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Calling All Rebels
There are no constraints left to halt America's slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working class has been impoverished and is now being plunged into profound despair. The legal system has been corrupted to serve corporate interests. Popular institutions, from labor unions to political parties, have been destroyed or emasculated by corporate power. And any form of protest, no matter how tepid, is blocked by an internal security apparatus that is starting to rival that of the East German secret police. The mounting anger and hatred, coursing through the bloodstream of the body politic, make violence and counter-violence inevitable. Brace yourself. The American empire is over. And the descent is going to be horrifying.
Those singled out as internal enemies will include people of color, immigrants, gays, intellectuals, feminists, Jews, Muslims, union leaders and those defined as "liberals." They will be condemned as anti-American and blamed for our decline. The economic collapse, which remains mysterious and enigmatic to most Americans, will be pinned by demagogues and hatemongers on these hapless scapegoats. And the random acts of violence, which are already leaping up around the fringes of American society, will justify harsh measures of internal control that will snuff out the final vestiges of our democracy. The corporate forces that destroyed the country will use the information systems they control to mask their culpability. The old game of blaming the weak and the marginal, a staple of despotic regimes, will empower the dark undercurrents of sadism and violence within American society and deflect attention from the corporate vampires that have drained the blood of the country.
"We are going to be poorer," David Cay Johnston told me. Johnston was the tax reporter of The New York Times for 13 years and has written on how the corporate state rigged the system against us. He is the author of "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With the Bill," a book about hidden subsidies, rigged markets and corporate socialism. "Health care is going to eat up more and more of our income. We are going to have less and less for other things. We are going to have some huge disasters sooner or later caused by our failure to invest. Dams and bridges will break. Buildings will collapse. There are water mains that are 25 to 50 feet wide. There will be huge infrastructure disasters. Our intellectual resources are in decline. We are failing to educate young people and instill in them rigor. We are going to continue to pour money into the military. I think it is possible, I do not say it is probable, that we will have a revolution, a civil war that will see the end of the United States of America."
"If we see the end of this country it will come from the right and our failure to provide people with the basic necessities of life," said Johnston. "Revolutions occur when young men see the present as worse than the unknown future. We are not there. But it will not take a lot to get there. The politicians running for office who are denigrating the government, who are saying there are traitors in Congress, who say we do not need the IRS, this when no government in the history of the world has existed without a tax enforcement agency, are sowing the seeds for the destruction of the country. A lot of the people on the right hate the United States of America. They would say they hate the people they are arrayed against. But the whole idea of the United States is that we criticize the government. We remake it to serve our interests. They do not want that kind of society. They reject, as Aristotle said, the idea that democracy is to rule and to be ruled in turns. They see a world where they are right and that is it. If we do not want to do it their way we should be vanquished. This is not the idea on which the United States was founded."
It is hard to see how this can be prevented. The engines of social reform are dead. Liberal apologists, who long ago should have abandoned the Democratic Party, continue to make pathetic appeals to a tone-deaf corporate state and Barack Obama while the working and middle class are ruthlessly stripped of rights, income and jobs. Liberals self-righteously condemn imperial wars and the looting of the U.S. Treasury by Wall Street but not the Democrats who are responsible. And the longer the liberal class dithers and speaks in the bloodless language of policies and programs, the more hated and irrelevant it becomes. No one has discredited American liberalism more than liberals themselves. And I do not hold out any hope for their reform. We have entered an age in which, as William Butler Yeats wrote, "the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity."
"If we end up with violence in the streets on a large scale, not random riots, but insurrection and things break down, there will be a coup d'état from the right," Johnston said. "We have already had an economic coup d'état. It will not take much to go further."
How do we resist? How, if this descent is inevitable, as I believe it is, do we fight back? Why should we resist at all? Why not give in to cynicism and despair? Why not carve out as comfortable a niche as possible within the embrace of the corporate state and spend our lives attempting to satiate our private needs? The power elite, including most of those who graduate from our top universities and our liberal and intellectual classes, have sold out for personal comfort. Why not us?
The French moral philosopher Albert Camus argued that we are separated from each other. Our lives are meaningless. We cannot influence fate. We will all die and our individual being will be obliterated. And yet Camus wrote that "one of the only coherent philosophical positions is revolt. It is a constant confrontation between man and his obscurity. It is not aspiration, for it is devoid of hope. That revolt is the certainty of a crushing fate, without the resignation that ought to accompany it."
"A living man can be enslaved and reduced to the historic condition of an object," Camus warned. "But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object."
The rebel, for Camus, stands with the oppressed-the unemployed workers being thrust into impoverishment and misery by the corporate state, the Palestinians in Gaza, the civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, the disappeared who are held in our global black sites, the poor in our inner cities and depressed rural communities, immigrants and those locked away in our prison system. And to stand with them does not mean to collaborate with parties, such as the Democrats, who can mouth the words of justice while carrying out acts of oppression. It means open and direct defiance.
The power structure and its liberal apologists dismiss the rebel as impractical and see the rebel's outsider stance as counterproductive. They condemn the rebel for expressing anger at injustice. The elites and their apologists call for calm and patience. They use the hypocritical language of spirituality, compromise, generosity and compassion to argue that the only alternative is to accept and work with the systems of power. The rebel, however, is beholden to a moral commitment that makes it impossible to stand with the power elite. The rebel refuses to be bought off with foundation grants, invitations to the White House, television appearances, book contracts, academic appointments or empty rhetoric. The rebel is not concerned with self-promotion or public opinion. The rebel knows that, as Augustine wrote, hope has two beautiful daughters, anger and courage-anger at the way things are and the courage to see that they do not remain the way they are. The rebel is aware that virtue is not rewarded. The act of rebellion defines itself.
