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I Have Found the Next Gandhi
There is an old saying that if your only tool is a hammer, you see every problem as a nail. So in the current military industrial complex, the government's solution to every problem is to use violence against persons it perceives as "enemies."
For those of us who see the world differently, decisions are not so simple. I have been studying active nonviolence for a little over a year now. I am enthralled with it for a simple reason: it is empowering. Rather than complaining to like-minded friends about the world's problems, I realize I have the power to affect change. All power still resides in we the people, just as it always have. We the people just need to reclaim it.
There are many different definitions of nonviolence. To me, active nonviolence is the means through which we reclaim the power and autonomy we previously ceded to other people and institutions. As the name implies, the underlying behaviors are neither violent nor passive. Examples of nonviolent action include street protests, boycotting businesses that behave immorally, and/or openly disobeying unjust laws. There are tons of possibilities. Unfortunately, we mistake this abundance of options for having none at all. We envy the government because it has only a hammer and foolishly wish our choices were as limited. But we must recognize choice is our greatest strength. Our metaphorical toolbox is empty precisely because it contains every possible tool.
So how do we decide which tool to use? First a disclaimer: I am still a relatively new student of active nonviolence, and hardly an expert. But I am totally enthralled, so here goes:
One of the greatest instances of active nonviolence was remarkably simple: when the occupying British prohibited Indians from producing salt for themselves, Mahatma Gandhi led a march to the ocean to openly defy this ban. The action was effective because everyone understood it; humans need salt to survive, so of course Indians would want to produce it for themselves. The action also presented every Indian with a simple activity (boiling ocean water to produce salt) they could undertake to reclaim their autonomy from the British, thereby allowing the entire nation to participate in the independence campaign.
To offer a second example, Gandhi persuaded Indians to spin their own cotton, enabling them to boycott imported British cloth. What might have seemed like a tedious task (spinning cotton) became a way for Indians to increase their self-reliance and withdraw financial support from the oppressive British empire.
So we can ask ourselves: what is the modern day equivalent of Indian salt (something we all need to survive which the current corporate government does not allow us to produce for ourselves)? What is the modern day equivalent of imported cloth (something we purchase from an oppressive foreign power which we could instead produce ourselves?) And we are obviously not limited to these two issues.
Just following Gandhi's lead, we could stop driving gas-powered vehicles and instead ride bicycles or use public transportation. We could only buy organic produce from local farmers who pay their workers a fair wage. Yes, these actions might seem inconvenient and expensive. But are they really more inconvenient or expensive than asking a fellow human being to risk his or her life in the middle east to secure our ability to drive Hummers? Or to ask our children to be guinea pigs in an experiment to see how genetically engineered crops affect human health long term?
I did not say exercising our power would be easy. I did not say we would not have to sacrifice, and we almost certainly will. But please realize you do have massive power, and myriad constructive options for using it. And many of the options are less demanding then the ones I identified above. It is okay to start small. But please do start.
Relatedly, people sometimes say that difficult times produce compelling leadership. For people on the left, I doubt we'll see a time that calls for leadership more than the present. Our nation has deep problems related to ongoing wars, massive unemployment and devastating environmental disasters. If there has ever been a time that called out for real progressive leadership, it is now.
So where is the leader? When does he or she appear? I have the answer.
The leader will appear this very moment, because nothing happens in the past or the future, only the present.
And who is the leader?
You are.
Think about it. You have been waiting for a leader to emerge, and every other person is waiting for "someone else" too. So please, I am begging you, fulfill your destiny and lead. (I honor the efforts of existing progressive activists, but I suspect they would agree there is room for more leadership).
If you think you are too insignificant to make a difference, you are not only disempowered, you are lying to yourself. If you are physically small, so was Gandhi. And if you suffer stage fright, so did he. So if a physically small man with stage fright could lead the Indians to reclaim their country from the British empire, you can achieve anything using the same nonviolent methods. And even if your journey is long and riddled with setbacks, there is nothing more empowering to a frustrated people than seeing someone trying to affect change.
