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Why I'm in Solidarity with #OccupyWallStreet
By the calendar it’s autumn, but for many it is the beginning of the American Spring.
At this moment the brave and dedicated #OccupyWallStreet protesters are in the streets of New York and cities around the world. They call the world’s attention to Wall Street greed and corruption as a common source of the many crises that threaten the human future—economic, political, social, and environmental. This is a defining moment for America. It is our country’s version of the uprisings occurring around the world. It is a ray of hope for democracy and real prosperity in America and beyond.
Contrary to the Wall Street propaganda, Wall Street is a job killer, not a job creator. Wall Street banks and corporations have no interest in creating jobs, educating American children, or assuring that Americans have health care and retirement security. They appeal for ever more tax breaks and regulatory relief only to have yet more money to use as they used their taxpayer provided bailout: to increase executive bonuses, pay dividends, buy other companies, buy back their own stock to increase the value of their stock options, buy political favor, create new financial bubbles, and outsource yet more jobs. 
Protesters fill the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, the day more than 700 were arrested. (Photo by Eric Hart)
Wall Street cloaks itself in the American flag to gain public favor, but offshores its profits to avoid paying its share of America’s upkeep—leaving it to the “little people” to pay for the public infrastructure on which Wall Street profits depend. Its relationship to America is that of an alien occupier who comes only to extract, not to build.
The ruckus about the budget deficit is a typical Wall Street inspired and funded political diversion. America is far from broke. Our problem is too much money in the wrong places – unjust but profitable wars, corporate bailouts, and CEO bonuses to name a few. Wall Street banks and corporations are sitting on record amounts of idle cash in the trillions of dollars. Their highest return investments are in the politicians who favor them with public subsidies, tax breaks, and freedom from public oversight. America is far from broke. Our problem is too much money in the wrong places.
Ordinary people all across America are rising up to expose Wall Street’s deceptions and reclaim their country from this alien occupier. The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City enumerates Wall Street’s crimes against people, country, nature, and the world. The personal stories emerging from Occupy Wall Street document our common experience under Wall Street’s rule—unemployment, wages that cannot support families, dwindling retirement accounts, foreclosed homes, student debt, and deferred health care. These stories are inspiring yet more Americans to come forward.
There is also the quiet—but powerful—protest of the millions of Americans who are putting their shoulders to the wheel of change by building the new community-rooted, market-based, life-serving Main Street economies we need for a 21st century America that provides secure, adequate dignified, and meaningful livelihoods for all in a balanced relationship to nature.
The corporate media are obsessed with the question: “What do the Occupy Wall Street protesters want? What is their demand?” It should be obvious. They want their economy, their government, and their country back from the alien occupiers.
As our forebears liberated America from rule by a distant king and the British East India Company, the time has come to liberate America from Wall Street and reclaim the power Wall Street has usurped. It is time to establish democracy in America and build a national system of Main Street economies owned and accountable to people who have an inherent interest in building healthy communities with thriving local economies and healthy natural environments for themselves and their children. By the calendar it’s autumn, but for many it is the beginning of the American Spring.
This blog draws from David Korten's recent presentation to a local MoveOn gathering of Olympic Peninsula progressives.
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47 Comments so far
Show All"its relationship to america is that of any alien occupier, who comes only to extract, not build"
the borg ?
"they want their economy, their government, and their country back from the alien invaders"
resist the borg ?
YES
...peace...
As Korten points out, the banksters use bailout money in an unregulated environment to create new bubbles which inflate the cost of food, energy, etc.
In order to understate the real rate of this inflation Obam's super catfood commission will reformulate how the rate of inflation is calculated in order to further undermine wages and benefits for the working class.