"You do not become a ‘dissident' just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career," Vaclav Havel said when he battled the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. "You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society. ... The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power. He has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He does not attempt to charm the public. He offers nothing and promises nothing. He can offer, if anything, only his own skin-and he offers it solely because he has no other way of affirming the truth he stands for. His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost."
Those in power have disarmed the liberal class. They do not argue that the current system is just or good, because they cannot, but they have convinced liberals that there is no alternative. But we are not slaves. We have a choice. We can refuse to be either a victim or an executioner. We have the moral capacity to say no, to refuse to cooperate. Any boycott or demonstration, any occupation or sit-in, any strike, any act of obstruction or sabotage, any refusal to pay taxes, any fast, any popular movement and any act of civil disobedience ignites the soul of the rebel and exposes the dead hand of authority. "There is beauty and there are the humiliated," Camus wrote. "Whatever difficulties the enterprise may present, I should like never to be unfaithful either to the second or the first."
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop," Mario Savio said in 1964. "And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."
The capacity to exercise moral autonomy, the capacity to refuse to cooperate, offers us the only route left to personal freedom and a life with meaning. Rebellion is its own justification. Those of us who come out of the religious left have no quarrel with Camus. Camus is right about the absurdity of existence, right about finding worth in the act of rebellion rather than some bizarre dream of an afterlife or Sunday School fantasy that God rewards the just and the good. "Oh my soul," the ancient Greek poet Pindar wrote, "do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible." We differ with Camus only in that we have faith that rebellion is not ultimately meaningless. Rebellion allows us to be free and independent human beings, but rebellion also chips away, however imperceptibly, at the edifice of the oppressor and sustains the dim flames of hope and love. And in moments of profound human despair these flames are never insignificant. They keep alive the capacity to be human. We must become, as Camus said, so absolutely free that "existence is an act of rebellion." Those who do not rebel in our age of totalitarian capitalism and who convince themselves that there is no alternative to collaboration are complicit in their own enslavement. They commit spiritual and moral suicide.
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388 Comments so far
Show AllThanks for the reply ezeflyer. Funny how the word Tyrant has been turned inside-out, like a lot of terms and important historical events. Back in olden Greece, the Tyrant was the individual who put an end to oppressive oligarchies and returned governmental control to citizens, sort of like Zorro or Robin Hood--a person to be feared by the rich and powerful, not the commonfolk. Now the term is construed to mean the exact opposite. Where is the Solon in our midst?
"Hedges is late--The Right-wing coup occured in 2000 and was done again in 2004."
Actually, the right-wing coup occurred in 1787.
Bravo!! So you agree that the overturning of the Articles of Confederation by the Philadelphia "Convention Set" was an actual coup. I've been putting forth that POV and pointing to historical works that prove that allegation for well over a year on CD's comment forums. But I would still argue that 2000 was certainly a "Judicial Coup" much like Honduras's, and that Diebold and the Republican Party were only able to win in 2004 through fraud. There was also a coup in 1876, if we are to count all of them.
Liberals and Conservatives, two extremes that are so extreme that they are too extreme.
They cannot help us they create what harms us.
I would never say I am either. What does a name have to do with doing the right thing anyways. You either are or you are not.
If you are right you are alive, if you are wrong you are dead.....as John Wayne said...or something like that anyways. Party of the dead or party of the living.
I feel alive....how about you?
Leea--I know I'm alive: Cogito ergo sum. Interesting Hedges brings forth Havel and Camus, with Camus being directly related to your question. So my further answer would be that I am being yet still becoming and hoping to always be that way.
karlof1, your reply hit me deep in the gut, you are alive indeed and that one life has more power compared to all the death in thousands of corporate souls. We must look for this in each other, because that light in one human being will burn off all the darkness that can be dredged up by all the lost souls in the corporate world.
here is our hope, and here is the way to change.
thank you for simply being, alive.
Leea
I think it very important that Existentialism as a philosophical force came about during resistence to Nazi Fascism in France: Camus, Sarte, de Beauvoir, etc. Further, Simone de Beauvoir unmasked Libertine sociopaths like the Marquis de Sade, which enables some of us to understand the inner workings of de Sade's kin: Cheney, Obama, Bolton, Clinton, Bush, Rice, etc. from our time; Himmler, Goebbels, Stalin, etc. from her time. By Becoming your Being on an ongoing basis, one continued to be free regardless of the restraints imposed. This is what Simone means by Projects in "The Second Sex." And it would certainly be better to have a conversation about this instead of playing message board tag.
I think the point you're trying to make is that we must be free in our Selves before we can hope to uplift others. We must Know that we are Free Beings capable of creating and finishing our own Projets, and if something stops us from consummating our project, we know that it is not our fault, that if unhindered we would have succeeded. This promotes self-assurance and allows one to continue regardless of the forces stacked against one and not become frustrated. There are still many opportunities for Free Agency and thus Become by Being, which is the essence of Free. Winston Smith was defeated by his inability to no longer Be the Agent of his Self--a condition of many US citizens. In "The Soft Parade," Jim Morrison "couldn't take it any more/the man is at the door" and sought an escape he could not provide himself--another big problem for the US populace, thus the high levels of belief in magic and superstition, faries and supernatural beings.
