Most Popular This Week
- Not to Worry, Rape Victims Who Want An Abortion: We Won't Charge You With Felony Tampering With Evidence, Just Your Doctor
- The Non Zero-Sum Society: How the Rich Are Destroying the US Economy
- Obama Administration Compromise Would Implement No-Cost Birth Control
- The Right of the People, Even At the Airport
- To End Extreme Poverty, Let’s Try Ending Extreme Wealth
- The Non Zero-Sum Society: How the Rich Are Destroying the US Economy
- Don’t Put a Fork in It: On the Perils of Genetically Engineered Salmon
- Five Possibilities for the Next Great Progressive Push
- An Economic Alternative to Exploitative Free Market Capitalism
- UN Report: Israel Must Immediately Dismantle Settlements or Face ICC
Popular content
Today's Top News
History Is Knocking: Stop the Machine! Create a New World!
There comes a time when efforts to avoid the truth begin to fail, when one can no longer go about daily life and pretend that all is okay. If you are like most of us, you are experiencing this.
There comes a time when one can no longer shut out the atrocities of U.S. foreign and military policy: trade agreements that destroy farming; mass unemployment; especially among communities of color; illegal detention and torture; increasing drone attacks resulting in mass civilian deaths; and once again a President who lies the United States into another war for oil and bankers.
A time comes when one can no longer close one’s eyes to the atrocities of a U.S. domestic policy that steals from the people to add to the already hideously bursting pockets of the wealthy, that kicks people out of their homes, denies needed medical treatment and drives families into bankruptcy so that CEOs can dine on gold-lined plates in their personal jets as they travel from gated mansions to leather seats in penthouse offices.
A time comes when one cannot help but realize that the path is unsustainable and one must make a choice. History is knocking, and each of us must choose how we will answer. What do you want to say you did when history was at your door?
History is not a fairy tale you read to your children at night. It is not something someone else did in another place. History is right here and right now, in front of you. It happens before you realize what is going on. There are events that give hints, but nobody knows when the dam will burst and the flood that gushes forth will wipe clean what has gone before and create a new reality.
When the tipping point is reached, it seems at once both unexpected and completely obvious. We are nearing that tipping point in the United States. We have witnessed the Arab Spring and the blossoming of the European Summer. We ask ourselves if now we will experience the American Autumn.
People in America see that corporate power controls the political process and the media. The Forces of Greed steal our treasure and squander it on militarism and needless wars for empire. Forces of Greed render our White House, Congress and Supreme Court dysfunctional so that the denizens of these bodies regurgitate what their corporate paymasters feed them.
Our country faces crises on every front: the economy, education, jobs, the environment, health care, housing, the wealth divide, an empire stretched too thin and ready to shred. None of these crises has to exist. Just and sustainable solutions are available and known. What stands in the way of all these solutions is concentrated corporate power.
Corporatism is behind the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Pakistan in which thousands, including our own soldiers, but mostly innocent civilians—men, women and children—are maimed and killed.
Corporatism ignores majority support for improved Medicare for all and instead hands billions to the medical-industrial complex while tens of thousands suffer and die from preventable causes each year.
Corporatism prevents effective regulation of the finance industry, stands in the way of a more sustainable energy economy, resists real job creation and is at the root of the foreclosure crisis, while more families find themselves on the street with nothing.
Corporatism blocks effective action to decrease the known causes of climate chaos while the Arctic Cap melts and tornadoes rampage; some face record droughts while others face high-level flooding.
Corporatism exploits human beings and the planet for profit.
Somehow we need to realize that the situation has gone beyond critical and there is no alternative but to act and resist with resolve. Every day the runaway corporate machine moves closer to the precipice; every day, thousands more children needlessly starve or die from wars or disease. Every day, the earth itself is being raped, and all this death and destruction, for what? Bloody offerings at the altar of the god of profit! It has to stop and people of conscience and courage are the ones with the collective power to stop it.