Still and all, I cannot understand why Korten doesnt point out that it is the Federal Reserve System and fractional reserve lending that is at the root of all the fraud. The films Zeitgeist and The Secret of Oz, and the writings of Ellen Brown and David DeGraw cover this issue, and I dont see why more progressives like Korten do not
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. Inflation is actually not prices going up but the value of the currency going down, because all money under this system is created AS DEBT, AT INTEREST out of thin air! One of the protesters had a sign that read, "Debt Is Slavery" which is right out of Zeitgeist
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In other words, it's not just the bailouts, it is by the everyday creation of money out of thin air that creates inflation; it is the manipulation of the money supply that creates the bubbles and the busts.
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David Degraw http://ampedstatus.com/ is one of the people who helped launch the 99% Movement and his website and writings are a good source of information
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Last, I asked David three years ago - when he invited a few of us here on CD to comment on his website - why he and other with his level of name recognition, social networks and financial independence would not get more radical and jumpstart a radical protest movement.....silence, no reply.
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It is all well and good for him to get behind it now, the question is, why didnt he and his friends - look at the acknowledgement sections of his books and you will see just how extensive his social network is - work to create something like this a long time ago?
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In fairness, Korten has been talking more about the problems of a debt-based monetary system over the past couple of years. But the rest of your post is a valid complaint, and one that I've shared for quite some time.
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From an interview with Thom Hartmann in 2009:
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"When we need money into circulation, it should be issued by government, and I think preferably spent into existence to fund infrastructure, fund education, fund things that are actually building the social and real physical capital of the society, which are really foundations of continued real wealth creation."
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http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2009/06/transcript-david-korten-agenda-new-economy-phantom-wealth-real-wealth-29-may-2009
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Although Korten is not opposed to keeping around a neutered Fed, for some unknown reason. I emphatically disagree. The Fed cannot be trusted to hold any role in the nations banking system, and should be disbanded in favor of public controlled money creation, which is facilitated through a network of public banks and small non-fed-related private banks.
Well, I stand corrected, he has addressed the issue. I just wonder why he isnt doing it in relationship to OccWS now. It is of great importance for the American people to be informed about the Big Picture.
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The way money is created as debt, with interest, out of thin air, is truly mind blowing. So is the idea of inflation as a hidden tax on everyone. As Henry Ford said,
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"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Henry Ford
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If such is the case, what else is there to do except get the word out on this issue? If the whole system is a fraud at its root, let's get at the root of the problem and all the rest - lobbyists, buying elections and Congress, corporate personhood, etc. - will tumble down with it.
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Certainly, I understand your frustration. And I also tend to agree that fundamentally restructuring the monetary system at all levels of government should be a very high priority in any clear and hard demands that come out of any serious, organized grassroots resistance movement, like "Occupy Wall Street". It would address a number of key issues either directly or indirectly that are important to the masses, and thus it potentially carries a big "bang for the buck". But just remember, making the type of demands we'd like to see (e.g., disbanding the Fed in favor of public forms of money creation) is flat out going to war with elite powers. And they will resist in ways that will be more unscrupulous than their back-stabbing financial chicanery ever was. You can bet on that. So it will require a much larger movement to succeed, and a lot of dedicated and courageous people making sacrifices over many years.
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And on Korten, it's true that he could have been helpful in guiding more politically active groups in the past few years, but the fact is he's never fully given up on policy-makers eventually making the "right" decisions to lead us back out of this mess. In addition, he seems to have more of an affinity with more educated and bourgeois liberal pursuits/affiliations (speeches, books, etc.) as opposed to the more diverse and street level radical political groups.
re: "making the type of demands we'd like to see is flat out going to war with elite powers. And they will resist in ways that will be more unscrupulous than their back-stabbing financial chicanery ever was."
Or maybe they'll just wise up, and for the sake of the future of Earth and our species, they'll realize that radical, systemic change that reverses this suicidal direction we're all heading is not such a bad idea after all — for anyone, rich or poor.
What good is it for the ultra-wealthy if the reality they foster and create — and which they have to live in as well — is one of only decline, war, famine, insurrection and social strife?
Do they want a world where they have to travel everywhere by helicopter to avoid the filth, chaos and antipathy down below? Where they -require- expensive and advanced medicine to treat the cancers and other maladies which will affect them just as much as anyone else? Do the rich not succumb to plutonium radiation just as much as anyone else?
