( – promoted by buhdydharma )
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Continuing the theme, (I’ll stop when ‘they’ do!) of revolution and what it means. Especially in light of the bailout/robbery that was supposed to magically fix everything and save the economy. It was passed Congress over the weekend, and today of course, the economy (if you are naive or disingenuous enough to believe the Dow is the economy) is tanking big time.
So…if WE are FORCED to pay 700,000,000,000 dollars to the very rich people who fucked up enough to need it….who then tell us they can ‘fix it’ if we pay for it….and it DOESN’T ‘fix it.’ and we are out Seven Hundred Billion….AND stuck with a tanking economy…..NOW WHAT???
And how do we do it?
Of course it is not just the current bailout/robbery/wealth transfer/ class war…
It is also the fact that they have fucked everything ELSE up too. In my opinion one of the key things to remember when thinking about all of this is that the Ruling Class is just as dumb (and perhaps even dumber due to the insulation of their lives) as everyone else. They rule not by merit, but by inheritance or through being groomed by others in the Ruling Class. They put their pants on one at a time too….if they can even manage that, without a valet!
In other words, their ‘Rule” is somewhat arbitrary, and certainly not based on anything like some kind of empirical evidence of their worthiness…or ability…or acuity…or competence.
They are certainly far removed from the God/Kings that they emulate in their certainty. They do NOT rule by divine will. Their is no real reason for them to be the Rulers, other than the fact they, in fact, are.
And they have, as previously stated, fucked up royally. (haha) And by all appearances, shall continue to do so. So, what do we, The Ruled, do when the Rulers prove themselves (time and again) incapable and incompetent at Ruling?
If we take violent revolt out of the picture, how do we rebel against them? How do we create a revolutionary revolution?
When I asked this question at Dkos last night, people basically had two answers: Tax revoly and fleeing the country.
The latter may be somewhat personally satisfying, but certainly is ineffective as far as achieving any kind of meaningful change. The former is a great idea in theory…but. But it would take a mass movement, acting as one and at once to avoid the machinery of the state rolling over individuals.
So the answer, whatever form is chosen, comes down to one thing, in my opinion: Organization.
Achieving a critical mass of revolting people. So to speak. And then making sure that their voice is heard by the Ruling Class. Making sure that the Ruling Class is reminded that they do not rule by divine right, that there are other people out here too. That the games that they play with the economy to increase their already vast wealth are not games to us. That the economy to us is the food in our children’s mouths. That global war games waged to increase their vast wealth or geopolitical power are not games to us, as it is to them, but that these are our sons and daughters and sisters and brothers that they are sending to die. That they are sending to kill other peoples sons and daughters and sisters and brothers. That when you torture one person, no matter what the color of their skin, you torture all of us.
That this earth that they are destroying is not a piece on the corporate board to us, that she is our mother, and the only planet we have and that her health and well being is not for sale.
These are the things that The Ruling Class need The People to remind them of, the things the Ruling Class needs to keep in mind if they do not want a violent revolution.
These are the things that we are trying to tell them, but they do not appear to be listening. So it comes down to us having to find a way to come together and YELL it out in one, united. voice. Unmistakable and unignorable.
We have the tool to do it, we can and are making ourselves heard on the internet as individuals and small groups. All we lack is the will and the way to come together and the specific medium (on the net) through which to do it.
We are at a cusp, a turning point, if they cannot change things, we will have to. We better get to work on figuring out…how.
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we need to reach out to everyone. because all we can really do is to help each other locally, as i said to Night Owl the other day.
we need to take care of each other because the government is stealing from us… Left AND Right.
we need to make sure everyone has the basics.
this internet tool can help us to pool effective ways to do that, spread the word of what we are doing.
a nearly silent ‘fair IS fair’ revolution.
my hope is that in 2012 we’ll put on a helluva write-in vote!
but because they are inevitable.
Which doesn’t mean we should try to control them. I’d start by signing this: http://boldprogressives.org/20… though I doubt it’s bold enough.
hat tip Digby.
