficient or free...within the current system...YEs we can live by our own moral code...but step even a little out of line and you risk it all...
I agree with all above!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The American Revolution was not about "...people giving of themselves for the larger community." It was about taxes. A revolution will not be effective until you starve the King of his tax base.
Insurgency comes from the poor. Oppression comes from the top. Revolution - this comes from the middle. Remember that. Find ways to starve the King (like buying less gasoline - 18.4 cents tax per gallon).
Lewis Beyman & USAn: You two are largely on the right track. International communism is a prerequisite to peace, egalitarian prosperity, and justice. Community gardens in gutted cities are OK, but rather smack of desperation rather than vision. The notion that we are going to overthrow imperialism with urban carrot patches would make me laugh if it weren't being put forward by supposed philosophers and would-be leaders. Talk about the "Poverty of Philosophy"!
Nietzsche and his co-thinkers are sowing illusion, and need to be exposed as such. We are not going to find justice through some spontaneous action of the world's simultaneously enlightened billions. That is a ridiculous dream, at best, and is ultimately a treacherous prescription for allowing imperialism to remain dominant.
The best of 'consciousness' must be captured in the program of a Leninist political party. No individual can carry the weight, nor would that be desireable. Today's task is to build that party, and integrate it into organized labor, who can then sieze power trough industrial actions. All other methods have proven to be ineffective (and often fraudulent...).
The material world is merely a manifestation of the spiritual world. We are here to learn from it and grow as individuals.
it my belief that all humans are entitled to food, clothing and shelter, the bare necessities , so that all have the opportunity to grow spiritually and as communities.
The problem is that as inviduals too many think that self improvement and growth comes from acquiring material things in an ever greater abundance. Just as those without anything, who struggle hand to mouth just to fill their bellies have little opportunity to grow spiritually, those focused on the material world forgo that opportunity as well as their entire lifetime consumed in the pursuit of material wealth.
Which is ultimately meaningless.
I am not talking about religions here. I have little use for organized religion.
We should wish neither poverty or great wealth on ourselves . We should seek out that which makes us happiest and learn that life and awareness is a precious gift, wherever it came from.
The revolution we need to have, is inside ourselves. We need no need of guns and violence to achieve such.
PK
>>If those that hold there must be a physical basis for everything hold that these mystical views are nonsense , we may ask: What , then, is the physical basis of nonsense?....Arthur Eddington
NIETZSCHE/GW NORTH: I'm with you two on this one. Amen! There's nothing like knowing you already have what you need and honoring that, plus respecting the (spiritual) source from which it came.
I remember when I was living below the poverty line, in a rough marriage and had just had a baby. I was craving vegetables to make soup but had no way to get to the supermarket, nor the energy to do so. I went downstairs to check my mail around 1 PM and lo and behold, the box was full of vegetables. A friend was leaving on a trip and figured I could use the produce that would otherwise go bad in her absence. I have seen THIS type of thing so often. I believe that when we live from the heart, and respond to our own instinct for generous impulses acted upon, when WE have a need, something numinous finds a way to have it answered. Note I said need. Even Mick Jagger understood, "You can't always get what you WANT, but if you try some time, you just might find, you GET WHAT YOU NEED."
As for the 3rd world, the IMPRINT of poverty along with its ACTUAl experience is so severe, that the belief systems, not to mention the infrastructure that would support OTHER need to be reshaped. I wish we Americans could send all the clothing we don't use, the furniture we're inclined to toss, etc TO THEM. The idea of fashion is absurd as it makes a lot of people toss perfectly good clothing because it's no longer "in." Talk about a non-conservation model unworthy of following! I wear the same dresses now I wore 25 years ago... bottom line is, if you wait long enough and retain your same size, the fashions come back around again!
Thank you GwNorth. I see I have been understood.
Actually I see Neitzsche as far divorced from Rand/Thatcher/Reagan and instead describing what is referred to as Gnosticism.