It is madness for them to not give in and decide to end this course of mutual destruction to the masses, the biosphere and themselves. Even the rich (if they have a brain) must be demanding a change in direction, away from war, pollution, and unchecked economic exploitation.
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"It is madness for them to not give in and decide to end this course of mutual destruction to the masses, the biosphere and themselves."
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Yes, elite powers are actually insane. It's really quite obvious at this point. And the fact is, most of the real elite drivers of our world are aging, greedy psychopaths that will be well on their way to the afterlife before the shit hits the fan in their neck of the woods. Even their children (which many of them probably don't have that strong of a relationship with) will be the last ones to be really effected in a serious way by the mounting destruction. And certainly the elite's antipathy in relation to nature is well-documented.
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But to be honest, they don't really think that hard about all that stuff. They're just too narcissistic, the hubris too overwhelming for them fully grasp the horror they're leaving in their wake.
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So in short, the sooner we accept that WE'RE the ONLY ones that could possibly bring sanity back to planet earth the better.
Someone else here posted a phrase that I think sums up the problem succinctly:
"Après moi, le déluge"... After me, the deluge. Meaning (arguably) after I'm gone, life's over.... who cares if the end of the world comes? This is the sick and twisted core of these sociopaths' mental disorder. They're so convinced of their own importance, and their 'manifest destiny' to rule over the rest of us, that they've lost their tether to the rest of humanity.
If only for the sake of their children — and their childrens' children — shouldn't they get their heads out of their collective egos/asses to see their connectedness, and influence on the rest of history and the human gene pool, from which they too arose and into which they shall eventually descend?
Well, you've already answered my question. There is no making sense of insanity or its motivations.
I understand your frustration with the insanity. But the sooner we fully accept the reality of it, the sooner we'll be freed to act with courage to do what's right as little David's taking on the big bad Goliath. And we need to get on with it. Time is running out because we're like frog's in a pot of water coming to boil, seemingly clueless about the extent of our building and "burning" predicament. If we don't act now it will be too late, and we could end up burnt beyond recognition.
re: "The Fed cannot be trusted to hold any role in the nations banking system, and should be disbanded in favor of public controlled money creation, which is facilitated through a network of public banks and small non-fed-related private banks."
I emphatically agree.
re: "When we need money into circulation, it should be issued by government, and I think preferably spent into existence to fund infrastructure, fund education, fund things that are actually building the social and real physical capital of the society, which are really foundations of continued real wealth creation."
Amen!
*
In 2008, I included in a comment my insistance that Obama = Borg and was confronted with replies claiming to not know what Borg meant.
Passionate article!
Are US citizens up to it?
We will see?
We had better bloody well see.
America is history's greatest failure. A murderous lot claiming divine justice even as they systematically kill for profit.
This means the people in America can be history's greatest success.
They now have to make a new place on the American continents and in so doing change the world.
History awaits.
Make America quake!
Just do it.
Or go to Hell.
But of course Americans are there already. They have made the place.
"Americans are there already. They have made the place."
... and for a pittence you can buy anything to remind you of the place, say a devil statue to decorate your desk .
http://www.luckymojo.com/devil.html
{The 8" tall green devil figural candle shown at right depicts the transitional, half-Teutonic, half-Christian devil. He has short horns and carries the old pagan tool of a gig or trident (wrongly called a pitchfork by those who don't know the difference) -- but although he is wingless (hence, not of angelic origin), he is surrounded by the flames of Hell.
Figural candles like these are used by practitioners of occultism and hoodoo to obtain certain desires. Red devil figural candles are said to cause someone to burn with lust and are used in spells of sexual domination. Black devil figural candles are believed to drive unwanted associates away or cause harm to an enemy. Green devil figural candles are alleged to have the power to compel a debtor to repay money that is owed; they are also burned by folks who wish to have easy money without much labour. }
i agree w/ your sentiments.
...peace...