None of us can do this alone. Even the organizations that advocate just and sustainable solutions cannot do it alone. Corporate power is tremendous. It misinforms, frightens and divides us. Our strength is in unity, in the connection that we share: our desire for a world in which humans can trust each other, can work together to create real solutions instead of hating and killing each other.
We are seeing the beauty of this unity in other parts of the world and at home. Across the country there is evidence of citizen revolt. Most only see the big demonstrations—Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, the immigrant marches—but in fact, people inAmerica are consistently in protest against austerity budgets, big business tax avoidance, rising tuition, cuts to education, foreclosures, insurance-based health care and the ongoing wars. On issue after issue there is evidence of peoplein revolt.
Now is the time to join together and unite our struggles in sustained acts of nonviolent resistance. Democracy literally means people power. Concentrated corporate capital and influence has changed the United States into a faux democracy where Americans only get to choose from two corporate-approved candidates, funded by millions in corporate donations.
The normal tools of democracy no longer work.
October 6 is the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan invasion, and the beginning of the new federal budget year—an austerity budget for everything except for war and the corporate security state. On this day, we are calling for sustained and nonviolent mass resistance in Washington, D.C. The action, Stop the Machine! Create a New World!, portends an American Tahrir Square at Freedom Plaza between the White House and Congress, a block away from the National Press Club and a few blocks from the Chamber of Commerce and K Street, the stomping ground of corporate lobbyists.
An impressive array of people have already signed on. Among them: Ann Wright, Baldemar Velasquez, Ben Manski, Brian Becker, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Chris Hedges, Cornel West, David Swanson, Debra Sweet, Diane Wilson, Glen Ford, Jane Hamsher, Jodie Evans, Leah Bolger, Medea Benjamin, Mike Ferner, Larry Pinkney, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rosa Clemente, Steffie Woolhandler, Ted Rall, The YES Men. (Google them, if you don't know them, each is an impressive leader.)
We know however, that it is not leaders who make change, but people united who insist on change that will succeed!
We are at a turning point. History is knocking. It is time for each of us to decide whether we can remain silent and thus allow the destruction of our planet or join in solidarity to create the future we envision of peace, justice and equality.
Here are three steps you can take right now to create the momentum that leads to a historical breakthrough:
1. Sign the pledge at www.October2011.org and say why you’re coming.
2. Spread the word by forwarding this newsletter to everyone you know, posting www.October2011.org on your Facebook page and sending it out on Twitter.
3. Reach out to organizations that should be involved and tell them to join the campaign.
It is time to turn the Arab Spring into the American Autumn and begin a movement to remove corporate power and militarism from control of our government.
Ending corporatism and militarism is the transformative issue of our era.
You can be part of a great moment in history—don’t miss the opportunity, answer the call.
Questions? Info@October2011.org.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
58 Comments so far
Show AllA brilliant call to action. Solidarity!
Tony Vodvarka
October 6, 2011 would be a good day for a General Strike, especially for all those who cannot be in D.C. that day but who support "Stop the Machine! Create a New World!"
The only thing power ever listens to is power.
Those of us who can, have the power to bring this unjust, murderous, warmongering and polluting society to a stop if we organize by October 6, and then stay home that day in solidarity with the Freedom Plaza protests.
But protests alone are no longer enough.
Exactly!
Spending time, money and energy to go to Washington, DC to be ignored by the politicians is only for those who live nearby.
The rest of us should strike! If the French can do it, so can we.
Brilliant I will be there.
There is another one on July which I will also attend and we here on CD should support. http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org
My own take on all this is that one single everyone stay home General Strike day would have about as much affect as the global demonstrations did during the start of Iraq War I. Pictures of huge demonstrations from around the world were put online, and nobody in the Secret Government was the least bit impressed. I always hear in my mind's ear this conversation: March 19, 2008: "Many people think this war is not worth it." Vice President Dick Cheney: "So?"
I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. Those who have the wherewithal to participate in the October6fest will do so, and the rest of us should probably be as supportive as we can be. But to hope this will "Stop the Machine" is, I'm afraid, putting out a false hope.