If active nonviolence makes sense to you, and you are ready to be a leader, here is the next step: you must study nonviolent theory and history. I did my best with this article, but it is only the briefest of introductions. Take some time to read a book or take a class (videos of relevant UC-Berkeley courses are available online). Learn about Gandhi's life, and the lives of other practitioners, such as Martin Luther King and Rev. James Lawson. I know, I know. I have given you this huge build-up about active nonviolence and urged you to take action, and now I am telling you to...read a book? But reading a book, taking a class, or otherwise learning about active nonviolence is one of the strongest actions you can take. It is that fabled first step on a very liberating journey of empowerment.
So please take that first step and study active nonviolence. But hurry.
You are the leader you have been waiting for. There is no one else.
And do not worry if you doubt your own abilities. I believe in you.
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63 Comments so far
Show AllThank you Andy for not giving up to lazy and cowardly cynicism. We need to reinvent a culture of creative and determined nonviolence. You are a wonderful example of that effort. Yes, it takes effort.
What is the new salt? What is the new cotton? What is the new oil? What is the new medicine?
Hemp.
how i love you andy birnbaum!!! and all you other satyagraha-istas out there.... we are legion and we have patience and love and LIFE on our side, because it is on EVERYONE's side. my favorite bumpersticker: God Bless Everyone: No Exceptions. the mindset of the hammer-wielder is the mindset of the fearful brother or sister.... such fear is a stage in human development that we can all progress beyond. after years of intending to (but never 'finding the time') i am finally actively learning about nonviolent communication and it has broken through a cynicism i didn't even realize i had about we as human beings... who we are... what life is all about... it isn't easy to stand in front of that tank or bulldozer or screaming militarist 'patriot', but it is important to confront these hammers when we see them... to access the heart of the human being in front of us, because it is there.... and it is our job to see and to nurture it. sound naiive or fantastical?... try controlling the planet by force.
Hey! Teacher! Leave those kids ALONE!
Here! Here! To the teacher's who teach kids that they are ALL leaders in their own ways.
Here's to the kids who saw the trap! Despite the System! Be the mentors we so desperately need!
I was quite rudely thrown out of the whole engineering school-to-jobs system because I was antiwar, my department head was pro-war, there was a war, I didn't keep my mouth shut about the war, and then I didn't check my references when applying for jobs. No job whatsoever for years!
As a result, I did exactly the right thing with my life. I invented on my own for decades. I became good at my craft. I gravitated early on toward climate change.
Last year I picketed outside a national conference for government energy experts. I said look, here are the solutions that you need! I had a sign and I leafletted for 3 days straight. No engineer gave me a reason why any of my many ideas wouldn't work.
"I Have Found the Next Gandhi...
....
And who is the leader?
You are."
Well, he was Hindu. He might well have said that one of us IS the next Gandhi, reborn. :-)
Both Gandhi and MLK were leaders of mass movements. If Gandhi had marched to the sea alone, the salt prohibition would have continued; if MLK had marched to Washington alone the civil rights legislation would not have passed. You can practice active non-violence as an individual, but nothing will change. If you break an unjust law, be prepared to spend some time in prison or worse. Several of the non-violent activist who tried to break the illegal Israeli embargo against Gaza, paid with their lives. I admire them for the courage, but even here it was not an act of an individual.
FIRST -- it WAS an act of an individual.
MASS MOVEMENTS do not become mass movements out of the blue...they are started BY individuals...and others join them...
a Waterfall is not a "solid wall" of water - but consists of individual drops...
we can think of it like a buddhist saying goes:
"Existence is like a River...that becomes a waterfall...and then becomes a river again..."
"where there is the waterfall -- that is when our life as we know it happens...we are the individual droplets of water....and then we join the river again".
Very true Teddy. However you need the cooperation of the other side for non-violence to work.
As you said, I think the author was just saying each and every one of us must strive to do what we can...right now.
More propping up of the status quo. Keep telling yourself that the kings will relinquish the levers of power voluntarily. They won't. More importantly, every day you tell yourself that they will, every day we slide deeper into the abyss. One only look at the Gulf Gusher and the recent slaughter of peace activists to realize that FACT. When is enough enough?
http://www.utne.com/2007-05-01/Politics/Arms-and-the-Movement.aspx
When is enough enough? And your truculent retorts are steering the chaos away from destruction? Your solution is wallowing in criticism. You are clueless as to the power of non participation. Refusal to conform to violence follows one to the doors of physical death and challenges ones commitment to not engage in destruction even if it means your destruction. do you have that kind of courage or is your bravado in the abuse of your intellectual gift.