Many have demanded people "Free your mind" and thus free your Self. Peoples in "resistence mode" quickly learn this. But most of the US populace has yet to learn this because they've yet to be forced into resistence mode, a state often characterized as "Soft." Hedges goes about saying this in a very obtuse manner. Furthermore, he's writing at the same elite level he's condemning, which by his own argument renders his essay moot. Thus my first comment.
A society consisting of people who cannot possibly know each other and is further atomized and compartmentalized is easily conquered. That would be the USA. The solution is simple and ought to be clear: Re-establish community to defeat the atomization and compartmentalization while taking ownership of the projets that sustain the community. Thus we are Being while Becoming, and Becoming while Being.
karlof1-this should be an article posted on the Dreams site here and Chris Hedges would do well to study it until he gets an inkling of what you are stating. Then he could turn his passion into a true message for rebels. But is he indeed on our side?
I often wonder, when we are dealing with educated supposedly passionate people. Though I also know from my own experience it is easy to be very lost and think you are found and profess to others your salvation and theirs as well. No the map to our shared understanding is one that indeed takes one down resistance road, a long road indeed. But I am so enthralled with our crossing and look forward with anticipation to further exchanges in this. As only one person is added to this knowledge and then two become four and four eight....and so on that is when the the people will be seen rising up again in numbers that speak in the language of freedom.
Thanks so much karlof1.
Leea--Thanks for staying with this thread and the soothing words you offer.
Is Hedges a False Prophet or just another Lost Soul seems to be your worry. I think the latter as it's clear he's searching for some sort of meaning and isn't satisfied with Manichean polarities or other dualities that don't honor resistance to the evil within. Every essay he writes allows him to learn and evolve and helps some to do the same. But one cannot just Become by reading and agreeing with what I describe; rather, one must live it, feel it, experience it otherwise the Freedom is false and cannot be perpetuated. Many artists thought they'd found Freedom through heroin, but it is a crutch like all other crutches that prevent the Self from Realization. One of the great failures of today's society is the perceived need to validate one's Self at the expense of someone or something else and then thinking that is enough to make one Free. That is false because you are now dependent upon an Other to define your Self. "Keeping up with the Joneses" is an easy to see example of this problem.
One of the most profound concepts I've encountered is de Beauvoir's "Slave to the Species" from "The Second Sex." Although I'm a male, I found it easy to identify with and see how it works in other apsects of modern existence. I've given that book to my family and closet friends hoping they will be able to make the key to the lock that imprisons their Self. It makes me happy that you're happy to have this interaction; that the effort resulted in a satisfactory outcome.
Aloha Leea!
Aloha indeed..for here between us sits the awareness of god, and goodness and life in it's pure desire to achieve existence through cooperation and balance with other life.
In this microscopic exchange, the potential, the seed of what can be, had it's moment in time. I have no doubt that this moment will flow into more moments and the momentum we need to change and move on at some point will coalesce and sweep us all forward toward our goal.
I feel like you and I are watching and keeping watch over this awesome process as we add what we can here and there as we participate, as we must.
We are fortunate.
Aloha karlof1 :)
So many brilliant comments earlier.
For my own part, I esp. like Kitaj's observations on Wilhelm Reich's statements to Freud. Reich was "more nearly" correct of course. Why should I feel guilty for the sins of my fathers? History is replete with rejection of inheritance (of acquired characteristics!).
Meanwhile, on the issue of criticisms of Chris Hedges, as one who has witnessed atrocities and has been slammed against the walls of insanity by such witness, I have only the highest regard for the clarity of his perspective, especially in this article. It is the most lucid discussion on Existentialism I have read in years. I can recall Camus On the Algerian Beach. I assassinate my mother. The State Will Make It Right. Also Sartre on the Nature of Hell. Incessantly yapping male to horny female. No wonder we have had a former Senator promoting a drug for "erectile dysfunction," now acronymed to ED.
But just one other thing: Are Teabaggers "Rebels Without a Cause"?
Chris Hedges, I salute you. I now intend to blow myself up in the liverwurst aisle at Wal*Mart! Are we PTSD yet?! How do we inform the couch-potatoes? You are recognized by people who read. How to touch the rest?
-30-
>>Chris Hedges, I salute you. I now intend to blow myself up in the liverwurst aisle at Wal*Mart! Are we PTSD yet?! How do we inform the couch-potatoes? You are recognized by people who read. How to touch the rest?
I read about some old man who blew up Wal*Mart's electrical box outside the store, late at night, from a safe distance with no bystanders around. They never caught him and he's known as the "gray bomber". Since I hang out in the liverwurst aisle at Wally World, your post alarms me.
Reminds me of the scene in the Jerk where the man is trying to kill Steve Martins character, and his aha moment is that it's the cans the guy is after. "He hates these cans!" Wal Mart is not the problem, we and our inability to be clear on our power is the problem.
This is an impressive article. I am confused at the start of it by the doom and gloom right wing visions. I don't subscribe to them and I see the rebel right in this country as nothing more than illiterate, cowardice goof balls playing war games in the woods. I have this vision of Mark Koernke running through the swamps of Florida and I can't shake it.
The article takes a schizophrenic turn and two things jump out at me:
"You do not become a ‘dissident' just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career," Vaclav Havel said when he battled the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. "You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society. ... The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power. He has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He does not attempt to charm the public. He offers nothing and promises nothing. He can offer, if anything, only his own skin-and he offers it solely because he has no other way of affirming the truth he stands for. His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost."