And should any participants get carried away and destroy some property, the establishment spin machine will spin that in such a way as the whole thing is discredited.
The Powers That Be appear to be gearing up to bring a bunch of troops home, leaving us about as "done with it" as we are in Iraq where U.S. soldiers are still dying.
What to do? I don't know. Keep up the propaganda war; the left may have fewer resources, but we're right and that gives our communiques the power if moral authority. Keep using their internet idiocy against them. Out them whenever they do something that will reflect bad on them. Let a thousand Wikileaks bloom.
Nice job deflating the hopes of anyone who might have been inspired by this article.
I disagree with you entirely and am grateful that there are those who can well recognize the difficulties entailed while entertaining various resistance concepts themselves on their own merits.
It is a simple fact that the reaction to any effort to offset the criminals intentions can only be discreditation ad infinitum for the enemy does not have the truth itself as a tool against their victims.
By all means and any means, shut down WADC on the day. Shut down as many corporate profit centers and wage slave operational centers (urban afflictions) as possible across the planet itself at the same time by all means and any means.
Just don´t try to kid yourself or any other that simply because there IS an opportunity to strike at the enemy of human brotherhood that such a single act will in any way alter the machinations of that enemy other than further acts of repression.
Have you forgotten that we are struggling against small and shallow men with no moral character whose concept of "success" is mere materialism writ large at the expense of all living things including even their own idiotic and psychopathic selves?
Want to defeat the enemy? Then KNOW the enemy before you bother to criticize those who would see that we use our own common sense when it comes to how, when, where, and why we choose open confrontation with an absolutely murderous opponent...
Don´t be discouraged by difficulty. Just see it as an opportunity to excel even further than your wildest dreams.
We need this organized across the country and the country needs to STOP entirely. Keep the kids home. Stay home. Send the message from the front group in WADC and support that message wherever you are by any means possible.
God help us, for our leaders are the enemy now.
Absolutely right!
Been there 2003, 2004, 2005 twice, 2006, 2007, most to DC, some in my home state.
Organized people, buses, trains, vans. Figure about $700.00 per trip 10 events that's a lot of moola. To what effect?
More corporate power, more war, more pain. Less money, poor health, less media.
Here's hoping annonomous keeps working, and wikileaks, etc. Don't forget that the internet is going to be controlled and we won't even notice.
October 6? Hmmm, show me 100,000 people signed up to go and I'll think about it.
Meanwhile, I've learned to grow some of my own food, paid for my place, and I fly way under the radar now.
If you are new to protesting in America read this:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_faith_ca_061104_protest_in_america__.htm
"The Powers That Be appear to be gearing up to bring a bunch of troops home"
When Gates said that he thought the support troops should be brought home first, leaving the "shooters" there, I knew that nothing important will be done. The support troops are there because the shooters need food, ammunition, transportation, payroll, mail, etc., etc. If these guys are removed, how will the shooters do their jobs?
On the other hand, if Gates is talking about the guys who are trying to build an infrastructure (such as schools, water supplies, roads, etc.), then he is admitting that the last ten years (and many lives) in Afghanistan have been wasted; that the only reason we were there was to shoot a lot of people and then leave them as they were beforehand.
The first possibility is absurd - it won't happen. The second one is depressing, and not likely to be admitted by anyone in the administration.
I take it you weren't around in the 60s when both segregation and the Viet Nam war were challenged by protesters, mostly non-violently. It changed our world, I can attest to that. What it didn't do is make our country perfect. After our last remaining soldier came home and the deep south, by the force of law, took down their "white only" signs and policies, many of us thought our work was done. We joined the over 30s "untrustables," took up the materialistic ideals of our parents. Someone wrote a song about that youthful energy and idealism we lost: "Who Would Have Thunk It."