Perhaps you are religious? Maybe you are a shill for the elite? In either case, enough for you is when the planet is brought to her knees and the planet shakes the human race off her back like a bad case of fleas. That is enough for you and that is what you advocate. Without violent destructive response to global capitalist forces, they will continue to rampage over the planet, looting and pillaging as they see fit. Perhaps your religion has taught you that life is an illusion and getting down and dirty and fighting for justice and what is right is strictly verboten. I, on the other hand, view this planet as the true gift. Developing the courage and wisdom to fight for her and the people who inhabit it is our responsibility.
I hope you followed my link. It covers a lot of ground. Many of the things in the article, I witnessed first hand. I don't have to take anyone's word for it, I don't have to BELIEVE. While I appreciate your spiritual message and I myself eschew the taking of life, I feel that violent destruction of property will play a key role in stopping these capitalist hogs. After all, that is what matters most to them and if we are to truly damage their effort, that is the path we must take.
Hopefully I'll see you at the barricades some day.
Lefty, what is it that you really really want?
And , what will that give you? Not a list, but what remains when the list is dropped.
"Perhaps you are religious?" - I have never been in a religion
"Maybe you are a shill for the elite?"- Have never made enough money to even qualify for social security. Hmm, that is kinda of a reverse elite.
" enough for me?"- 'to much for me' is the cutting of one tree for profit ,instead of asking first to use it for a modest shelter or?
" I on the other hand I view this planet as a true gift" - i agree 100000% !
if you would have read any of my previous posts over the last few years, you would have known all of the above and more and could have avoided your one dimensional assumption rampage. If you were really going to act on your belief of violent overthrow, you would be DOING it. And if you were doing it ,you would not be advertising that fact on the internet. In closing and out of compassion for your lust of violent response - SHUT THE FUCK UP!
>>SHUT THE FUCK UP!
A scatological reply if I ever read one. I bet you're non-violent. You sound like an effing lunatic. SERENITY NOW!
deleted
As you are advocating violent overthrow in your posts, I was curios to see how you would respond to some verbal violence directed at you. My suspicions were correct in that you are all talk and no action, especially using the word scatological as a truculent retort. It simply has no emotional charge and is very indicative of how an intellectual fights as opposed to a real fighter. Once again, either abusing your brilliant intellectual gift or hiding behind it when aggression is focused on YOU. Someone who really intends to instigate violence, would have let me have it! Which is it, SERENITY NOW or blow something up?
I think the author is honestly trying to encourage each of us - as individuals - to just listen to our own conscience and then do what KNOW we MUST do. that is what gandhi and those that followed him in his example did.
and yes - it is frightening PRECISELY because of the things each of us KNOW are the forces of EVIL, PURE EVIL, that , for example: USE "laws" against the good and clear conscience.
to note that "what good will it do, if you're the only one without followers?"
IS EXACTLY what Gandhi ANSWERED - by doing what HE did as -- AN INDIVIDUAL, FIRST, before a "leader".
that is why - as I myself must admit - most of us are , to put it bluntly, LACKING in our own courage ...or simply are that much more "defeated" already ...before we even 'started'.
BUT - in our limited ways - just like those that followed gandhi - because of the fear which Gandhi BROKE - but NOT WITHOUT COST to himself . as well as to those that followed....
we can , TOO - as the writer reminds us, do what we know we CAN or MUST do, as individuals.
there is NO "movement" UNLESS an individual takes up what he or she needs to take up....and then another, and then another, and then another.