Private Banks must become Public Utilities. I say this because having money can be a life or death issue. We say Education is a Right. Earning a Living wage should also be a Right. Private Bank will not allow a living wage because that means less Profits.
North Dakota's State Bank minimized financial devastation in that state compared to the other 49 states.
It is an example the other states need to be following.
Also, energy companies, oil and coal companies should be taken over..... energy will only keep sky rocketing in price....peakoil..... until no one will be able to affor anything... gov take over can slow this price escalation by subsidizing the little guy being able to buy gasoline... etc..... stop the S.O.B's at the top of oil from making all the millions and billions.... while we starve.....take over the oil companies now.....
As I recently took a trip to a small town in Italy (Sansepolcro), I decided one day that I felt like a hamburger. I searched high and low throughout the town with no luck. I then travelled to the towns in the surrounding area until I finally reached Perugia (of Amanda Knox fame) only to discover that there are NO FAST FOOD CHAINS in this part of the world. It wasn't until I went to Bologna, that I found a McDonald's. The chain restaurant was full, but no one was ordering burgers. Instead the restaurant catered to a soft ice cream menu, a rarity in Italy.
By contrast, a recent trip to Fort Lauderdale led to a search of a "Non-chain" diner. It took hours of driving up and down every major street until I finally came across a small, independent Brazilian diner. When we reached the door, it was closed with a 'out-of-business sign' stuck in the window. This is why you won't see the OWS protesters in Rome, but in the streets of the U.S.
When I mentioned the absence of independent stores from bakeries to butchers to Lauderdale residents, I was surprised that people looked shocked when they realized that their community was indeed free of non-corporate businesses. No one really paid attention even though they fondly recalled the throngs of small businesses they grew up in during their youth in the North Eastern part of the country. The corporatization of America has crept up on everyone without anyone noticing... till now! Occupy Wall Street may be the beginning of the epiphany in which Americans start to realize that the 'Aliens' control almost everything we eat, we drink, we shop for or anything else when we part with money. The result has been sub-standard food, Chinese imports, deadly externalities, an oil dependent economy, a for profit judicial and prison system, perpetual war, annoying ads and a disdain for empathy.
Of course these alien occupiers are well entrenched and won't go quietly. They control our media, our armed forces, our politicians, our food supply and our banks. Yet they don't have the numbers which may or may not work in our favor. If OWS increases in size, the FCM will have no choice but to cover the protests as the rest of the world descends on New York to broadcast the momentous developments there. At some point the general populace just may get it.
My town, a small town in northern lower Michigan, is a little different. I would have to say independent restaurants do more business than chains. Starbucks does not have a presence. The nonprofit local theater has more patrons than the bigger mall screens. That said, Walmart does well--and Meijer's and Home Depot and Lowe's and Penney's. The point is--that where competition exists between chains and local establishments--frequently the locals can hold their own. Where the Big Guys have wiped out competition, then there is only the desolation of the Walmart shopping experience. The single most revolutionary thing ordinary people can do is to spend their money with local merchants. They give back to the community. The chains don't.
Keep writing and listening Space Cadet. You can help America 'get it'. I find your little few paragraphs very well put.
There is something significant happening in NY and all over the country. I'm out of the US right now but can hardly wait to get down to wall street to see what's going on there and add my head to the prevailing head count.
But despite how real the protest has become, one must be realistic and accept the fact there is a long road still to travel before the general public, the mothers and fathers and sisters and brother, will come to the realization that they too are potential inmates in this corporation dominated hell that we all live in. Nothing can change until something like a near majority of the population accept that they are in the same camp as the protesters.
I'm so sick of seeing made in China on fucking everything at the stores ( that are still in business that is.) Free trade has benefited whom? Without jobs soon most Americans won't even be able to buy this shit as badly made and as cheap as it is. This shit has got to stop.