Fortunately, thanks in large part to the brave and committed Arab Spring protesters, we have another crack at creating a political quantum leap. The Obama regime is far more repressive than either Johnson's or Nixon's so government response will most likely be brutal.
i am also a hippi,yippi,native 60s freak,who saw amazing changes happen when people stop the excuses,get off their asses&take to the streets by the millionsfor 10yrs to stop the same assholes as we are facing now!!!but unlike you sir we didn't get stupid and join join the"untrustables"&get materialistic!!!why do that when we were shown how idiotic &destructive to your spirit&soul that lifestyle was!!!so here we are again at the gates of hell,this time much worse&we got to listen to more idiots telling us standing up for what is right and against evil,greedy,murderous power structure can't or wont work!!!1DON"T LISTEN TO THESE COWARDS&FOOLLS EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!
I can't say I disagree with your first comment but the last paragraph sounds like you think this is a battle that can be won from the comfort of your living room?
I doubt that very much.
"Corporatism exploits human beings and the planet for profit."
Are human beings exclusively the only exploited species on the planet?
Life is more than human, the world more than people. If the planet were devoid of human beings, but rich in sentient non-human beings, would it be fair to say they have no value?
It's HUMAN BEINGS that exploit the planet, human beings behind corporations that traffic in sentient non-human life as if they were commodities, etc, etc, etc. All for the benefit of human beings, and only human beings.
You can have Democracy or you can have Empire but you cannot have both.
End the wars and use the money to put Americans back to work building a new green energy infrastructure which will power our country and economy for the next century.
Join our non-violent protest outside the corporate offices of ABC Disney, NBC Comcast, CBS Viacom, CNN, FOX and MSNBC which will continue until all the troops are home.
---------------------------
EVERY left-leaning website needs to run the above headline (and delete everything else from their page) UNTIL OUR AIM IS MET. This singular, clear and concise message combined with concurrent physical protests would eventually spill over to the masses of society not politically active but looking to make a difference. The networks who have audiences of tens of millions would be forced to report on the resistance. This is the 21st century to way to wage a winning protest by combining the internet with classic physical protests.
Outstanding input. Please! Much more of this!
Thanks for being there.
Capital is the scolex of the parasitic class!
Just a quibble, but "corporatism" = capitalism. Call it by its real name.
You can tell that the authors are still tentative, still afraid to say what they really mean in the terms that represent what they are calling for: a revolution to overthrow capitalism (and replace it with a just and sustainable society).
Gandhi said his protests required media coverage to be successful.
You must be able to demonstrate to the great masses of the country the importance of your cause sufficient to win their backing and thus make the pressure on the government unbearable. That's how you win.
Therefore you need access to mass media.
If you protest in a vacuum it dies in a vacuum.
We've seen this failure repeatedly.
Which national media outlets, capable of reaching a mass audience, for AS LONG AS IT TAKES, that won't distort the message, have the organizers lined up?
Gandhi led a successful campaign to kick the British out of India. But was it a revolution?
The poor under British rule, remained the poor under Indian rule. What was really accomplished by the movement that Gandhi led was to get rid of an imperial capitalism so that a nationalist (Indian) capitalism could flourish.
Mass media as the engine of revolutionary change? Corporate media, the mass media we have in the US (as well as most countries) serves corporate interests. Corporate media is one of the pillars of capitalist control. "The revolution will not be televised!"
Tom Larsen, your description of the Indian economy as "nationalist capitalism" is not quite right. Especially if it refers to the first few decades after independence in 1947 - since your comment was about Gandhi's failure to produce a utopia. Gandhi saw the inequality in his time, rooted not so much in any one particular system, but in people's selfishness and the caste system that justified such inequality. His fight was as much against such internal inequality and religious divisions as it was against the external imperialist. In any case, Gandhi was assassinated within about 6 months after India's independence.
What followed in the decades after independence was a mixed economy, with major parts of it centrally planned, including through the 5-year plans and all that. The changes that are seen today were initiated in the 1990's, long after China initiated its own changes.
What followed in India after independence was not quite capitalism, and it was NOT what Gandhi wanted for India either. Gandhi was for autonomy at the village level. "The true India is to be found not in its few cities, but in its seven hundred thousand villages. If the villages perish, India will perish too," were his words.