THAT IS What we are witnessing in the GROWING movement for the Palestinians in Gaza, is it not? someone somewhere "started" it ...and wouldn't give up...and I can only imagine what SHE or HE or others had to contend with: threats, maybe jobs, i don't know. maybe their personal circumstances are "better" or give them more "room" to act...we can only guess.
another example:
when one of the world's biggest and most powerful corporations -- the famous Engineering company of BECHTEL...already succeeded in making deals with the former Bolivian government to PRIVATIZE bolivia's water....and actually began to charge Bolivians for THEIR own water....
a "MERE" carpenter or janitor -- imagine that -- "started" their movement.
believe it or not-- it was because of ONE person who wouldn't give up -- he talked to his neighbors, then his co-workers, then his friends, etc. etc. etc.
and it grew and grew and grew - until they won - and FORCEd a change in the bolivian constitution PROHIBITING ANY privatization of water.
Bechtel was LITERALLY KICKED OUT of that business.
you can check it all on a book or CD documentary
"BLUE GOLD , Globalization , WATER WARS and the privatization of Water".
a MERE BOY of 7 or so in Canada years ago - when he understood from his mother that it takes africans "ten thousand steps" to fetch water....while HE only needed "ten steps"...
started a neighborhood campaign to raise funds for what HE thought was "only 70 dollars for fresh, clean water pump for a village"......
it has grown worldwide to help over a million thirsty people now:
"RYAN's WELL WATER FOUNDATION" it is called...
i think we can do it in our own personal ways - by talking, by explaining, by our own actions and if friends wonder why -- we EXPLAIN ...and then let the chips fall where they may ....and see where our own individual "limited actions" reach.
one doesn't have to act BECAUSE of FEAR. doing that - and I am not saying one shouldn't act WISELY or thoughfully and with care and NOT carelessly - only increases and accelerates the DAY when ALL of us WILL NO LONGER be able to "act" - EVEN in our individual "limited ways".
that is EXACTLY what the "powers-that-be" WANT.
Big bad Teddy who posts countless rants and rages against the machine. Even mastered the use of the CAPS button. Now reduced to posting glurge about water wells in the face of ever mounting destruction and defeat. Thanks Teddy. I think that is EXACTLY what they WANT!
Well, Britain's crushing debts from WWII, as well as the election of a Labour government actually allowed India to gain independence, and even then only to see the country ripped apart by sectarian conflict that had been seeded by imperial divide and rule politics. Even Gandhi couldn't stop India being vivisectioned in a paroxysm of bloodshed.
In terms of withdrawing from the economic system, we might not have any alternative the way the economy is going, we being too pauperized to afford supporting the system any longer. However, the addiction and dependence of the vast majority on their own corporate serfdom is that much more pronounced now than Gandhi's time. Most Indians were still peasants at the time, and could return to their ancient ways. Also, a tax protest is always popular.
All for one and one for all is leadership or at least equality and a move away from hierarchy, which is what we need. Stop the top down organization of society by a level headed English leveler way of doing things on an egalitarian basis or should I say an African leveler's style of doing things is, as Africa was the birthplace of all democracy and civilization.
AD
Admirable ideas. Unfortunately I think the basic ingredient is missing: we the people. There is no "we the people". For every liberal who says "lend the guy a hand" there's a conservative who says "let him pick himself up".
And even when there's a "big event" (real or trumped up) like 911 to rally the disparate groups together, it's used against we the people. I know this sounds fatalistic, but I think it'll just take several generations of miniscule personal steps to move things in the progressive direction.
That's something each of us can do as suggested in the article, but the big protests and mass movements are things of the past. We even have fake mass movements like the Tea Party, who give mass movements a bad name.
at least - in application to the USA - which is TOO FAR STEEPED in its 'capitalism' and "individualism" dogma of supposed "freedom" -- I fear I must agree with you. it can not be done in the United States. it will not START from americans (heck - in many separate ways - other countries and people who make NO CLAIMS as the bastion of "freedom" like the USA does - are well ahead of the americans in such things).
POOR as my home country is - the philippines - and largely TRAPPED as a third world or developing world country within the global capitalism imposed and exported from the USA primarily --
I can STILL say that there are at least more chances of "mass movements" THERE than ANYWHERE in the USA.
i can say that - there - there is a chance even at this late date of people increasingly becoming more attuned to pollutions of the countryside - and a cousin of mine has made it his passion to increase the awareness and they are gradually building a national consciousness even if just in small ways -- such as his "biking" movement.
even such a poor country already has PLENTY of people thinking ahead and wanting to learn about how to "save" to one day be able to install solar powered , wind powered electricity for their homes and communities.
for a country so rich and with 300 million -- i don't see THAT kind of consciousness in the USA...much....as befitting its status.
