Is The US Finally Ready For Revolution?
Is America Ready For Revolution?
I have always strongly believed that it's not possible to be a good Christian without standing up against social injustice and government corruption in all its forms. As I take a look around me today I find a lot of things wrong with our country. In fact, I have been a proponent for radical change for several years now, and I have written and published 2 books on this very topic. Where shall I begin? In God-blessed America, the land of the free where everyone is an economic slave, our founding fathers' sacred idea of a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" has become but a cruel joke. Former president George W. Bush has notoriously called our Constitution – our supreme law of the land – "that (expletive) piece of paper". The federal government is currently spending at least $60 billion per month on military excursions in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and northern and western Africa – including operating between 800 and 1,000 foreign military bases all over the world. Our country's over-used flying drone aircraft kills hundreds daily overseas, many of whom are only innocent bystanders.
Meanwhile here on the home front, one in seven people are on food stamps, and at any given time one in four American children are going hungry today. Our country spends more money incarcerating people than it does on education. What's up with that? Our political system is openly rigged against the best interests of the American people. A massive market mechanism is securely entrenched in our political system where political influence is openly bought and sold. Tens of thousands of highly-paid middlemen called "lobbyists" facilitate the legal transfer of billions between moneyed special interests and our so-called "representatives" in Congress. This very lucrative business of buying and selling political influence has become the driving engine of our government. Our so-called "representatives" in Congress vie for millions in legal bribes in return for delivering billions of our tax dollars to moneyed special interests. It's pure folly to think our current political system could possibly look out for the best interests of the American people.
Just ponder what our government has done to us (not for us) in the last ten years alone. It's utterly mind boggling. The best interests of the American people have been sacrificed to moneyed special interests time and time again. The banking industries paid millions in bribes for a legal license to steal billions from the American people. When greed got them in trouble, our so-called "representatives" gave them billions more of our money. After the health insurance industry paid its bribes, our so-called "representatives" refused to even consider single-payer coverage, despite its proven track record of providing cheaper, superior health care, and providing it to all citizens equally.
Instead, millions of Americans will continue to suffer (or go bankrupt or die) for lack of health insurance. I know this to be true because it has happened to me as well. If any policy would significantly reduce the profits of moneyed special interests, it's simply designated "off the table" by our so-called "representatives". In the last ten years, our so-called "representatives" shared nearly a billion dollars in bribes from the "defense" industry. In return, they doubled our defense budget to $700 billion (equal to all other countries combined!) and lied us into unnecessary, endless, expanding wars that will ultimately cost us trillions. This is aside from the extreme human costs of war with multiple consecutive deployments. For example, 1 in 5 returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have permanent psychiatric disabilities so severe that they will never work again. Speaking as a minister and lifelong peace activist, I find this to be utterly reprehensible on the part of the US military (Be all you can be? Yeah, right.)
Our so-called "representatives" are cutting social spending just when the American people need it most. Yet they continue to spend hundreds of billions on weapons of mass destruction to "protect us" from our enemies. But most of our "enemies" are purposely created by our government's blatantly unjust foreign policies (that openly support regimes that oppress millions of human beings) and by our violent military occupations of their homelands. Without a perpetual supply of "enemies", "defense" industry profits would plummet. If that weren't enough, our so-called "representatives" have worked hard to keep America the number one weapons merchant on earth. Our so-called "representatives" continue to support the sale of billions in weapons to oppressive regimes around the world, which creates still more "enemies", which creates more special interests profits, etc.
Our current political system guarantees our so-called "representatives" will continue to pass and sustain legislation that transfers billions of our hard-earned tax dollars to moneyed special interests. That's because members of Congress who oppose moneyed special interests are promptly punished, ostracized, or replaced (if their offense is great enough). For example, dare to oppose the AIPAC and your days in Congress are numbered. Just ask any congressman, starting with your own. Furthermore, our current political system guarantees both moneyed special interests and our so-called "representatives" must participate in this influence-peddling scam against the American people, mainly because they'd be stupid not to. Big corporations would be at a competitive disadvantage (and would likely resort to cheating their shareholders to replace lost profits) if they refused to buy political influence. Likewise, our so-called "representatives" would be at a competitive disadvantage getting elected or staying in office if they refused to sell political influence.