Cygnus-X1-isaHole's statement was simple: "Gandhi ***said*** his protests required media coverage to be successful." NOT "Mass media as the engine of revolutionary change". And, btw, the media, i.e., the newspapers, both in India and elsewhere, did play a major role in India's independence movement.
RE: ...Gandhi's failure to produce a utopia...
I never used the word "Utopia". I asked was it a revolution? This question is key to the debate and relates to the article to which we are responding.What the authors are calling for is REVOLUTIONARY in scope. A radical transformation of the social relations of the vast majority (that is, what defines a revolution), I maintain, did not occur under Indian rule. That is not to say that the Gandhian movement did not
have revolutionary potential. I think it can be argued that for the new Indian ruling class, Gandhi had served his purpose: kicking out the Brits for which a mass-based uprising was needed. This is not dissimilar to the American Revolution (which many historians argue was not a true revolution), where the Founding Fathers, that is, the new ruling class, needed the support of the demos to successfully prosecute their war for independence. But after kicking out the Brits, they consolidated their power to prevent democracy.
RE: mixed economy
Mixed economy? That doesn't mean anything. The US is a "mixed" economy too; it was more so in 1947. Liberal democracy was the standard for Western capitalism at the time, so India's adoption of it was progressive by Indian standards but not global standards. Today, just like the US, India follows the neo-liberal model.
RE: "Gandhi ***said*** his protests required media coverage to be successful.
Cygnus, was not bringing this up as an historical factoid. It was raised in relation to the article above; Cygnus was clearly making the point that mass-media is instrumental. India's mass media had a nationalist objective (kick out the Brits). In the US context, I am saying that as long as mass media is corporate controlled, we delude ourselves to think that it would be the vehicle for progressive, let alone revolutionary, social change.
These protests need to be large, millions of people on the mall and at K Street, at all the pundits media locations in DC such as David Gregory's NBC headquarters, ABC's and CBS. Obviously the media doesn't pay much attention to 50,000 people in Wisconsin or 100,000? What's up with that but if 100 tea baggers meet it is all over the news and look what they've made of Palin - a multi millionaire that is a quitter, a no nothing and looks pretty stupid while being pretty. The main street media has made this person thanks to John McCain. Who are you getting to market this protest, we need progressive radio and TV behind this March, we need millions not 100,000. Wall Street, K Street, Disney, GE, Clear Channel, Comcast, and our political leaders and so called representatives need to hear clearly that we have had enough. We will not become a third world nation for corporate amerika's benefit.
Thank you for the response, and I agree wholeheartedly. Hopefully, people will start to look at the "Arab Spring" critically. If revolutions begin spontaneously, their success will not be spontaneous, but be based on revolutionary organization(s) and revolutionary theory able to develop and implement strategies and tactics, and able to mobilize the populace to engage in mass actions to oppose the INEVITABLE counterrevolution.
As Sy Hersh said a few days ago, what we are seeing in the Maghreb, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and indeed Egypt is a counterrevolution conducted not only by the corrupted leaders of those countries, but of Saudi Arabia, Israel, the US and Europe, in other words, what amounts to center of most of capitalist power.
"The proposal could be strengthened by including some specific demands, and by calling explicitly for a general strike. But most of all, the organizers must resolve for themselves whether they're calling for a revolution to overthrow capitalism; or merely for further attempts to "reform" it."
- DaveBronstein
Excellent points!
The manifesto "Uncivilization", and the Bolivian initiatives for 'rights' for the natural world both lean heavily, I think it is fair to say, towards identifying capitalism itself as a primary problem.
This is going to be a hard nut to crack, I agree.
Reform capitalism - is this possible?
If reform is unlikely, replace it with what?
Heart of the matter, I agree.