Oddly enough, I find myself falling down this path. I am not sure how many more are like me, but I hope I am not alone.
"We have the moral capacity to say no, to refuse to cooperate. Any boycott or demonstration, any occupation or sit-in, any strike, any act of obstruction or sabotage, any refusal to pay taxes, any fast, any popular movement and any act of civil disobedience ignites the soul of the rebel and exposes the dead hand of authority."
I see a lot of people who are angry and frustrated and they frequently ask how we might break these chains of corporate fascism. This paragraph sums it up nicely and we should keep the list in our back pocket. I also see a number of people who think we'll have rules, sign up sheets, central umbrella groups and the likes. I doubt this happens. From each according to their ability. Any and every act of defiance will be meaningful, no matter how large or how small. Last but not least, this whole revolution thing is ugly business. If you are really serious about changing this failed system, you need to mentally gird yourself about the realities of what really needs to be done.
If you don't want to be complicit in the corporatist militarist policies of the Democratic-Republican duopoly, get active with the Green Party and help build America's only national political party that isn't dependent on corporate money.
Do you share a commitment to grassroots democracy, social justice, nonviolence and ecology, as well as a belief that corporate money (and private money generally) in politics is wrong? Then you're Green, and you should help build the party that shares your values.
It won't be quick, but by building the Green Party from the grassroots up we can be in position to elect members of Congress within the decade. Otherwise, things will continue to get worse as we ping-pong back and forth between the center-right and hard-right branches of the corporatist militarist duopoly.
Live Green, vote Green! gp.org
There's not a chance in hell that the people who 'own' this country are going to allow greens into power. Forget about it. For that matter, they will not allow anyone into power that doesn't represent the interests of capital. That includes any progressive minded party.
To understand the lengths these people will go to, you must read Daniel Ganser's book NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe.
They will murder anyone that gets close to challenging their power via elections. The quicker we all understand that there is no democracy in the U.S., the better off we will be in beginning the dialogue for a revolutionary movement.
I would argue for a non-violent movement that isn't pacifist at its core, but begins with non-cooperation and the development of community councils, block by block, that will be prepared for the support infrastructure we will need. There has been a lot of good work done on these ideas by the Institute for Social Ecology. I'd start there.
As I read this article and the comments, I was shocked at the the despair and hopelessness that seems to be the recurring theme. WE are America and We can fight and win.
Our forefathers, at the beginning of our country, fought and won a victory over the similar conditions we have today. They then set up the solution we have to follow to win.
They realized that when your own government becomes overbearing, uncaring, and driven by greed that it was time for a change. Our governing bodies DO NOT care about or represent the American people. They only care about and represent the corporations, special interests and anyone else that can provide power, money, and fame to them. It doesn't matter which political party they belong to, they all work for the survival of their own governance. A prime example of this behavior is the fact that in the last ten years, our governing bodies have not passed one piece of major legislation that benefits the middle or lower class of Americans.
Okay, so it is time for another American Revolution and our forefathers provided the method to conduct it. This November, all 435 members of the House of Representatives are up for re-election. This happens every 2 years. Also, 34 members of the Senate are to be elected. To conduct our revolution all we have to know is who our incumbent is and vote for someone else who is running. It is time to fire all of our Representatives and 34 Senators. WE have to forget about political parties. It is more important to clean house then to worry about which party we put into to power.
If we can pull this off, WE will have the power back with the American People. No more will OUR representatives be able to ignore our wants and wishes because they will know that we can do this again in two years. The corporations and special interest groups power will be diminished. Our representatives will have to put the American people in front of them if they want to continue to represent us. This solution to our problems seems simple. The only thing left to wonder is will WE the American People have the courage to conduct this second American Revolution?
If only it were that simple.
But the enemy is well-entrenched. And will fight back with gobs of money to propagandize the American people into voting AGAINST their own best interests. How do you overcome that advantage?
I am afraid voting out the rascals will not change the system and corruption; just the names and faces of the criminals in charge. The system itself is BROKEN, not fixable. I wish like hell it was. I wish we COULD vote in a new beginning for America. A sane set of policies to fight corruption and save the country and the world from empire and resource depletion and pollution.
But I don't believe that is possible anymore.
Gary
"In America, they are paranoid about ruining the reputations of people once they are dead and cannot answer back. They have this fascination which to me seems cruel and morbid. I do not want any part of it."
-- Isabella Rossellini
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Interesting Rossellini quote. I'd love to hear her elaborate on that one.
It may have come from her autobiography "Some of Me."
Gary
"[I'm] very happy that way. Many women depend on men socially, financially, psychologically. Not me."
-- Isabella Rossellini, on being single.
WTF?
Somebody help here as I have no time to even begin on this, but I would point out that the 'American revolution' was progressive in some ways but at its heart was conducted by a small class of land owning white men who formally and institutionally denied the rights and even the humanity of the vast majority of their 'country,' i.e. Native Americans, slaves, freed slaves, women, white men without property, indentured individuals, debtors, and more. Let's give up once and for all the worship of "America." Most of what we today consider 'noble rhetoric' was meant to apply only to the tiny ruling faction.
And a federated republic does not set up the conditions of 'abolishing a government.' There is no potential for 'revolution' there, and as things stand now, it only provides for a reshuffling of the tiny clique that run the country.
And the electoral college, etc...? Bottom line, our problems go far deeper than you suggest.