Excellent point. I agree completely, not in the US for exactly the reasons you mention, on top of which we can add Corp Mass Media controlling the mindset.
Who killed the electric car?
We need an active nonviolent campaign to stop the government in 2010 from sandbagging the majority of climate change inventors. No independent inventors, no product development, no cool stuff, no cool world. This is the critical point. Stand with inventors. You don't have to be an inventor yourself, just stand with them.
And maybe add a detail someday. Or two. Because we need more inventors soon.
An excellent reference to a very fine documentary. For anyone who hasn't already seen it, Who Killed the Electric Car, you can go to:
http://www.freedocumentaries.org
All available documentaries are listed alphabetically. In this case, look at the "w"s.
Interestingly, I never saw a single post that says "can't be done" either as a simple declaration or followed by proofs on Freeper webistes, or Tea Party websites, or Christian websites, nor have I ever seen a single post on those types of sites dismissing an effort that will need to start small and grow incrementally rather than accomplishing its whole agenda all at once as not worth initiating.
I only see that stuff on leftist websites. Hundreds of excuses for inaction, probably tens of thousands if you google your way through Common Dreams message boards.
Interestingly, that's never been the message of any of the authors, so to all you surrender monkeys I ask, what the heck are you doing reading this site? Trying to talk others into joining your surrender? "The media won't help." Oh, poor baby. There were successful movements before media was an issue, and there were successful movements when media was McCarthyite. "The power structure
is too powerful." Oh, poor baby. Tell that to the Bolsheviks, or the American Civil Rights movement, or the early labor movement that risked all against scabs, soldiers and Pinkertons so that you can enjoy the weekend. All of those movements didn't have the kind of communications power we have today -- they had to do the best they could with hand-turned mimeograph machines and low-wattage radios hidden beneath floorboards -- and they didn't have the ease of transportation to gather that we have today -- but you never mention that. All you do is dwell on what they supposedly had that we don't, or what their opposition didn't have that ours does. All you naysayers are weaklings and cowards, grasping for any desperate excuse you can find for your own inaction.
You make me sick, every one of you. My children are going to have a difficult life because you miserable losers don't think anything's worth it any more, not because our times are any harder for activists than any that came before. Christ almighty. Hey, speaking of Christ, 12 people facing overwhelming imperial power and a totally dismissive public decided to keep pressing for what they believed in, even if it meant being burned alive or rent by lions for sport, and after 300 years they'd won the empire over, and after 1500 more, reigned over the whole wide world. If he published an article on Common Dreams right now, 90% of you would tell him "nice words, thanks, but we're talking about the Roman Empire here, they're too big, too evil, too powerful, they have big weapons, and doing what you ask will intrude on my blogging time." Then you'd go to your blog and post something both pithy and witty about how awful things are. Then you'd Twit 20 words about your status. Then you'd log onto Time Warner to make your monthly cable payment. Anything but organize for a fight for what you believe in.
>>Anything but organize for a fight for what you believe in.
So you advocate violence? Good for you. I'd watch out though. Someone will soon be posting John Lennon lyrics. Ya say you want a revolution...uh er, well not really.
In fairness to Mr Greenfield, with whom I strongly disagree about many things, that is a completely unwarranted distortion of his comment. Advocating action is not at all the same thing as advocating violence.
How do you classify fighting? Interesting handcuffs you've placed on yourselves.
If you're asking me, I have no reservations at all about fighting back when the circumstances dictate such a response. I was just pointing out an unwarranted assumption in your response to Steve Greenfield's comment.
In fact, one of my differences with his viewpoint, as I understand it, is what I perceive as his unrealistic absolutist commitment to NON-violence, even excluding actions that I would regard it as essential and perfectly legitimate self-defence.
I think he deserved the distortion given the whole of his post. Hopefully we'll meet at the barricades someday.
So it's OK to fabricate something I did not say because I "deserve" fabrication? What barricades do you mean? The ones staffed by the dishonest and intellectually disabled? What the hell is wrong with you?
