Grip, you are awesome. I may end up finding it to be true that a personal de-linking and off-gridding are the only workable steps I can take. But for now, I still hold the torch of hope for a mass movement... because:
1.) War, the war paradigm, war-for-profit, US imperialism, millions upon millions dead and injured, leaders murdered, countries infrastructure destroyed, countries taken over. None of this will ever change for the better without a mass movement. I cannot ever be "content" or "happy" or "at peace" while my country of birth (and allied nations) commits these atrocities.
2.) Pollution, environmental degradation, species extinction, poisonous farmland with dead soil, genetically modified organisms. None of this will ever change for the better without a mass movement - and there is nowhere on Earth we can run away to that is not affected. I cannot just live with this and save myself. It would be like having one canteen full of pure water, in the middle of a desert, with a group of thirsty people - and drinking it all by myself.
3.) Energy (benign, abundant, non-polluting) technology suppression. This will never change without a mass movement. Wade Frazier has made the creation of this mass movement his life's work. (His concept of a 'mass movement' is novel, but in the end, he knows that a mass movement is required to make any change in the energy paradigm.)
4.) Corporatocracy/fascism. (back to Arrowwind's topic) We know that corporations are at their legal roots sociopathic entities, and now we know what happens when we give sociopathic entities unbridled access to the government and to the environment and to the the work force of the least developed foreign nations (and its effect on the workforce of one's own nation): metastasis of power and control, unprecedented pollution, human rights violations, poverty, and even slavery.
I'll stop there. That list is big enough. One item (any one item) on that list is enough to tell me that I cannot isolate and do my part alone and in obscurity - I HAVE to try to rally others into a mass movement.
Ronnie Cummins (Organic Consumers Association) recently wrote an article and published at CommonDreams where he recognizes that single-issue activism and thousands of non-united activists are not getting the job done. The article (New Year’s Revolution: Connecting the Dots, Coming Together and Fighting Like Hell) focused mainly on climate, but Ronnie mentions other issues as well. The article does not go far enough - but it is a start. One critical thing not mentioned is the fact that activists are lost somewhere in the distant past in thinking that a mass voice telling TPTB to "STOP!" will make them stop. As if millions of people, raising their voices in chorus, chanting "Stop Corporate Greed!" is going to stop corporate greed. We have to be a lot smarter than that.
Delusions of the power of protest:
I think that a lot of people believe that protesting hippies ended the Vietnam war, which is a delusion of grandeur, and so believe a similar shouting match will change all of our current problems. If one looks honestly at a graph of growth of the "military industrial complex", then it becomes clear that ending any particular war is meaningless without ending the war paradigm. Besides, shouting at politicians who were hand-picked and sponsored by the Financial Elite because they believe in corporatocracy and agree to uphold and further the agenda of corporatocracy is worse than worthless - it wastes our valuable mass energy and fosters discouragement and dejection.
In a way, Gripreaper and I are saying the same thing: rule yourself. However, in addition to becoming as self-sustaining and community-sustaining as possible (the bottom-up approach), I feel we as a society must take the additional steps to rule ourselves from the top down too - and the only way to do that wisely and healthfully is to replace ALL of the minions of corporatocracy with ordinary citizens that are not part of the corporatocracy. Self-governance, especially top-down, will not just happen - TPTB have designed the system to maintain their power (which is the antithesis of self-governance by citizens.) It cannot be disassembled piecemeal nor can a majority of citizen-centric candidates win office in the current system.
Posted by Arrowwind
(here)
Posted by Dennis Leahy
(here)
The recognition that international bankers (tip-top of the pyramid) and large corporations (top of the pyramid) are the control structure is the premise upon which The Reset Button document is written.
Dennis... so you wrote the Reset Button document?
I'm really impressed.
Did you get significant signatures? has it been submitted to anyone?
I notice that it was written last spring or so? Does it need updating?
Have you put it on the petitions list at us.gov? ...
Hi Arrowwind,
I compiled and paraphrased and edited and added - lots of people "wrote" it. When first presented, it was anonymous down to the last line, where I signed-on as the first supporter. A respected activist friend let me know that it would be more effective if the (main) author/compiler was introduced at the beginning - people can relate more to a person than a (nearly) anonymous manifesto and call for a movement.
In 2011, it was simply presented, and there was no way to know how many had read it (other than website stats that showed it had been downloaded a few thousand times) or supported it. So, I was encouraged by an activist to add a signature portion to the website - "to allow people to become invested in the concepts" and show support. So, I scrapped the first website and started over in 2012, adding that functionality and broadening the site to expose more of the concepts in the document (especially for those too lazy to read the whole thing or even the first half of it. A site visitor can now get the gist of the goal, plan, and strategy without reading the document.)
Signing The Reset Button document is publicly supporting this non-violent plan to self-governance - more like signing the Declaration of Independence than just signing a petition. The number of signatures is extremely low - a testament to my inability as an activist. I also miscalculated/misunderstood the current reality of the percentage of people that are free thinkers versus being followers. (I thought this could happen without being led by "name brand" activists. I now understand that many of the current well-known activists will have to be on-board for this to happen.
I got some useful feedback (one of whom was rsviglio, here at Avalon), that The Reset Button document was written in such a way that someone might agree with a lot - but not all - and feel like they had to reject it. The Reset Button underwent a large revision, breaking the overall scope into what were called "Phases." The bottom line being that Phase I is the movement to self-governance, and Phase II contains specifics that activists are looking for in specific areas.
It is still problematic that some see the word "phase" and leap to the (logical) conclusion that one will be accomplished and then the next. The problem is, that what is written as "Phase II" will never meet everyone's approval - the same everyone that knows that Phase I is right and we need self-governance to accomplish any real, positive changes. Another revision of the document is in the works, and that will eliminate the word "phase" - and show very clearly that what is now listed as "Phase II" is simply a list of topics (with essays) that candidates will be mandated to address (so we actually know where candidates stand on these issues.)
It is not a petition. Petitions are designed to get someone else to do something. This is a declaration, an expository, a manifesto, a concrete goal, and lays out the specifics of the plan and the strategy to accomplish the plan and achieve the goal.
Yes, in 2011, there was time to make it happen before the 2012 elections. Now that it is (in a few hours from when I write this) 2013, some name change will need to be implemented... again. (Not good for continuity.)
Witchy1, thanks for signing! And yes, US citizens are considered "signers" and non-US citizens are considered as "supporters." I hope something like this is written in Canada, and in Australia, and in the UK - because the globalist Cabal is using these countries as primary organizational and staging areas. It will have to be specific to each country, to cleverly use the existing laws of the country to force a change to citizen-centric governance.
Thanks!
Dennis
How to Break the Backs of Corporations
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