Which is we have to each find the joys in our own lives, and learn to love ourselves in order to understand that we are all really one.
And we have to want the best for everyone else and share in their joy as well.
the author's position is essentially that of John Ludd. the idea that mankind has exhausted the earth's resources has been popping since we got here.
Neitzsche,
You seem to be inflicted with the Ayn Rand/Thatcher/Reagan/Friedman disease, the idea that "there is no such thing as society" only atomistic individuals making individual decisions.
But in reality, there IS a system and a society, so replacing a system "one person at a time" cannot work, because individual decisions, the types of decisions that can be made, and their outcomes, and even a persons fundamental views of "how the world works", are made under the environment and constraints of the system itself.
For example, here in the US, can I, as an individual go to a doctor and demand free medical care financed by my taxes? No, because the system doesn't allow it, no matter how much gumption I have as an individual. Do I have an individual choice over the wages and conditions I work in my job? Would even my boss, or the boss over him? No! The capitalist system severely constrains this choice for everyone.
Or say, black people start moving into my neighborhood whites move out, and the market value of my house starts declining. I may personally have the most anti-racist convictions in the world, and be a black person myself! But could I do anything at all to stop the decline in the value of my house? No. This is because racism is not a property of individuals, it is a property of a SOCIETY.
I grew up in Simcoe , Ont. Canada , about 200kms east of Detroit and I know that the long hot summers would produce a plethora of tomatoes , potatoes ... You can grow a lot of vegetables on cleaned-up and tilled 70,000 vacant lots.
A similar idea has taken off in Havana , Cuba where even patio flowerpots are planted with vegetables consumable either by the occupant or sold locally.
A good resource DVD mentioned several times on CD is "The Power of Community:How Cubans Survived Peak Oil". This documentary probably is using many of the same strategies and techniques as "Detroit Summer" in its urban-gardening endeavour
Congratulations to the advocates of Detroit Summer
Well said Truth.
When hearing people talk about consumerism and the gotta have it attitude I think of my grandparents. They lived through the depression and the lessons they gleaned from that stayed with them for the rest of their lives. They didn't go out and get new clothes to keep up with fashion. They repaired what they had.
They saved change and every so often put that in savings. Drives out into the country were a luxury that they partook of sparingly. To them it was a waste of gas. Grandmother made everything from scratch using produce bought from a local farmer. She always swore it tasted better than store bought.
Though it seems unreasonably austere for today's America, it must have something to it.....they lived happy and debt free.
George is a good example of how useful wealth can be to a fool.
I don't care about changing the present system. The present system has to be replaced, one person at a time.
I would never lecture anybody who has less than they need to be satisfied with what they have.
Every person must decide for herself how much is enough. If the millionaire insists he needs more, it's ok by me as long as his having more does not mean some already poor person must have less.
This is not about do-goodism. If you are not distracted with material trash (i.e. more than you need) you will have time to discover what is important.
What is important is different for different people but every person who thinks it is more stuff will be disappointed.
"WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush assured Americans Saturday that the battered US economy will "pull through" despite continuing housing woes and a spike in inflation."
Yes George, I'm sure that the American economy will be just fine as soon as you pay off the national debt.
Hi Ted, Waking up is a slow process for some people.
I saw a multi billionaire on TV being asked if he wanted to make another billion before he died.
He said "Oh yes, I want to go to the moon some day, look back at the Earth, and say 'That's part of my portfolio'".
There will always be people like that. When enough of us demonstrate a better way, more people will pay attention to us.
"A refusal to have more is all the revolution we need."
This is fine, and I try to live simply also. But, you need to be careful here. Would you tell that to a starving Dalit in India, a slum dweller in Sao Paulo, Bogotá or Caracas, or even the USAns I encounter on a late 86B bus to Homewood/Brushton?
If you asked them if the bourgeois in the developed world being well-of was a cause of their impoverishment, I don't think they would make the connection. They would blame economic system. And, if, for argument, the well-off did chose voluntary poverty, but with no other changes to the economic system itself, it would only make things even worse for the global poor as the owners of capital slashed wages and employment and raw commodity prices in a desperate grab at a shrinking pie!