The article is about the power of nonviolent resistance, which I believe to be true (as I wrote about all day yesterday and most of today elsewhere, as you well know). It also suggested learning how to do it by studying the masters and training, other things I agree with, as you well know. But many of the reader comments (not all, just many) were the typical "it doesn't work" or "things are different today" and all that other nonsense, which one never finds on the various types of reactionary news and communications boards, and all I wrote was support for the message of the article and despair the surrender represented in the comments.
So a) where did I advocate violence; and b) what about my overall content "deserves" distortion; and c) what does it mean to say that something or someone "deserves" distortion? If you actually attract participants, are you going to tell them how to know when to lie and when to be honest? What goal does it serve? And why are there so many lunatics out here in CD land?
RV classified it as a distortion. I myself would have classified it as sarcastic mockery. I wonder what the folks at the barricade will think of me? You keep pimping your nonviolent resistance. With half the world living on $2 a day or less, 1 billion starving people, peace activists slaughtered and oil gushing into the gulf, I am truly impressed by all your successes.
I'm not recruiting participants, I'm not selling snake oil so I don't have to worry about explaining how I mocked some pompous fool. As for your recruiting practices, I find them lacking. Telling everyone that we make you sick is a sure way to attract recruits to your moral high ground. You should read Kitaj's post about five times and then reply. Good luck Steve.
Could be "struggle."
The violence bears its own set of cuffs, but yes, nonviolence becomes all the more interesting on examination: nothing passive about it.
I assume you don't mean violent action or fighting. The ones that call for that almost invariably have never done any and never will.
Non-volence only works if your opposition agrees to it, luckily we live in the United States where it has been and could be effective again, because we are not the nasty piece of work so many insist we are.
Starting a movement to change the entire country (I assume thats what you are talking about) requires a majority that agree with you or can be persuaded that you are right.
I don't see any majority like that. I don't see how you would persuade the majority as you haven't said what you want to do and have not suggested how it could be done.
Um, what "successes" Steve? The Military-Industrial Complex, the financial oligarchs, the entire corporate plutocracy have grown stronger and stronger over the past 30 years, despite all the words of chomsky and zinn and all the politically correct protesting.
I dont think you quite graps the situation. The Empire IS collapsing as we speak. and the elites are not going to change directions, they are going to double down. The country is so far in debt that soon, the only thing the average person is going to be able to do is spend all their waking hours just trying to survive. The elites know this which is why they are looting the place and sneaking out the back door with the national silverware right before The Big Crash.
ANY protest that actually got big enough to really *rock the boat* would initiate a full-blown assault on the part of the elites, who would crush it mercilously. In other words Steve, at some point, protestors are going to get killed and THEN what are you going to do? When people are starving and getting shot in the streets, then what are YOU going to do? Stand on the street corner reciting politically correct platitudes? Fine.
What people on this site are pointing out is that the corporate elites have more than shown their willingness to use force against the people, so, when the police and military start doing here what the US and Israel do overseas, what are YOU going to do then?
Around 1905, the famous occultist Aleister Crowley was in Bombay. He was walking one night and was cornered by some robbers who pulled knives on him. He pulled a pistol and killed them. EVEN THOUGH IT WAS A CASE OF SELF DEFENSE, HIS FRIENDS SUGGESTED HE GET THE HELL OUT OF THE COUNTRY BECAUSE THE TRUTH OF A BRITISH NATIONAL KILLING INDIANS WOULD HAVE INITIATED MASSIVE CIVIL DISTURBANCE.
Around the same time, the famous spiritual explorer, Sri Aurobindo, was involved in Indian independence, long before Gandhi, obviously. His brother was building bombs. Aurobindo ended up in jail. He gave up his political activism for spiritual exploration, but the point is, the THREAT of massive upheaval against a bankrupt empire trying to maintain a colony half a world away played a large part in the success of the independence movement. Now look at India today - it is a capitalist plutocracy, just like the US, with millions of farmers committing suicide. Ah, sweet success.
When Gandhi advocated pacifism against the Nazis, Aurobindo pointed out that to let them dominate unopposed would cause more harm to the world than the harm caused by violently opposing them.