VERY well-said Leo March.
the foudnation of american "law and order" IS simple:
CLASS divisions....gotten and established through an even more brutal history :
THEFT of land from Native indians and then the establishment of SLAVERY.
the LAND and RESOURCE GRABS continue on a world wide scale - going by the name of "capitalism, free market, demcoracy"....
the ENSLAVEMENT continues under the corporatist culture and poltics and economics.
what was BEGUN as a "new world" in which to BECOME little kings and little queens "away from the oppression" of "european kings and rulers" really just became a SUBSTITUTE and a LARGER enterprise of the SAME
LAND, RESOURCE GRAB enslaving process billing itself as a "nation of laws" - known as the USA.
It is the spirit of what they did that is the heart of the matter. They cast of the chains that did not allow them the right to choose for themselves in their time. If we collectively are able to have the courage to do the same, we will make mistakes too but we will at least give future generations the chance to improve on them. This is what is at stake as the spirit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is being cast into the garbage heap by those who's sole interest is greed.
no doubt, but I was just saying the problems go far deeper than the post suggested.
Hedges voices no plan for changing the structure of the US system at the core—fixing a flawed Constitution—one that allows no referendum of the people; has ridiculous requirements of up to a 95 percent supermajority for approving amendments; tolerates corporate bribery; and much more.
He advocates rebellion but fails to articulate what steps in a rebellion would transform the system towards democracy.
His label "liberals" is not defined and fails to the political adversaries in both parties: conservative, corporate militarists.Democrats and conservative, corporate, militarist Republicans.
He fails to identify the features of the system he says we need to rebel against.
He identifies not one scenario of success, but concedes defeat as inevitable.
He recommends abandoning the Democratic Party in our two-party system. This is the great dream of the corporate regime people in both parties.
I agree with his description of complaints. And I like his passion. But his recommends don't rise to the level of pragmatic or thoughtful.
Progressives need to unite ourselves politically.
I say progressives need to infiltrate and take over the Democratic Party.
And, of course, strengthen our Green Party.
The Demos are Deado --- and have been for a long, long, long time..
As I wrote in my Boston Globe more than a decade ago:
"Clinton's legacy? It will be as the Neville Chamberlain of the democratic
party, and for the same reason: that he caved to fascism ---- not the old
personalized, nationalist fascism, but a newer 'friendly fascism' of global
corporate empire.
Clinton tried to triangulate corporate fascism with a slightly friendlier
version, that could feel our pain while applying it also. He learned too
late that you can't co-opt fascists by applying half their programs for
them. They will only grouse and continue to do the second half with rougher
hands on the controls.
Clinton has left America without the defense of a democratic party ----
without an opposition party to the rule of global corporate empire.
Clinton and the DLC hijacking of the democratic party were a 'one trick
pony', as proven by Gore's loss.
Christopher Hitchens has summarized better than anyone, "The democratic
party is not so much dead, as actually, visibly, palpably rotting on the
slab".
Clinton, like Chamberlain stepping off the plane, is smiling to the crowd,
while waving the death certificate of the democratic party, which he has
just negotiated.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, ME."
The only hope now is certainly not Obama, and not "the Super-rich Can Save Us", but rather only the Global People's Anti-EMPIRE Movement which Kevin Zeese, David Beito, and Ralph Nader have formed ---- join it today!
The corporate regime people in both parties do not want the two party system or the Democratic party to be abandoned. These corporate lackeys love the two party system that gives the appearance of competition between two parties with different ideologies competing for the support of the voting public. In truth, the two are one that take turns doing the bidding of the wealthy elite. It is the phoney fight and loyalty to one or the other of the corporate parties that allows and facilitates the charade to go on, accompanied by the destruction of our democracy.
Best thing we can do is to not vote again for any member of either of these corrupt political parties. Lots of people over many years, seeing the failure of the Democratic party to really have the interests of the working people at heart, have tried to "infiltrate and take over" the Democratic Party. Don't waste your time and effort. We need to vote independent and form new political parties.
You won't find a more committed true believer on the planet than Earthian folks.
>>Hedges voices no plan for changing the structure of the US system at the core—fixing a flawed Constitution—one that allows no referendum of the people; has ridiculous requirements of up to a 95 percent supermajority for approving amendments; tolerates corporate bribery; and much more.
You want an encyclopedia for an article. I get it.
>>He advocates rebellion but fails to articulate what steps in a rebellion would transform the system towards democracy.
Not true. He enumerates specific actions we can take.
We have the moral capacity to say no, to refuse to cooperate. Any boycott or demonstration, any occupation or sit-in, any strike, any act of obstruction or sabotage, any refusal to pay taxes, any fast, any popular movement and any act of civil disobedience ignites the soul of the rebel and exposes the dead hand of authority.
>>He fails to identify the features of the system he says we need to rebel against.
Not true. Anyone who has been reading CD and similar websites for ONE MONTH has a true understanding of the myriad of these features. Once again, your criticisms are based on the need for an encyclopedia condensed into one article.
>>He identifies not one scenario of success, but concedes defeat as inevitable.
Let us face facts. We have been humiliated and defeated on nearly every front the last 30 odd years. You expect him to list a handful of hollow victories? He would make himself look like a fool if he took your advice. He is calling all rebels. Hardly an admission of defeat.
>>He recommends abandoning the Democratic Party in our two-party system. This is the great dream of the corporate regime people in both parties.
I disagree. I think it would send a shiver down their spines if large numbers of people dropped out. It would demonstrate to them that the public is no longer interested in playing their game.