Manysummits
======
While a lot of your points are well taken, the organizers statements in the article, and more in their website, make it clear that they have no intention of this being a "one day" event-- they are calling for a sustained nonviolent resistance and that is certainly needed-- and they do have specific demands-- the most specific seems to be a full pullout from Afghanistan-- though they are framed a bit too vaguely. For example they say "we will nonviolently resist the corporate machine until our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation". This is a very worthy goal and I support it. Being organized well in advance this has the potential to be million-strong. I do think the focus needs to be sharpened to keep this from becoming another catch-all liberal feel-good event/party. It's harder to get strong committed crowds when the stated goals are as broad as "peace, economic justice, human rights and a healthy environment"
It can not be 'reformed'. Our system of government must end. On this day of protest we should demand a new Constitutional Congress. Together, all over the nation, we can write a new Constitution.
That day of protest must be gigantic. Of course we can not all afford to go to D.C. but we can just stay in our homes on that day. No work, no shopping, no school, no spending any money. Don't drive your car. Invite your friends and relatives to come to your place to talk about what our new Constitution should say. Betcha no one will say, "Hey, let's make corporations persons and give them equal rights and more money than we have.".
And we must face that our two corporate political parties are owned and operated by our enemies. Neither is better, or less bad, than the other. We must reject these two and don't send them a dime, don't walk precincts, don't go to their gatherings. Take those letters they send you asking for donations and tell them what you think of them and mail it back. They pay the postage. A friend of mine wraps the front of the letter around a brick and sends it back.
The evil twins will pay big money for some shrinks and PR men to do their advertising and try to get you to give them one more chance to give us some 'hope' and 'change'---get real. Don't believe a word from anyone in Congress. Even if they send you a nice email picture of their sex organ don't bite. It is probably photo shop anyway and it does demonstrate the caliber of our 'honored members of Congress'. Gross.
Fight now and "quibble" later.
If we waited for all humans to become enlightened and do the right thing we would still be "quibbling" while the world burned around us.
Oh, wait, that has already happened, no?
Focus on the main thing and skip yourself for now, please?
CORPORATE CRIMINALS RULE THE PLANET.
At the workday 2001 protest of the WTO meeting in DC, most offices were closed in anticipation of another Seattle. The police treated me like a terrorist as I attempted to get into my office. My key card and business card could have been "counterfeits," they said as they blocked my way with hands on pistols. The building security guard came to my rescue & let me in the door. The police had set up several cameras inside our offices, located at a prime vantage point for videotaping all the protesters. The police probably outnumbered the protesters that day.
At the September 2005 anti-war demonstration in DC, so many of the streets were fenced off that it took a while to get to the Mall. Several of the commuter trains from Philly and NYC were mysteriously not running that day, so thousands were unable to get to DC. I estimate there were between 500,000 - 1,000,000 people, but barely a mention on msm.
Hopefully, there will be plenty of porta potties, and worker bees supplying water and food. It will be very interesting if the event grows and becomes a quasi-city, as such will shut down the very center of power. Food, water, and tents.
At least it won't be too hot in October.
"A Corporation is not a Person." These SIX WORDS need to be our focus and rallying cry.
You're a real $%& . I can't think of any other way to put it. The authors of this article are out there acting, and from their credentials don't appear to be "tenured elites" at all. You on the other hand seem to have a well practiced speech to rationalize any need on your part to try to help. And worse, when I come to your last sentence, I think only of how it applies exactly to you, not the authors.
Forgive me, likeitornot, but you are still sleeping, you are in a dream and will wake up soon to a very sad reality of a world destroyed by the greed, ignorance and particularly by the insularity of many in the ole USA. Ayn Rand does not work in a universe conected by so many strands. Peace and security comes from sharing food and caring about the rest of humanity and our planet, not from taking as much as possible from everyone else (called aid or help) including your own population. The planet is finite, corporatism could only survive in an infinite system or leads us all into the precipice.
When Jim Hightower wrote, "There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos" he overlooked "semi-literate, reactionary chauvinists".
Your dull wittedness is literally boundless.
Clearly the writers have some great intentions, but it's not a new world, but an old one of 10 to 12 millenia ago that has to be the vision of an egalitarian world, of a commons that was boundless. That is the kind of world we should be aiming for. It's also the case that 'there's nothing new under the sun" as one saying puts it.