The point is Steve, there is NO absolute rule here. Considerations must be situationally evaluated. Did the Native Americans have the right to violently oppose those who were seeking to exterminate them? I certainly wont be the one to tell them they are morally inferior for doing so - maybe YOU would like the job.
More than likely, Peak Oil will crash the government at some point as the US devolves into feudalism and anarchy, but there may well be a period of vicious fascism. When armed men come to kill you or imprison you for what you believe, it is your choice to let them kill you. However, it is NOT your right to pretend you are morally superior to those who choose to resist. You make some good points; unfortunately, they are mired in a moral oneupmanship game and a tone of self-righteousness that is obnoxious in the extreme.
Even in a feudal condition, the elites will still dominate with their Blachwater/Xe type private security, and those guys will put a bullet in your head just for kicks, dude. In the face of the possibility of full blown fascism, your attemtpt to blame cd posters for the horrible world that your children and all of us will be living in soon is despicable beyond words. But I forgive you Steve, for you know not what you do. Amen
Top notch! Five stars for this post.
Addendum
I was writing from memory. The Crowley incident actually occured in Calcutta. The point remains that there was extreme tension because of the colonial situation as far back as the first decade of the 20th century.
At the end of WW2, Britain was broke and couldnt feasibly hold on to its Empire, though Churchill wanted to and was at times irritated with Roosevelts talk about relenquishing colonies. When Rooselvelt talked about his "Four Freedoms", one person who took him seriously - and greatly admired the American Revolution - was Ho Chih Minh.
Well, as we know, the French didnt want to give up the crown jewel of its colonial empire, and when they went down the US stepped in. So again we have the situation, one person's freedom fighter is another persons terrorist.
Did the Vietnamese have the right to oppose the US with lethal violence? Do the people of Iraq and Afghanistan have the right today? How about the people in South America? What about Nicaragua and the horrors the Reagan administration caused the people of Central America?
I remember reading of how one time some Contras attacking civilian targets in Nicaragua, hung a woman from a tree by her hands, cut off her breasts and left her to slowly bleed to death. Under situations like that - and there have been many, and they are still going on in Iraq and afghanistan - it is understandable that people fight back with lethal force.
Last, it is debatable that the Jesus of history matches the Jesus of faith. We do know that at the time, their was a Jewish nationalist movement that included guerilla fighters harrassing Roman troops, who they wanted the hell out of their country. It is very possible Jesus and some of his followers were part of such a movement, that the Jesus of history had no intention of creating a religion based upon worshipping him, something done by Paul who never met Jesus in his lifetime.
The point is, in an honest world, all of this would be openly debated and talked about. But given our media, we know it never will be.
Good comments kitaj.
Excellent points, excellent comment.
Kitaj,
So while you are waiting for your mass movements/mass protests, while you’re waiting for your leader - or perhaps your followers - to emerge, what’s wrong with making ethical every-day choices like the kind the author of this article suggests? Small things, like paying fair price for stuff that you buy, limiting driving and generally limiting consumption, don’t have to be a substitute for big action when the opportunity presents itself. They don’t prevent you from actively working to create that opportunity. They are not mutually exclusive. By all means, change the system if you can, but if you can’t stand up to the MIC in a big way, at least do what you can, or at the very least let others do it without disparaging them.
Thanks.
Steve has a point - if all you do is complain that nothing can be done - what’s the point?
Do the most you can, and if that means growing your own vegetables, so be it.
Realistically, there is no chance for a successful violent overthrow of the MIC. They are much better armed and the American society is too divided, too confused, and too complicit. Furthermore, what's the point fighting the empire, if it's collapsing on its own anyway?
Speaking of the economic collapse, here is how Dmitry Orlov compares the “imminent” collapse of the USA to the collapse of the Soviet Union. This stuff is a few years old, but chances are some people haven’t seen it. Makes for an interesting read:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259
One of my favorite excerpts, that seems pertinent here:
“Many people expend a lot of energy protesting against their irresponsible, unresponsive government. It seems like a terrible waste of time, considering how ineffectual their protests are. Is it enough of a consolation for them to be able to read about their efforts in the foreign press? I think that they would feel better if they tuned out the politicians, the way the politicians tune them out. It's as easy as turning off the television set. If they try it, they will probably observe that nothing about their lives has changed, nothing at all, except maybe their mood has improved. They might also find that they have more time and energy to devote to more important things.”