>>I agree with his description of complaints. And I like his passion. But his recommends don't rise to the level of pragmatic or thoughtful.
Once again, the list above is both pragmatic and thoughtful.
>>Progressives need to unite ourselves politically.
There we go again. More central planning, more rules, more sign up sheets. The immediate path should be void of such structure. If we are to rebel, the tear down phase does not require much organization. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop this corporate fascist juggernaut, first and foremost.
>>I say progressives need to infiltrate and take over the Democratic Party.
I used to feel the same way. After witnessing this debacle called Obama, who can deny that the Democratic party is a lost cause. You could have stopped Hitler by taking over the nazi party but is that really the best way? Same goes for the Democratic party. Corrupt through and through. There will be no reforming.
>>And, of course, strengthen our Green Party.
Moribund attempts to work within this failed system are pipe dreams at best. Assuming they raise the money and organize within this stacked system, they'll find themselves as beholden to big money interests as the Democrats and Republicans. The barriers to entry are that great.
I hear support for the Green Party as a possible avenue to start a revolution. And I agree that a third party would be one tactic to start bringing about change. But I don't think that a renewed third party is the only way to go.
What if we built a coalition of progressive nonprofits with progressive political parties (Greens, Socialists, others?) that pushed for political reform on one front but also set up communities that help themselves with social reform? The coalition could disseminate workable reforms to local communities and unite political lobbying for nonprofit programs for a stronger voice. Combining the political platforms of the smaller progressive political parties and pushing to get progressive candidates into local, state and federal campaigns to offer people a real choice in elections could provide the impetus for more lasting change by changing the political field.
I have been hearing small beginnings toward these revolutionary (but non-violent) tactics. But I think we need to join together under one umbrella with some strong advocate voices - like Chris Hedges - to make our united voices heard over the din generated by imperial capitalism.
What if we called it the "Common Good" party - Common Sense reform for the Common Good of our society? Is anyone interested in such a movement?
You are definitely on the right track. We need to blanket medium and large radio markets with low power FM radio stations operated by progressive non-profit organizations as well.
Common Good Party is a good name. Chris Hedges would appeal to many well-informed progressives (and scare many others with his call to rebellion) but he might sound in general a little strident to average mixed audiences. I basically agree with him but I am a progressive who also is a gun owner and that puts me in the minority.
Please read my post from 1:02 PM on this thread below. Thanks.
How about the Choice party? Because that is what is missing, choice and so no change can come about.
I still like "The People Party," think it has zing. Besides, "Choice" brings back bad memories of "Choice We Can Believe In" and how much bull THAT was.
Ditto "Change Party."
Gary
“To a warden, Utopia is an escape-proof jail”
-- Gregory Nunn
Yeah, I like the sound and feel of "The People Party".
readjr: "What if we... pushed for political reform" What political reform? Make other parties illegal? Got to have the secret decoder ring before you can vote?
The only political reform worth talking about is whether money should vote in our democracy before people. Most people would say no, but the problem is that the money says yes, and the money is already in charge. But, not completely. fixcongressfirst.org aims to put people back in charge of our democracy.
Go ahead and form a third, or forth, Common Good party, I wish you luck. But, if you don't take the money out of the democracy FIRST, I worry that the common good will end up like the democrats: long on 'common-good' talk, and short on 'common-good' action. You changed the name and little else.
The first part of identifying a victory, is identifying a foe. Too many progressives think the political parties are the bad guys in all this. Nothing could be further from the truth. The bad guy is what it has always been... greed. Greed is a universal human attribute so good luck taking it out of your 'common good' parties functionaries. But our democracy isn't human, its merely a human-engineered construct. This is good, since we actually have a chance to formally take greed out of that construct. We were all supposed to hold hands and vote in a representative. We weren't supposed to find him representing 'king capital'. We need to fundamentally take back our democracy. Against that imperative, no party, no representative, no hero anywhere is significant, cuz they're all human, and thus susceptible to corruption. Democracy was an idea that became a set of relationships, complete with the method of their own improvement, the first of which was the Bill of Rights. Fix the construct or go home. fixcongressfirst.org
Money, like guns, both are abused and used to kill by people. Take away guns and money and you still have the problem, people who's choice is abuse and death. Change not the bad people who choose abuse and death, change the good people who do not understand they can choose. This is the majority, pushed around by the bad choices of the minority combined with their own lack of choice that leaves them without anchor and mooring and so easy to be pushed by bad.
Forgive me for not being more specific in the first comment - I'm rather new to this blogging.
I had in mind actually to take the money out of politics. In my opinion the first action has to be campaign reform. Take all corporate money out and severely restrict the amount individuals may contribute to any campaign. You are absolutely right that money is in charge and that we need to have the government responsible to the common people, not the top 1% or the corporations.
I also agree with you that greed, otherwise known as unfettered capitalism, is the main foe. Our economic system based on this free-wheeling capitalism is the driving force behind the destruction of our democracy. After campaign reform then we need to reinstate strong financial controls to rein in Wall St. and the big banks. There is much more to be accomplished but I'm no expert. I just hope that those who are experts will step up to outline the actions needed to turn this around.
But I also think we can't wait for corrective legislation. That is why I was talking before about supporting local communities' actions to start economic and civil change on the ground level. If this political party could serve as a clearinghouse to help communities find better ways to function, then there could also be a groundswell of support to get things changed at the upper levels. This is where I see more "action" taking place instead of just talking about the common good.