Also, the Chinese laborers aren't paid enough to buy what they produce, hence they will also collapse, along with the rest of us, in this global "2nd Great Depression". They are turning to an FDR-like program of great infrastructure projects (calculated to increase productivity in agriculture & industry, increase gainful employment, ennable consumption of their own produce), in cooperation with Russia, to foil the global collapse. We should join in a great pacific alliance with them (the centuries-old, trans-atlantic association is dead. Banksters bled it dry), along the same lines as FDR's New Deal, for global reconstruction, for the common good of all people. This alliance is what FDR had INTENDED, after WWII, to rebuild the world. He died( or was possibly poisoned). And that portion of the nat'l security/intelligence establishment that was loyal to FDR's post-war vision, was DISPLACED( by McCarthy-type "witch hunts") by the "White-shoe" crowd (ie. ivy league wallstreeter empire-builders, in league with the old euro empire builders: the criminal bankster syndicates & corporate cartel cronies; the beneficiaries of "free trade" policies designed to disarm those protections & regulations meant to PROTECT the common folk from these predatory sociopaths). Looks like we'll eventually see FDR's grand vision realized afterall (after 60 or 70 years of the EMPIRE's delaying tactics; their death is inevitable, just not sure of the "when?").
Good article by David Korten.
America's 1% are not broke and could care less about the red herring of deficits as they have no deficits and have only been increasing their wealth! Too much money in all the wrong places; that pretty much sums it up.
"As our forebears liberated America from rule by a distant king and the British East India Company, the time has come to liberate America from Wall Street and reclaim the power Wall Street has usurped."
I wonder if we shouldn't be a little more careful in our rhetoric about the American Revolution. Someone here recommended yesterday that we read about Shays' Rebellion, so I did. Just briefly, it was the largest of several post-revolution revolts in America, (mostly) by unpaid soldiers who rebelled against oppressive American elites who took the place of the British elites.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/15a.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays%27_Rebellion
According to articles I've found, the American elites took these rebellions as a sign that "democracy was getting out of hand".
Subject is covered extensively in the film "Psywar", if you're interested.
http://metanoia-films.org/psywar.php
As soon as any Democrat Party front organization like Move on shows up at the protests they should be driven away, A.S.A.P.
I am someone who joined Move On right after the illegal invasion of Iraq and left soon afterword, when I realized their modus operandi. Genicon: You are right on target!
On OWS's main page, http://occupywallst.org/ is a list of unions and other organizations "We stand in solidarity with the honest workers of" that includes MoveOn.org. Of course, MoveOn.org probably has a few honest workers who are ignorant of their organization's actual mission to co-opt popular movements and lead them to failure. That the OWS people are also unaware of that threat seems hard to believe. Perhaps if someone has documentation proving MoveOn.org to be in reality a reactionary organization, such information ought to be posted here as a reply and also sent to the OWS website--hard evidence, not assertions please.
Good luck trying to tear the majority away from their Oprah, reality TV and Fox News propaganda...
Oprah's endorsement of Obama, vastly improving his performance in the 2008 primary, is not lost on many folks who have since been oppressed by Obama.
"Its relationship to America is that of an alien occupier who comes only to extract, not to build."
Exactly like its military right arm (the United States military) which occupies entire countries (Iraq and Afghanistan) and has established its imperial outposts (its bases or garrisons) in countless foreign lands.
To Paul Revere, Oct 5 2011 - 1:27pm:
Exactly the same situation with me!
"Ordinary people all across America are rising up to expose Wall Street’s deceptions and reclaim their country from this alien occupier. The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City enumerates Wall Street’s crimes against people, country, nature, and the world."
"It is time to establish democracy in America and build a national system of Main Street economies owned and accountable to people who have an inherent interest in building healthy communities with thriving local economies and healthy natural environments for themselves and their children."
Yes!!!!!!
If the Berlin Wall can fall and if Hosni Mubarak can be taken down, so can Wall Street. Let's take it down and commit it to the dustbin of history!
Thank you, David Korten, for saying it very clearly and very well.
The opening sentence contians a link to OWS that provides mucho info. The very least we can do is donate, and their needs are many. My kudos to them for already planning for the cold of fall and winter.
this movement does not deserve the level of coverage it is getting...that should raise more than just one eyebrow...