It's an old saying but a true saying - The problem is the system! No voluntary frugality or do-goodism will change the system
"In other words, a new epoch is emerging that emphasizes relationships and communities more than the
accumulation of things " .......thanks olga, this says it all
This is a good article as far as it goes. But Ms. Bonfiglio seems to be struggling over terrain that has been very well covered and examined by earlier philosophers of political economy from the present back into the mid-19th century.
Ms. Bonifiglio, please read a little Marx, or at least get a subscription to the Monthly Review.
You can't be poor if you are grateful for what you have. In material goods it varies from person and from place to place but it is never very much.
A refusal to have more is all the revolution we need. Nothing else is necessary to win, and to protect ourselves we need only learn to protect our frugality.
Nietzsche-excellent post.
How about some posts on what each of us are doing to "change" and some ways that we are reaching out to others?
Nietzsche,
Very well put.
I can't help but think that all the hand-wringing and exhortations to vote one way or the other is because most have never truly tried changing themselves. Being the change we want to see in the world is, and always has been, the only way to peaceful and lasting change. I have yet to find a hole in this logic, while others take us to disaster time and again.
"We have to defeat liberals of all types and work with the radicals to change the world."
The difference between a left wing conservative and a right wing conservative:
One will make you equally poor, the other will make you unequally poor.
Any revolution won with a gun produces a system that must be defended with a gun. We've been down that road.
I try to be the change I want to see. My lifestyle is frugal and I like it that way.
The greatest lie of all is "If only I can get------I will be happy."
The belief in that lie has resulted in all the greed and corruption that grind the poor into the dust and give the illusion of accomplishment to the fruits of the lust for power and wealth.
All we have to do to defeat the system is to just stop. Maybe it won't be easy, but I promise it will be less difficult than chasing the wind.
Eileenfleming, and in the words of the great Jimi Hendrix, "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
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We want a revolution and we need a revolution. But how? We need guns and gardens. We need hope and we need change. We have to stop the mentality of war and yet not give into acquiescence to the militarists and the nationalists. We have to defeat liberals of all types and work with the radicals to change the world.
Workers of the world unite!
"If we want to reap the harvest of peace and justice in the future, we will have to sow seeds of nonviolence, here and now, in the present. I believe that hope for the future depends on each of us taking nonviolence into our hearts and minds and developing new and imaginative structures which are nonviolent and life-giving for all. Some people will argue that this is too idealistic. I believe it is very realistic. I am convinced that humanity is fast evolving to this higher consciousness. For those who say it cannot be done, let us remember that humanity learned to abolish slavery. Our task now is no less than the abolition of violence and war ....We can rejoice and celebrate today because we are living in a miraculous time. Everything is changing and everything is possible."-Mairead Maguire, Noble Peace Prize Laurette
The 'prophet' Lennon said and sang:
"That what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong…Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me...
"You're just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate...All we are saying is give peace a chance...All you need is love...Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one...Reality leaves a lot to the imagination....Number 9 Number 9 Number 9... I'm so very small."
"Let all who are small come in here...Wisdom has built her house; come eat her food and drink her wine and walk in the ways of understanding."-Proverbs 9
I'm so very small, so very small, already within the heart of every atom yet extend Beyond the Universe and connect every mother and child....Number 9 Number 9 Number 9...
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=...
Barter is one answer.
Since 911 I have yet to see an american with the nuts to stand up and be that one person who makes change. Those so called elected people are puppets to the big corps and Israel. America was a great country at one time now it is just a 3 rd world country where torture and corruption are normal. The who system is wrong from top to bottom. I will wave next time I go to some other country for my vacation.
And if you go carrying pictures of Chairman McCain
Everything's just gonna stay the same
Don't you know it's gonna be
Fucked up
(with apologies to the great John Lennon)