My "not fully developed" vision of this political party is not just doing the same 'ol, same 'ol. It's getting out and pushing for reform at many different levels. So if you have more ideas on how this type of movement could get started and the type of actions that could be incorporated, please write them up. I'm very interested in trying to get something started. Do you blog on fixcongressfirst.org that I should look for more comments?
Sounds wonderful -- very (in a positive way) utopian.
But... er... how long is this supposed to take?
If it takes more than five years -- and that's being optimistic -- it will matter not because the entire system will be crashing down, and as metal has pointed out, starving urban citizens will be gunning for food. So we don't have much time.
That is why rebellion is in the air. The United States is dying around our ears, jobs lost forever to slave labor. Empire is straggling and murdering the Earth, while the planet itself is drowning in waste. Peaks have been reached in oil and gas and the scraps will be fought over (as will drinkable water).
We need quick solution for the now -- not somewhat airy prescriptions for a better future when we may not have a future unless action is taken now.
Sorry to rain so hard on your parade, I like your thoughts, just think they are impractical for the near future and that is what we need to be concerned with immediately.
Gary
“Abandon all hopes of utopia -- there are people involved”
-- Clayton Cramer
readjr said: "I also think we can't wait for corrective legislation. That is why I was talking before about supporting local communities' actions to start economic and civil change on the ground level."
Well, I support that as well. We do need a new discussion in this country about what its driving ethic is. It seems though that may be a multi-year project. On the other hand, what fixcongressfirst.org is advocating is an Act that could be passed in three months, if enough Americans just stood up and said to their representatives: 'do it or else'. I agree that it would only be a first step, but it would be in the right direction.
The forces that have hijacked our democracy are hoping that, recognizing its been hijacked, we will all scatter in different directions. Perhaps some of that is inevitable. But, before we scatter, can we all agree on the simplest of principles for tossing THEM out of our democracy? The concept is not complicated: if our representatives are already funded for their elections, what power does a corporate lobbyist hold over them? Citizen lobbyists would then note: "What about us? Doesn't that reduce our power also?" No, because power is relative. The relative reduction in power of corporate lobbyists would be massive compared to that of citizens lobbyists. Hence, their power would actually increase. Citizens lobbyists should also take comfort in the fact that they are composed, and act on behalf of, actual citizens. When money is taken out of the equation, this actually matters to our representatives because they are also people. Only corporations would find their interests massively disrupted, and subject to citizen oversight.
Which is absolutely as it should be. Unlike you, I like our capitalism and its dynamic developmental model. I also worry that many a capitalist is right when they say: if you don't embrace the profit motive, your neighbor will, and end up enslaving you. Thats a sad but true observation. But, our capitalism was never intended to be the driver of our society, just the engine. The driver was always intended to be the ordinary citizen, acting with an eye to what's right for his/her community, children, and self. Corporations aren't people. Their drive is purely for profit. Giving our government over to them would be a disaster for humans, as has proven so far.
That the moment has arrived is suggested by the many and diverse groundswells of public indignation now emerging in the form of tea partiers, coffee partiers, tax resisters, war-resisters, environmentalist and student protesters. What's missing is a sense of urgency to match the seriousness of the threat to all living beings that's posed by the combination of global warming, perpetuals wars and economic collapse. What, alas, isn't clear to all who seek to turn things around is that no way can this be accomplished by our sticking with the same old same old business as usual status quo incrementalism, since, that's what's gotten us into this here guagmire of capitalism, glub, glub, glub. What's the answer? That we rise up en masse. How? Well, sorry about this, but rather than repeat "Revolution Is Not Only Possible It's Doable", please see yourstruly's 2:53 pm post to Sunday's "Time For A Revolution - 15 Reasons" by Bill Quigley. What's proposed there are tactics for starting up a peaceful popular movement for change, beginning with very safe and easy ways for rebels to publicly come out of the closet, and then, step-wise, upping the level of peaceful action. Very little on the vision "thing", believing as I do that that's a collective matter to be decided online, democratically, based on the principle of one equals one. Back to tactics, though, the start-up is deliberately very simple, easy and low risk (wearing arm bands inscribed with the "Count Me In", then bumper stickers with the same words, thereby enabling solidarity to build up, such that, when it's time for peaceful street action, the heretofore timid will be emboldened. Have confidence, revolutionaries. We can do this!
That's why I ended my post earlier in this thread with "Count Me In." I remembered your suggestion and really liked your idea. There needs to be a way to forge solidarity among those of us who want to communicate our protest of what is happening in this country. A bumper sticker/arm band is one easy way to do that. So what color should the armband be? I've already gone to a website to make up a bumper sticker that says "Count Me In." So thanks, yourstruly. And count me in.
You won't get away with wearin' no armband at work. And if anyone from work sees you outside of work wearing it, you will soon be branded a rebel against the status quo. Let us just see how long you keep that job.
The sixties brought death and jail time to those who tried to forge a new way. So, don't expect nonviolent success. Blood will surely spill, and lots of it. If they couldn't do it in the sixties, it is only going to be that much harder to accomplish now unless people do some heavy brainstorming. Half the problem is convincing people we are in a hole we can't get out of.
Yourstruly, 2:53 on which day? There are a million comments there!
There are two ways to be a slave, physically and spiritually. The former enslavement relies in its success to be perpetrated upon a person who has as precondition a belief of spiritual enslavement or 'death' as would have been said in the past that is caused not by self, but by another. The slave masters are serving the spirit of darkness, and capitalizing on this later slavery. The enslaved, the sleeping, and this death of choice they are in is a condition that relies on the loss of knowing they have the choice to be the enslaved of spirit, or free of spirit as a simple thought, a simple belief. To rebel here is to rebel against self belief not against the slave master, and when that battle is won, the elements necessary for spiritual freedom are unleashed and so the physical enslavement has been dissolved.