The upcoming national elections this fall are merely melodrama for the masses. Our "choices" have all been pre-chosen for us by moneyed special interests pumping millions into the process. Besides, whoever wins will be forced to play by established political rules that guarantee moneyed special interests will always come ahead of the American people's best interests. For weeks before the elections, the lackey mainstream media (using colorful pundits) entertain us with political melodrama. They arouse us by pitting one segment of the American people against another. They make millions bombarding us with empty, emotional, 30-second TV ads that are little more than name-calling or patriotic platitudes. Congressional elections are sheep fighting among themselves for their favorite pre-chosen wolves. Congressional elections merely determine which segment of the America people gets screwed by which moneyed special interests group.
Trying to reform our current political system using that very same corrupt system is just futile folly. It's like trying to fix your broken arms using your broken arms. It's like trying to start a car that is out of gas. Our current political system is designed to be reform proof. It has well-established mechanisms to protect and maintain the status quo. That's why "campaign finance reform" and all other such efforts to "reform" our current political system from within are doomed to either fail outright or be so watered-down as to be useless. All these outrageous government actions are exactly what we should expect from a government openly for sale to the highest bidder. “We the people” are just government-controlled fodder for moneyed special interests. Moneyed special interests paid for these outrageous government actions, and they got what they paid for. We, the people, got screwed. I have the solution to this problem, and it can be found in any English dictionary.
rev-o-lu-tion (Dictionary.com) 1. an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.
Our country's elections amount to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We can't vote our government back to us. A peaceful, people's revolution is the only way we can take back our government. The multi-billion dollar business of buying and selling political influence (currently the driving engine of our government) must be overthrown, repudiated and thoroughly replaced if democracy is to survive in America. This massive influence-peddling scam must become our number one political issue because it underlies and thus greatly affects all other issues. If we don't get big money out of our politics, our democracy and our standard of living will continue to decline and surely we'll take the rest of the world down with us.
We can't afford to sit by like sheep meekly waiting for slaughter. We must find ways to hinder and harass the corporate state at every turn. Nothing will change unless we, the people, begin to organize radical acts of civil disobedience to disrupt our current political system, upping the ante until this massive influence-peddling scam is thoroughly exposed and eliminated. For example, in Iceland they arrested over 100 bankers recently after throwing the old government out of office peacefully but effectively. The citizens stood in the streets and banged on pots and pans, and they didn't stop until they got what they wanted. Then they wrote a new constitution and passed it into law. It's been reported all over the European press but largely censored here in the US. Is it any wonder? If there were enough people inspired by what happened in Iceland, it could happen here next. Well, what does the elite capitalists want? They can either allow what happened over there to happen here, or America will turn into another Greece, Spain, Ireland or Portugal. Or maybe even another Egypt or Syria. The only way to prevent this from occurring here is that “we the people” must take back our government by peaceful revolution because it will never be given back voluntarily. Remember what President John F. Kennedy said: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
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cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Teamster Jeff
(1,598 posts)the chances for some kind of revolt increases. The lower middle class will soon be wiped out but us and the very poor spend all our time and resources scrambling for shelter, food ect. When Doctors, Lawyers and other professionals truly feel the bite thats when some kind serious pressure on the system could take place.
patrice
(47,992 posts)here.
How do you figure that those worth hundreds of millions and upwards are feeling any pain?
dotymed
(5,610 posts)This was not an op about leaving anyone behind. It was a much needed post about our real need to change our government peacefully.
I do not understand how any wel informed citizen (that is not elite), can rail against this.
Are you OK, friend?
rlabston
(2 posts)But we'll have to find time between work and "idol" to do it.
patrice
(47,992 posts)the 'new' boss, SAME as the old boss" to me.
patrice
(47,992 posts)PivotalDude
(20 posts)Why not make that remark to everyone who spells out the problems and then proposes solutions? I truly am baffled as to why you'd take issue with this essay. Since you're a secessionist I assume that you have told others that seceding should happen. If so, who died and made YOU god ?
patrice
(47,992 posts)PivotalDude
(20 posts)The word "revolution" does not necessarily imply violence. Moreover, the author several times stresses non-violent action as his strategy. So your reply is quite unfounded.
patrice
(47,992 posts)patrice
(47,992 posts)U.S. Military in to clean up the mess.