BTW Steve, the christians BECAME the Roman Empire and proceeded in due course to become a massive force of evil in the world - you see Steve, the Empire didnt end with christianity, it morphed into a religious Empire which then gave justification for global genocide and tyranny. Sweet success again, eh Steve? I suppose you will condemn all those in the New World who fought back against enslavement that they are morally inferior to you.
Well guess what Steve? They TRIED to be nice and welcoming and giving and they got slaughtered. In the name of Christ.
Are you the same Steve Greenfield advocating non-violence? Do you need reminding Mr."You make me sick, every one of you" non-violent advocate, that non-violence starts with your own peaceful state of mind and with compassion. I see mostly vindictive inflammatory statements coming from you. Why do you throw angry darts at those who would be your ally's? Your non-violence is a sham.
Yes, I too want to applaud your first steps. Part of the problem is doctrinaire Marxism, which dismisses counter-institutions and reforms, even empowing ones. At Left Forum here in New York, one actually said: "I don't believe in transitions." The issue seems to me scaling up and integrating small group projects that promote self-sufficiency with larger social movements that can reach critical mass.
We know on an intellectual basis what needs to be done. But so few have actually made the effort. If you gave 90% of Americans a piece of fertile ground, and a wheel barrel full of seeds they would still starve. More food ends up in the dumpster than the plates of our starving brothers and sisters.
The amount of fuel used in your most efficient vehicle in one day would bring a small village to market, animals and produce included. Any real solution is quickly marginalized and deemed unworkable. Our for profit education insures that the majority of students become either enslaved by the corporate slave owners or one of them.
A "religious" constraint, it should be noted, of which opposing forces are very well aware and that they exploit to the fullest extent possible with very considerable success.
One hopes that the left can find great solace in its "superior" morality. It may soon be left with little else.
Well said.
Gandhi was an incredible man, but he was also an easy way out for the British.
These are not the halcyon days of Gandhi or MLK.
The people we face today are incredibly paranoid, hostile, brimming with weaponry and scared to death of the outer world. Unfortunately, they only understand two things: violence and numbers – big numbers.
Mass numbers of people using the threat of violence is the only thing that will make Them understand you mean business.
Thinking about nonviolence and practicing it in small, personal ways is a wonderful way to go about the daily business of undercutting these weasels limb-by-limb. But, when it comes to cutting the trunk or digging the roots up, you're gonna have to get down & dirty. And until that nasty deed is done, will they be rendered safe to live among the rest of humanity. Then you still need to keep the boot on their necks.
More than likely though, if the US collapses economically, and the government tried to violently surpress the people - who might well be rioting at that point - and they killed a lot of people, it would turn into civil war/anarchy, considering how many guns there are in this country.
If the government was broke, it would have a hard time enforcing any laws because it couldnt pay its personnel. Until that time comes, however, we could see Marshall Law if the economy collapses for the last and final time, with no chance of recovery but just a steady slide downward.
The wealthy and the corporations would probably form into some kind of feudal system, and they would employ well armed and trained merc-security for themselves. Next, throw in the street gangs and a large part of the prison population that states will no longer be able to afford to keep behind bars.....
All in all, not a pretty picture. We are talking the collapse of global industrial capitalism in the end, Peak Oil, climate change, ecological degradation. Time for sssss l o w change is really not a luxury we have any longer.
I would love to see 75 million americans in the streets tomorrow, because that is what it would take. Unfortunately, violent anarchy, rather than a unified political front seems more likely in the face of serious economic collapse.
NO, YOU ARE WRONG. You miss the point entirely. Non violence is NOT practiced in "small ways". Non violence if practiced in anything less than all or nothing, will embolden your opponent. Your post is very indicative of this. You have played right into the devious hands of paranoia. your approach of using aggression is no different than theirs. this is the "we are righteous and therefore entitled to use force" agenda. You are right in your description of the greedy and powerful, but lose that righteous position as soon as you become violent.