…probably needs to be a genuinely inclusive American rationale…that is, the ruling class — and the lumpenproletariat — need to buy in. My feeling is that if they don’t…if there isn’t a compelling inclusive vision of America as a country, some basic quality of life and sense of right action which is sustaining…then it’s just a question of ogliarchs and slums.
So how does one move the net from a tool for writing exercises and echo chambering to a place where that voice can be concentrated and effectively expressed?
You VOTE 3rd PARTY…
YOU VOTE ALL POLITICIANS IN OFFICE
OUT!
and my livelihood than i would have ever chosen for myself is dependent upon ‘the system’….and that part is about to get bigger next summer…
…and i therefore dont have the ‘flee the country’ option. well, i technically do, but it would mean either leaving ‘thing 1’ behind, or moving her to a place and circumstance where she wouldnt receive the level of care that i feel is appropriate. so im not going.
i’m beyond fucked, and if it were only about my well-being and welfare, i’d be sharpening my pitchfork instead of typing….
i find myself in the position that you KNOW i hate….relying on others to carry the ball forward while i hold down the fort…i cant even say ‘i have too much to lose’…because it’s another person and her well-being i’d be gambling..nothing of my own…
im not too scared…YET…to keep yelling louder, though….
I agree with you. I don’t know about revolution, seems to me each person using that word has a different definition.
To me, organization means solidarity, and global solidarity at that. I don’t agree that reaching out individually to each other locally through the internet will achieve anything unless it’s reaching out to already existing organizations who have measurably achieved something. Otherwise we’re once again trying to reinvent the wheel when we don’t need to.
I also think it useless to reach out to those who are still asleep and/or wingnuts when there are activists already working now who need our help and support.
There are already groups out there, I’ve mentioned only a few and so has NL, xofferson and a few others. I think about the millions marching for immigration a while back – through Spanish radio and churches, that’s all they needed, and they produced so many people.
I think it’s arrogant to assume we’re going to come up with some grand new ideas when they are already out there to be discovered, folks are already working on them, and all we need to do is find them and join them. This can be done on the internet (i.e., what Sanctuary is doing as far as immigration and human rights) as well.
If revolution means extreme change, that is already upon us whether we like it or not, want it or not. The best we can do now is try to shape, adapt and respond to it.
two and a half hours today watching cspan watching the core of our problem the head of Lehman Bros. testifying. I say the core of our problem because this really creepy dude is what is running the economy the Clinton Economy, the Reagan Economy, and the Bush Economy, even the Carter Economy. He represented what we have at the core of our system. He is a vampire they all are, including and most importantly the Secretary of the Treasury, the one we just handed 700 billion to.
Revolt often comes down to no taxation without representation. It also comes down to the arrogance of the let them eat cake crowd. When everyone is stone broke even the most ‘culturally’ divided have a tendency to say ENOUGH! The calls after the hearing broken down demographically (what a scam that is) were all outraged. However the people blame the wrong entities they blame the CEO’s who are of course culpable they did not do this alone. The Government backed it both sides.
The internet cannot do it alone no way. The people do not want to believe that the system they live and die under is to blame. The system has tapped into the culture, were left, right, black white were rich poor but we all have our ax to grind our blame to place . Were dupes.
Wexler grossed me out as much as the dude from Lehman. they do not comprehend the real world people regular non ‘invested’ people live and toil in. What recourse do we have? Perhaps chaos may have to ensue until the masses (me included) realize that this is a house of cards and until it falls and us with it it cannot be ‘fixed’. There is nothing left to sell. As the carpendar who is fixing my kitchen said where did the 700 billion go? whereis it or did it never exist?
Let it go, organize? Good luck telling all the humans who bought and lived the false dream this. I think hope know it must fall before any serious ‘revolution’ will occur. Obama is so hooked that he is but another softer gentler saner aspect of what we face.
Giving up shit you don’t need.