And you KNOW it.
patrice
(47,992 posts)may NOT speak for me, so stop saying "we".
I don't know you.
I don't know who your friends and allies are.
I don't know what course of action you are on.
I don't know how you feel and are willing to do about the things that ***I*** think are important.
I don't know what you will NOT do in service to your rather improbable and ill-defined goals.
. . . more to come.
patrice
(47,992 posts)PivotalDude
(20 posts)He took issue with the political leaders who direct the military. It's a simple distinction.
Stop giving your horse weed.
patrice
(47,992 posts)They then proceeded to transfer wealth for almost 245 years from Africans brought to this continent, before deigning to "emancipate" them.
And those Rich White Males got that way by killing a bunch of American Indians, all of the way up to and including state sponsored genocide, empowered by that "sacred idea" you're so glowy about.
Pretty much the same for women, who still are not protected from economic discrimination.
Economic inertia accrued to white males, continues today in the 1%: that's your "sacred idea", a.k.a. The Constitution.
positiveidea
(12 posts)
Servius Valerius
(13 posts)Yeeeeeahhh... nope.
No revolution of politics. First- lets have a revolution of minds and hearts and spirits. Then, policy problems will be clearer, and we won't need to contemplate any violent overthrowings of anything.
PivotalDude
(20 posts)tama
(9,137 posts)Both revolutions are going on all the time as simultaneous processes.
And contemplation of violent overthrow is no biggie: hmm, lets contemplate... nah, ain't gonna take up arms now. Easy.
But: should I do participate in 'loving kindness' meditation at Occupy GA? Why not, if there's one, or if not, I could organize such myself.
PivotalDude
(20 posts)I couldn't agree more. I'd love to hear about your books. How about trying me on Twitter. I'm Pivotaldude there, too.
And since you are so gung ho to undo the status quo I have to recommend my book, Reality Check. It's about galvanizing the left so we can bring the Golden Rule back to our government. Half of it is quotes from the likes of Chomsky, Carlin, Orwell, Goodall, Sagan, Soros, Asimov, Paine, William James, Sting and The Beatles.
It's available at sbpra.com/pivot but feel free to access the Word files from my aol account realitycheckread; PW: Milton1211
Only 2 emails in inbox.
Here's a review:
“Reality Check" is a thought-provoking, unconventional work…examining how we’ve taken Mother Earth to the breaking point. This sometimes-dark work, is also at the same time enlightening… filled with important insights into society’s imperfections. The author, going by the pen name of “Pivot”, examine’s
America’s shortcomings in a disturbing account of corporate greed and human selfishness. Pivot contends that America has a penchant for a “long and violent abuse of power....The cause of America, in great measure, is the cause of all mankind." (Paine)
Offering a dismal portrait of American society, “Reality Check” has been penned as a “wake-up” call for all thoughtful inhabitants of planet Earth. Indeed, a gut-check for all those willing to think hard, the book speaks to the frailty of the human condition. Pivot contends society is spinning out of control…. assails bad parenting…how we are failing the children. How, as trusted stewards of the planet, we have been negligent. How we allow the “prosperous few" to dominate and take advantage of the "restless many” (Chomsky). Filled with interesting quotes from A to Z…this book is different and unforgettable.
If you're looking for a light-hearted, quick read, then don’t buy "Reality Check." On the other hand, if you can stomach a sometimes-bitter pill, "Reality Check" can be food for the soul. This eye-opening account exposes injustices rife in America today…contending we must come to grips with our problems, in order to find solutions!
Here are some excerpts:
“Mr. Pivot,” said young Johnny Appleseed, “I think I understand what you’re saying. When people are ignorant and confused they make themselves scared; and vice versa; and so on. So now, us kids have to pay for all your fucked up shit. But there’s one thing that I still don’t get. I have an uncle who has a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend; the government says that they can’t get married and have the same rights as a couple of the opposite sex; plus, sometimes they get beat up because they can’t make babies. So, then, shouldn’t we be beating up old heterosexual couples, too?"