Fukushima burns...
still...
If you're implying it's crowding out coverage of other events, that is the fault of CD's editors who could easily post more news items and view essays. Otherwise, OWS certainly deserves to be covered.
I support OWS because this is the Change that I voted to get when I voted for Obama, but did not get. It is the best news in 10 years.
Some signs pointing out the connection between the warfare state and our economic woes would be a plus for OWS, The M.I.C. must be brought under control, or we are lost. As Chalmers Johnson pointed out in his book "The Sorrows Of Empire" We can give up our Empire and save our Democracy, or we can keep our Empire and lose our Democracy, we can't have both.
genicon, thanks for recognizing the seminal issue of Empire for OWS revolution, and our mutual survival.
While there really is significant tactical value for the Occupy Together movement(s) to encourage and allow all of the entirely valid and important goals, issues, qua 'demands' of the now organizing 99% of us to be aligned against the well funded, elitist, corporate, financial, and status-quo ruling interests of that tiny 1%, Jim Hightower in Common Dreams and everyone supportive of being part of Occupy Together need to be cognizant of what this NYT reporter, GINIA BELLAFANTE, (and all counter-revolutionary forces in the media, corporatist, political, and other reactionary elements of the 1%) are leveraging as anti-liberation barbs and potential counter-strategies --- including this more subtle NYT criticism of Occupy being an "intellectual vacuum" --- all the way to FOX's violence provoking taunt of this movement being anti-capitalist, and thus "communists" like bomb-thrower O'Reilly has already shouted on air.
Occupy Together is not an "intellectual vacuum" nor "communist" in the sense that a former and truly "vacuous" president shouted about the "evil (communist) empire" --- as if all empires were not by definition "evil", and elitist, and violent, and guileful, and hierarchical, and inexorably lead to extinction!
However, in order to disarm such counter-revolutionary taunts and distractions, in order to confront all serious 'symptom problems', and in order to keep this popular revolt valid in the eyes of all 99% (and to avoid the possibility of violence by some who may be tricked by propaganda of the ruling 1%) it WILL ultimately become essential that the Occupy Together logic and justification of our movement/revolt against the 1%, and for the 99%, articulate clear reasons that are unassailable as being any "intellectual vacuum", and based on universally popular logic, language, narrative, and emotions that can not be attacked by the subtle reactionaries of the NYTimes, nor the fascist reactionaries of FOX.
In order to do this and create the narrative of justifiable revolution that attracts all the 99%, disarms the 1%, and insures non-violence, it will be necessary to have an airtight strategy, believable narrative, and certainly the inverse of an “intellectual vacuum” --- which means that this narrative must be the 'intellectual truth', just as were all democratic revolutions throughout history “Against Empire”.
The starting point for such “intellectual truth”, and an unarguably popular narrative, will have to recognize that we are now in a post-nation-state world --- and that the 1%'s strategy of lies and deceit is already dominating in this 'new world order' --- and by the way things are devolving that new world order is disguised as the vague-sounding lie of “globalization”, but is really the hidden and undiagnosed cancerous tumor of 'global Empire'.
It is absolutely essential, that by being intellectually rigorous and accurate, that the Occupy Together movement focus, like a laser, on the disguised and violent 'global Empire' being the consummate villain of this narrative. The global corporate/financial/militarist Empire that has captured our former country, by hiding behind the facade of its modernized TWO-Party “Vichy” sham of faux-democracy is the real underlying villain of this truthful narrative, just as surely as the occupying Nazi Empire, with its crude, single-party “Vichy” sham of government in France was the villain that all 99% of French people recognized.