We need to step back from the abyss of hierarchal systems.
Clearly the writers have some great intentions, but it's not a new world, but an old one of 10 to 12 millenia ago that has to be the vision of an egalitarian world, of a commons that was boundless. That is the kind of world we should be aiming for. It's also the case that 'there's nothing new under the sun" as one saying puts it.
We need to step back from the abyss of hierarchal systems.
Brilliant - absolutely brilliant piece!!
I have sent this to everyone on my mailing list I thought would listen -
Manysummits
======
This article:
"If you are like most of us, you are experiencing this."
Right on! - I can't even articulate how this affects me.
If this revolution takes place, it is going to be awful in the fight - but what is the alternative?
There is no alternative.
Manysummits
======
Dear rodent,
I believe "the planet" is all inclusive. Don't worry, the good guys don't want to exploit other species, especially other sentient beings. (Except for food, and the good guys prefer their meat grown non cruelly, at least.)
Dear likeitornot and Everybody Else,
Ever notice that the right-wing has no trouble with the wealthy elite, just the academic elite? I would say your entry here is much whinier than the CD article.
Sustainable change will come about as a result of sustained effort from many directions. Huge marches, non-violent actions, civil disobedience, and work stoppages will help to connect people, and will give people the energy and courage to make other changes. They can be publicized even without the support of the msm. If they are big enough and noisy enough even the msm might take note.
If we could convince our government and responsible humane capitalists that it is in everybody's interest to improve our chances of survival by ending the wars, demilitarizing, rebalancing the social economy, then we will have plenty of assets remaining for improving the lot of citizens of the whole huge world. (Other than war/defence our current positive aid is actually a pitiful percentage compared to other countries.) This isn't pie in the sky. It could happen and it is the only way toward a healthy happy future of any sort. We just have to get really busy getting the word out, putting on the brakes, and making that Great Big Turn.
Having a gigantic (serious) party in DC on October 6, 2011 sounds like an excellent way to nudge us in the right direction. Every little bit helps, and must add up to a lot of every little bits. I've put it on my calendar.
Here is Tim Flannery, in "Here on Earth":
"These were not the only costs affecting those who sought to sup from the cornucopia that is the division of labor, for it also diminished our finest faculties, eroding our individual independence and mental acuity. And therin lies a paradox - one which is shared with the ants - that while agricultural societies are powerful, they are composed almost entirely of incompetent individuals"
Abraham Lincoln:
"It has so happened in all ages of the world, that some have laboured and others have, without labour, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue."
Manysummits
=====
I think it is not possible to be civilized without also being neurotic, and a short step then to psychotic. That would succinctly paradigm our plight, and explain the Medean aspect to high civilizations.
The brilliant John Gofman seems to have been led to a contemplation of anarchy when he found Lysander Spooner, out of necessity, as it were, in his travails against "power and privilege".
As have I.
This was the main point in Robert Pirsig's seminal "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", and the conclusion, I think, behind arguably the world's first civilization, the Vedic, wherein:
"There is no happiness for the man who does not travel -
Living in the society of men, the best man becomes a sinner -
For Indra is the friend of the traveler, therefore wander" -
As James Lovelock has pointed out, we are in fact perfectly evolved Ice Age Hunters & Gatherers, and that has implications in a world run by deranged corporate interest.
What does sustainable mean in a world already overpopulated, and going towards eight, or nine, or ten billion?
Manysummits
=====
"Self-sacrifice and responsibility are noble traits to which most people aspire.
These are the qualities that will lead the world toward sanity and survival."
- Helen Caldicott, "Nuclear is not the Answer"
A fiery commentary and I agree with most of it. But Kevin and Margaret, what is plan to overcome a system that you yourself pointed out was incredibly powerful? It's very important to have a strategy and I don't see one.
Organic spontaneity! A loose strategy is fine but with a few Mandates From the People!
End the Wars
Bring on Single Payer Health Care
Green Policies
Green jobs
Social Security and Medicare - hands off!