“Well, Johnny, everyone gets scared when they see someone living a different lifestyle because it could mean that their own way isn’t as good, or could even possibly be wrong. But their fear would vanish if they understood that a different way of living isn’t necessarily better or worse, but just weird, uhm, I mean, different.”
“But, Mr. Pivot,” queried some kid on the right side of the room, “why do you say that they should be allowed to get married and thus be entitled to all of the legal benefits that go along with that?"
“I should ask you why you say that they should be denied that, especially in light of the fourteenth amendment which says that ‘No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.’ What is it exactly that you hope to accomplish or avoid with that denial, anyway? Perhaps if you could provide some rationale for that, then we could come to a meeting of the minds on this.”
“Because it says in the Bible—”
“According to the first amendment it is unconstitutional to base legislation on the Bible. The government can only maintain laws pertaining to citizens between each other, not between citizens and God.”
“But, still, Mr. Pivot, you have to admit, it’s kind of disgusting behavior, ya know? Do you really think that society should formally condone such onerous behavior?”
“Just because the government doesn’t prohibit something, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is condoning it. Besides, who are you or I to call it disgusting? ‘Disgusting’ is in the eye of the beholder. You may find some people’s styles of expressing love repulsive, or certain forms of entertainment infantile, crude, shocking and offensive, such as that Howard Stern fella, but, right or wrong, obnoxious or enlightening, people have a right to live according to their heart and conscience as long as they don’t undermine the happiness and long-term survival of others. Moreover, people have to make a living; and you can’t very well expect folks to voluntarily curtail less than noble standards as long as we’re living under the auspices of to-the-victor-goes-the-spoils/to-the-loser-goes-the-shaft capitalism.
EXCERPT BREAK
A current example of contention revolves around a Supreme Court ruling made in 1976 (Buckley vs. Valeo) in which the court struck down the limits on citizens’ expenditures towards politicians. They ruled that it would be an infringement on the first amendment to set such limits. But, by the very nature of what it means to achieve balance, it should be clear that a ruling that allows for unrestricted…expression must inherently be lopsided, and, therefore, not balanced, nor just. Because, again, by definition, balance requires restriction, or limitation. Yet Sean Parnell of the Center for Competitive Politics would have us believe that “Money enables free speech; and if you’re going to limit the ability of money to be spent to promote political speech, then you are necessarily limiting political speech.”
Actually, Sean, since it is called FREE speech one doesn’t need any money for one’s speech to be enabled. Hence, if we are going to limit the amount of money that can be spent on political speech, it does not necessarily limit political speech. It merely limits the medium by which (every)one can express it. Because if you really think about it, the right to not have our speech abridged refers to the content of our speech, not the medium by which we express it. And, if you think about it a little more, since Bill Gates et al. have no political spending limits on their speech the amount of speech that I have IS necessarily limited, by comparison. Moreover, thanks to highly duplicitous Supreme Court rulings, the right of so-called corporate personhoods to invoke Constitutional protections has lead to corporations overriding the protections that individuals are supposed to have. For example, although pleading guilty to causing deaths due to fraudulent marketing, Pfizer pharmaceuticals merely had to pay a steep fine—but nobody in the decision-making process actually had to go to jail the way normal citizens do when held accountable for murder, ironically.
EXCERPT BREAK
I also pointed out that we need to examine where the line should be drawn between cost/profit and discretionary income; which you do by categorizing professions/salaries in a hierarchy of the most productive at the top, and the least productive at the bottom; a.k.a. prioritizing. For example, presently, C.E.O.s of major banks and insurance companies, and folks such as Wolf Blitzer and Matt Laur and Brian Williams and Drew Carey and Al Roker and Piers Morgan and Ryan Seacrest and Anderson Cooper and Glenn Fucking Beck and John Paulson and the Koch brothers are paid obscenely exorbitant salaries, yet their occupations add no actual value to the universe. Teachers, however, are obscenely underpaid, yet they’re the most valuable resource that a society has.