Electronic crap gadets, Ipods, cellphones
Refuse profusely shit like direct deposit, stop using credit cards and get back to cash for everyday transactions. These may be small things but thing about their alarm at the lack of the marketing lists generated by all these recorded data mined transactions. If you have stocks sell and buy a fire safe. Cash money in the safe, only thing that is “safe”.
It would be fun to stage a mass information request, yes let’s dump upon the State department with calls on how to specifically leave the country. Say how does one apply for dual citizenship in ……say Iceland.
Victory Gardens, hell it worked in another time.
And as to the local stuff. I have been a townie long enough to remember the town dump so as such I claim for life the God given manifest destiny right to call the Dump the Dump and the very next fucking yuppie who “corrects” me and says “transfer station” is going to get an earful.
Honestly though one can and should reject all of the petty useless laws which serve only to promote fascism ie things that wrest control over you for nothing. Building permits for example, if they can’t see it from the street it is “existing” so therefore they can’t increase you taxes on shit they don’t know about.
Education
I find most Americans are retarded simpletons when it comes to the amount of rights they don’t know they have given away to globalist oriented organizations and this manufactured financial “crisis” is just the thing to sell the North American Union. Number two on projectcensored.org
Laser pointers towards the sky. Ever wonder what they can and do see from space? Well trot on down to Home Despot and pick up a six pack of those nifty solar powered LED landscape lights. Two of them combined will power one of those 2 AA laser pointers for about three hours. I would like to spell out FUCK YOU NSA on the front lawn.
Google search items, yes they do keep track.
New World Order, End Time prophecy, supressed cancer treatments, free energy, cell phone jamming techniques, chemtrail abatement, water purification systems
Media-Go, go right now to
http://www.projectcensored.org…
Read each and every one completely and burn that crap permanently into memory. Knowing these items you should be able to lambaste any American media outlet much like the crowds attacked that Faux News reporter with chants of Fuck Fox News at the democratic convention. Better yet unplug the TeeVee completely and save the cable bill. It may in fact become a choice, food or mind numbing propaganda and socially destructive memes or food. And you wondered why these assholes bundled “cable internet and phone” into one “convienient” “service”.
and target Nancy Pelosi’s spot this cycle with an eye to a few important congressional seats in 2010. find outsiders, like OPOL and Meteor Blades (h/t Ria).
but let’s implore the leftosphere to get active: take back school boards, planning boards, and town councils. run for state assembly.
re assert states rights to push back at gov’t AND corporations that, with seeming impunity, pollute our water, soil, and air. see, states must have rules on a par with EPA… but they can be more strict, if they choose and we remove activist judges from unconstitutional rulings forcing EPA standards when state standards can be higher….
then, go into work tomorrow and take the highest number of exemptions on your taxes. create an escrow acct and put the money there. then, when tax time comes, everybody files for extensions. that ought to fuck em up for a while.
these things are doable. and they will work if we get rid of dem/republican lines. and start looking for people fed up with the entire system and looking for some other way to make this work.
this isn’t about democrats. more or better even. it’s about citizens finding some higher ground.
… cause it won’t be too long… powers keep on lying… while your people keep on dying… world keep on turning cause it won’t be too long…
keep on trying till i reach my highest ground …
Trouble is….things are not quite bad enough. Give them about 6 months to a year when cities start going under and police and firemen start not getting paid. Teachers and state workers getting paid in script and barter starts becoming prevalent. Currency is on the verge of collapse right now but it may take a few more months…..things will need to get a lot worse before enough people figure it out. We are no longer a manufacturing society, but a ser.vice economy with a tremendous credit debt that cannot be so easily resolved. The Great Depression lasted until WWII….1941 but we had a large workforce and huge manufacturing base….now we don’t. This problem may last for a generation or two. There is no way that anyone, Obama included will be able to stave off this disaster.
Ooops, there I go being negative….don’t worry kiddies, it may not be all dire as I think. It might be worse.