In today's real post-nation-state world which we 99% live in, but don't control, the 1% 'empire-thinking' elite have already been building the structure of their disguised 'global Empire' for decades --- with global conditions, agreements, laws, organizations (IMF, GATT, NATO), labor slavery, military force, financial flows, et al all structured to their advantage, but with no allowances for the 99% of global peoples' interests. There are no popular elements to this fast devolving imperium ---- unless one counts the cynical lies of our recent 'cowboy' fascist president toward the disguised imperial wars of the “Pentagon's New Map” in Africa and the greater Middle East as being his “freedom agenda” and “democracy project”. There has been no appreciable integrated and popular movement toward real 'global democracy' including political-economic and social-democracy, “Against Empire”, until this wonderful opportunity of Occupy Together broke out of the dark (or as Morris Berman wrote, “Dark Ages America”) recently.
Realistically, the opportunity for such a people's “Occupy Together” movement to effectively recognize, expose, and then successfully confront this 'global Empire' is most likely to bear fruit in America. Attempts to confront the 'global Empire' within the empire's oil territories of Africa and the Middle East are brave but likely to be met with the “tip of the empire's lance in the face” for the 99% in these regions' popular revolutions wherever their goals confront those of the “Core” of the empire itself.
This is because of the fact, that while the reality is of a post-nation-state world of empire, the disguised reality of the global corporate/financial/militarist Empire itself must still be maintained within such “Old Core” centers of the new world empire. The 'global Empire', while violent and viscous elsewhere, must still, perhaps briefly, maintain a modicum of democratic facade in those centers which have a “special relationship” of disguised partners within the ruling “Old Core” --- most particularly the countries previously known as the US, UK, Israel, Germany, Italy, France and other supposed 'functioning democracies', which share intelligence, military resources, financial 'arrangements', media complicity, and other factors still necessary in protecting the disguise and effective control of 'their thing', the 'global Empire'.
For the above reasons and effectiveness of 'intellectual truth' and historically accurate narrative, the Occupy Together now organically evolving among the 99% of people in what can non-nationalistically be called the former United States of America have a special opportunity, responsibility, and unique popular power to achieve the start of “a great friendship” in revolting for liberty & democracy “Against Empire” both here and throughout 'our world'.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Liberty & democracy
over
violent/Vichy
empire
THE HUMAN UNION---HU ARE YOU.
Membership---Everybody is already in it. Call your Chamber of Commerce to opt out.
Rejoin at any time.
Dues---Pay it forward with solidarity, common sense and good will.
Leadership---Apache nantan, talk it up, see what happens.
Tactics---Peaceful, Speaking Truth to Power, Resist, Occupy, Produce.
Goals---Fair pay, Fair play, Justice under the Law, Benefits to the Seventh Generation. No War.
One Planet, One People.
IF NOT NOW---WHEN?
CORP IS BORG.
Do we need a symbol?? If so, I humbly suggest the base of the pyramid on the Great Seal---Just the bare base...no toppy eyed cap, just blue sky.
It's ours...might as well use it.
The lies the empire spouts about being the worlds exceptional country and a beacon for all that love and desire Freedom and Democracy may be what brings it down. Set yourself up with myths and lies and all that believed them may someday ( hope this is the day ) confront the liars and demand the promise of Freedom and Democracy be fulfilled. Watching CNN and Fox trying to deal with just the Freedom of speech and right to peacefully assemble aspect of OWS is becoming laughable.
In the beginning there was food. Grow it. Once there is food, they have no more power. Demand food growing in your cities in vacant lots. There are thousands of brilliant farmers just waiting to show you how. Then transition to bicycles. Demand bicycle lanes in your cities. Depower the fuels industry. Get healthy. Stop buying crap. Buy clothing at Goodwill. Before you buy anything, stop and think. You probably don't need it. STOP WATCHING TELEVISION NOW. Okay, you can watch Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz and Lawrence O'Donnell. That's all. Better yet, don't watch the filthy thing at all. It really makes you stoopid. It's proven.
Please don't encourage people to withdraw and create their own reality. That is very dangerous now.
You cannot simply opt out.
Yikes what a scary comment!
Did someone mention the Borg? ;)
POLICE BRUTALITY!! please read/watch/spread
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/occupy-wall-street-nypd-police-brutality-video_n_997414.html