To wit: “In 2009, the worst economic year for working people since the Great Depression, the top 25 hedge fund managers walked off with an average of $1 billion each. With the money those 25 people ‘earned,’ we could have hired 658,000 entry-level teachers. Those educators could have brought along over 13 million young people, assuming a class size of 20. That's some value. …The wealthy will have placed an estimated $2 trillion into hedge funds by the end of this year.” Not to mention that in 2010 Goldman Sachs bankers received $15.3 billion in bonuses alone.
“waste”: any human activity which absorbs resources, but creates no value ~Taiichi Ohno
“What we want and what we need has been confused.” ~Michael Stipe
“We can have a democratic society or we can have a great concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. We cannot have both.”
~Justice Louis Brandeis
“Every empirical study of both historic and contemporary cultures finds that the ‘leisure time’ state of ‘freedom’ is enjoyed by only a very small class of people within the city/state: its economic and political rulers.
~from Thom Hartmann’s The Last Days of Ancient Sunlight
“Free enterprise and the market economy mean war; socialism and planned economy mean peace. We must plan our civilization or we must perish.” ~Harold Laski
“Capitalism….is not intelligent, it is not beautiful, it is not just, it is not virtuous—and it doesn’t deliver the goods.”
~John Maynard Keynes
EXCERPT BREAK
I’ll spare you any details from David C. Korten’s “devastating” book, When Corporations Rule the World. Suffice it to say, such a book exists. However, I can’t afford to leave out a portion of John Ralston Saul’s international bestseller The Unconscious Civilization, copyright 1995: “The acceptance of corporatism causes us to deny and undermine the legitimacy of the individual as citizen in a democracy. The result of such a denial is a growing imbalance which leads to our adoration of self-interest and our denial of the public good. Corporatism is an ideology which claims rationality as its central quality. The overall effects on the individual are passivity and conformity in those areas which matter and non-conformism in those which don’t.
“Economics as a prescriptive science is actually a minor area of speculative investigation. Econometrics, the statistical, narrow, unthinking, lower form of economics, is passive tinkering, less reliable and less useful than car mechanics. The only part of this domain which has some reliable utility is economic history, and it is being downgraded in most universities, even eliminated because, tied as it is to events, it is an unfortunate reminder of reality.
“Over the last quarter-century economics has raised itself to the level of a scientific profession and more or less foisted a Nobel Prize in its own honor onto the Nobel committee thanks to annual financing from a bank. Yet, over the same 25 years, economics has been spectacularly unsuccessful in its attempt to apply its models and theories to the reality of our civilization. It’s not that the economists’ advice hasn’t been taken. It has, in great detail, with great reverence. And, in general, it has failed. [(“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organisations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.” --Alan Greenspan/FAILURE)]
“A ‘profession’ implies both real parameters and professionals who bear some responsibility for the effects of their advice. If economists were doctors, they would, today, be mired in malpractice suits.
“Many are surprised that this management elite continues to expand and prosper at a time when society as a whole is clearly blocked by a long-term economic crisis. There is no reason to be surprised. The reaction of sophisticated elites, when confronted by their own failure to lead society, is almost invariably the same.
“To be precise: we live in a corporatist society with soft pretensions to democracy.
“A simple test of our situation would involve examining the health of the public good. For example, there has never been so much money—actual money—disposable cash—in circulation as there is today. I am measuring this quantity both in absolute terms and on a per capita basis. Look at the growth of the banking industry and the even more explosive growth of the money markets.
“There has never been so much disposable money, yet there is no money for the public good. In a democracy this would not be the case, because the society would be centered, by general agreement, on disinterest. In a corporatist system there is never any money for the public good because the society is reduced to the sum of the interests. It is therefore limited to measurable self-interest.
“I would argue that confronting reality—no matter how negative and depressing the process—is the first step towards coming to terms with it.
“[It is] my right as a citizen—my Socratic right—to criticize, to reject conformity, passivity and inevitability.
“It is worth trying to do better.”
To simplify: we’ve designed a system which allows inordinate amounts of wealth to be held in the private sector while the government is left with its hands tied to actually effect noticeable change because they’ve got hardly any money to pay for anything.