Perhaps the strategy is simply to see if this thing gathers speed and momentum - to see if the time is ripe?
I did an awful lot of enthusiastic posting on this article, and I realize it's because it is so exactly how I feel - passionate, informed and ready for action.
I keep talking to people who are not so passionate, informed, and definitely not ready for action - as a result of not being informed, and therefore not passionate.
It is so easy to get caught up in this save the planet, eco-catastrophe thing that one, almost out of necessity, forgets what I increasingly believe to be a simple truth:
Most people -
1) Are not sure there is a problem
2) Are not sure how serious it is, if there is a problem.
I.E., it is not denial, or some tendency to ecocide that has so far prevented action on a worldwide scale commensurate with the size of the perceived threat.
It was, and still IS - Most People Don't Get It!! - Yet -
If this is true, then it is still the case that - "It" - must be conveyed to the people - both what - "It" - is - and how serious.
Mass demonstrations, such as the one proposed - that's an essential step.
Let's hope it takes place - there is time to gather support, and to make clear what the problem is - and how serious.
Here we preach to the converted - more is required.
Manysummits
====
"The normal tools of democracy no longer work."
Good signs are appearing everywhere. People are distilling the tools of democracy to its pure origins, decentralized direct democracy.
I'd say the theory of a federal government has been proven laden with perils, and strongly support a loose confederation of states with no standing military and no direct taxes--you know, like it was supposed to be.
The time has come. The intentions expressed are good, albeit "vague". It is a rallying point. Every mass movement has to have a "starting point".
If not now, why? When?
Fair enough.
1. Why now?
Each day that goes by the situation gets worse. With no end in sight except the abyss.
2. How now?
Trite as it sounds, organize yourself locally wherever you are with your closest friends and relatives. Think back to the 60´s those who can. That "movement" seemed nearly spontaneous and completely "unplanned" did it not, for you also? Was it not a sense of personal "freedom" and a feeling that you held your own life in your hands for the first time that galvanized you most of all?
This is similar.
As individuals speak locally, believe me that sound resonates across the board, socially speaking, without high dollar marketing, mass media exploitation, jingoism, or any other socially/commercially structured mechanisms being utilized.
It just...happens...or seems to but in actuality it is merely people talking locally and then acting locally. It spreads like sunshine on the ground as the clouds blow away.
Connect with other groups you know and like elsewhere, let them know. Let it happen, preferably with a large degree of personal creativity and little rigid structuring other than as certainly necessary, for example:
(aid stations in WADC)
(shelters and foodstuffs in WADC outer areas)
(shuttles and transit services in WADC region)
(alternative communications in WADC region)
(mobile enabling stations in WADC region)
To those who are initiating WADC action, please contact the CD staff who WILL GIVE YOU MY PARTICULARS ONCE YOU ARE CLEARED and I will be happy to assist in direct planning of logistics of campaign on a national/global scale
--other than such structuring, the peoples event is a direct and radical departure from the established order of things; never, ever, forget the power of human goodness and simplicity. We all of us need this event in order to confirm that we are still sane, we are still ok, and we can still fix this.
Kind regards
B
Having been born in the 60s I have zero experience with the movement(s) of that time and I would guess that there have to be PLENTY of people my age and younger who DO recognize that here is a "problem" and that we HAVE to do something about it.
That makes it very important that those of you who actually did DO THE WORK back then instruct the folks who came on board planet Earth after that time on what was successful and how you implemented plans, etc. Sad to admit that we don't know HOW, but for almost all of our lives, "they" managed to entrance us into believing the american way of life was the highest societal form that has ever been achieved. Now that the curtain is finally drawn back for all who care to see, it is utterly repulsive. And the feelings of betrayal, being used to aid and abet the crimes against all of humanity is SO shocking and enraging that a lot of people are shutting down!
NEVER stop talking, writing, telling THE TRUTH! The time IS NOW! Thank you for your kind regards, and I extend the same to you and ALL people of GOOD will!