Our first act of rebellion is against our own self delusions, and then we are free to choose what we will serve. Nature in life, or nature in death. This story is as old as is our humanity. But the balance of life and death has been thrown askew because not enough souls are alive to the choice, and making up a life of love according to their will and their fate. These people, the suppressed and the trodden down, need that message of hope and wings of choice that carry it so they may finally be free. Democracy does not create freedom or love or right, it stands for the choice, and then the people make it. The statue of liberty that beautiful lady frozen with her torch across all of time is the torch bearer to that truth.
Let us see the choice, and let us see what choice we make.
We must rebel....and rebel we will, but against the loss of our belief in our freedom to choose. Not against those who would have us believe we lost that choice.
What a load. Here we go again with the The Liberal Shibboleth of Choice
There are no fucking "choices." Being lectured about choices is being told that "I can afford to do these things and you can't so fuck you."
Choices is a key part of the foundation of white suburban privilege, and I am convinced that the entire political discussion is dominated by people deeply steeped in white suburban privilege and that this is the most important political force we face. It is destroying everything and having a seriously suppressive effect on all discussions.
But we can't talk about it, except in the most detached and theoretical ways.
I swear, we can't even talk - we talk about talking, as though we were neutral academics, dispassionate and aloof observers of the show.
So what I want to know is this: where are people living? How are they surviving? What are they doing? How can they be so oblivious to the most important and obvious factor in modern politics, and keep pretending that it doesn't exist? How are they not running into tons of first hand evidence - overwhelming, obvious examples - of this force at play every single day? How are they immune? How are they existing? What are they telling themselves about their lives?
What is the truth, because it sure as Hell is not being revealed in any political discussions.
If your 'choice' is between the 'free clinic' and bankruptcy, where is the freedom?
If your 'choice' is between medicine and food, where is the freedom?
If your choice is between housing and heating, where is the freedom?
Don't give me this crap about choice.
Those are all physical choices mcoyote. That is what is lost as you note with valid anger. Do we want to give up and give in to this fact? How do we gain power in this scenario. I suggest the way is through personal power in the freedom to realize we have more power than we know in how we think. Thinking is tightly controlled by the media mouthpiece of the corporate death system for a reason. It is not because it is not our way to freedom.
Thanks for stirring the pot and adding to my limited comment, you filled it in more and I appreciate it.
Leea
Yes, we must rebel against our own false beliefs, delusions, erroneous thoughts in order to be truly free. The egoic mind causes our own enslavement. Rebel, rebel against the ego you falsely believe to be the real you.
Follow the words of The Bob..."Emanciapate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds."
Thank you stringbean. Such an old message repeated over and over and over through time, time which ego created.
What I find alarming is the shameless sales job being done in comment sections like this one. Take any given article, regardless of content and we get boilerplate sales pamphlets posted. They don't talk about the article, they just shamelessly pimp what they are selling. I am not in a buying mood and if it doesn't involve some sort of socialist solution, I don't really want to hear about.
As for the Orwellian chess match that goes on in our modern society, what word can't these corporates fascists co-opt? And it doesn't stop at words. Music, ideas, art can all be consumed by this ever widening corporate fascist maw and then spit back out at us as some sort of sales pitch for a car, insurance policy, or credit card.
Good points,Lefty. Many times it seems the article wasn't actually read.
And while i'm at it. It also can become personal attacks sounding a lot like fox and friends.
I have just finished watching the movie ZEITGEIST: ADDENDUM http://www.thezeitgeistmovementuk.com/site/zeitgeist-addendum
please go & watch it too, what an eye opener!
these are my next steps:
1. EXPOSE THE FRAUD THAT IS BANKING (fractional banking is a con, plain & simple, doesn't matter which country you are in.)
2. BOYCOTT ALL NEWS NETWORKS. use independent news outlets. like the following:
http://www.mikeruppert.blogspot.com/
http://www.digitaljournal.com/
http://wikileaks.org/
http://www.bbc5.tv/
http://news.infoshop.org/index.php?topic=20
http://www.informationliberation.com/?categories
http://www.alternet.org/
This next step is quite hard, I was once a soldier, I consider 99.9% of all soldiers I know / knew to be honourable, decent human beings. I believed in everything we were told about the wars we went to: like the gulf (pt. 1& 2), the Falklands, Bosnia/ Croatia/ Macedonia/ Kosovo, Northern Ireland, etc.
The wars we were sent to were / are all about corporate profit, UK/EU/USA hegemony & power & control over other nations wealth & resources. So with the greatest of respect, here goes:
3. DO NOT LET ANYONE YOU KNOW JOIN THE MILITARY, IF YOU ARE STILL IN THE MILITARY, GET OUT. IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE IN THE MILITARY ENCOURAGE THEM TO GET OUT.
4. STOP SUPPORTING ENERGY COMPANIES, GET OFF THE GRID. (buy solar, wind, etc home power generation kits )
5. REJECT THE POLITICAL SYSTEM, this 'democracy" is an insult to us all.
6. JOIN THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT & SPREAD THE WORD.
The choice lies with us all, don't dismiss this, open you mind & see the truth.
peace & freedom
voluntaryist-uk