The point: THE HOARDING OF WEALTH DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTES TO THE DECAY OF SOCIETY. Anyone with the slightest understanding of economics knows that the foremost rule to a healthy economy, society, is CIRCULATION. We all “know” this, yet those of you at the top 2 percent with all of the money and control seem to think that the rules of cause and effect don’t apply to you.
But instant karma IS going to get you, eventually.
“Property is theft. Nobody owns anything. When you die, it stays here. I read about these billionaires: Sam Walton, 20 billion; Daniel Ludwig, 15 billion. They’re both dead. They’re gone, and the money is still here. It wasn’t their money to begin with. Property is theft.”
~George Carlin
“He who dies with the most toys still dies.”
“During the fifty years preceding 1914 a host of brilliant, eloquent, and desperate artists sought to wake the ruling European bourgeoisie out of its deadly lethargy. The bourgeoisie did not at first believe it was lethargic, because it was so busy making money. ‘Making money is not heroic action!’ cried the artists. ‘Making money is boring you to death!’”
~Charles Van Doren
“It was the end of the fifties, and most young people were disillusioned with what was called the Establishment. There seemed nothing to look forward to but affluence and more affluence. The Conservatives had just won their third election victory with the slogan, ‘You’ve never had it so good.’ I and most of my contemporaries were bored with life.”
~Stephen Hawking
“They debated the NAFTA trade bill for a long time; should we sign it or not? Either way, the people get fucked. Trade always exists for the traders. Anytime you hear businessmen debating ‘which policy is better for America,’ don’t bend over.”
~George Carlin
Piperflys
(4 posts)Thanks for taking the time to write that...agree.
Please review this petition and if you agree sign and share....Politicians go to Washington to get rich first then serve the people.
Thanks
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/mandate-all-elected-officials-washington-release-tax-returns-each-and-every-year-they-hold-public/PqVldH6g
SandyLouis
(4 posts)
Vic Vinegar
(80 posts)God Bless you!
Progressives must look at the Syriza model! That is proof that a revolution can come. We have an advantage also because of our ability to general strike. I agree Christians must come together and protect the economically oppressed!
We still have to maintain the structure of government to avoid blood though. We need Obama to be a man and use Executive Orders to begin a New Deal. The only way we can do this is through the channels of Labour. General strike is the answer!
Response to paulbern77 (Original post)
mlauer59295 This message was self-deleted by its author.
David_Selig
(1 post)Baffling, absolutely baffling. By the by, if a crocodile were to steal a child, then promise to return it if the kid’s father correctly guesses what the crocodile will do. . . how will the crocodile respond when the father guesses the crocodile won’t return the kid? You’re in bad company old bean.
De Leonist
(225 posts)The Truth is that there are movements all across America and the world that have been building for quite some time now. A new Global People's movement is rising and it's making headway. At the moment it's fighting the smaller battles but it's had a few victories already.
Countdown_3_2_1
(878 posts)It worked only because the occupiers had a conscience.
That is not the case in this country. What substantive change was affected by the Occupy movement? What new laws were passed? How are the corporates acting any different than they were before?
As for violent revolution...no. The public has no stomach for it.
I would think it might be easier to get a number of adjoining states to secede and form a more perfect union. The north eastern states, or the pacific coastal states to start and show how easy it is. The military is full of people who won't shoot their own families... this could work.
But a lot of groundwork/education of the people will be needed first.
TheKentuckian
(25,026 posts)Gandhi didn't accomplish shit all Gandhi accomplished was that a native would be the face of capital in India though usually that face would still have to deal with the usual suspects, pretty often still the British, just higher up the food chain.
The reality is that the British and the west in general could continue to benefit and profit from brutal exploitation of most Indians, without putting direct pressure on the conscience of their citizens by backing off a little and essentially allowing native overseers to be the visible ruling class.
Who gives a damn if you bow to the crown as long as you bow to capital? How does it not come out exactly the same in the wash? How much of the whole deal was upper caste folks desire not to be compressed down to essentially the same as lower caste? I'm not sure but that seems to be the only even semi lasting impact.