Talkin' 'bout a Revolution

Really, it's time. Even Bernie Sanders is talkin' 'bout a revolution. It's legal and not at all scary, though the government's though control police have been splitting skulls and worse for longer than anybody can remember in an attempt to keep the lid on. But, hell, they shoot and kill people just for being uppity, or insufficiently subservient, so there is no extra penalty involved in being out there.

So, to get the ball rolling, via boingboing.net, I will present a short filmic interlude. This [https://boingboing.net/2016/01/01/watch-stirring-call-for-netwo.html] is a link to a call for global resistance in the form of a wonderful 6 minute video. Really, stop reading and watch it. It both beautiful, ominous and inspiring. Got it? Good. Courtesy of The Woodbine Collective.

Here, also via boingboing, is something different, more mainstream, more oriented toward working within the system, yet still working against the status quo. It is said that all politics is local and that is what [http://localprogress.org/] is and is all about. Not a political party, it is a national coordinating organization for left leaning city councillors and such. The idea is to make each and every issue a city issue (yeah, I know), and to enact policies, regulations and laws at the city level and thereby drive change from the bottom up. The boingboing article, with a link to WaPo, the org itself and more, is here: [https://boingboing.net/2016/01/05/an-org-for-left-wing-us-munici.html]. Check them out, it is a beginning, perhaps, and an ally and source of allies. Push your local politicos, of every type to check them out and see what can be done. Should you lack a sufficiency of proper thinking local politicos, then, being believers, you should know what to do. Round up like minded voters, creating them, registering them, convincing them, and create of find candidates to become those needed pols.

More after a short break for the title tune:

Should you be of a more utopian bent, here is yet more reading and food for thought. Some bad news regarding a type of Co-op, but nothing, IMHO, insurmountable. [http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Will-work-for-food-Co-op-programs-... In short, those co-ops premised on volunteer labor in exchange for discounts are in trouble and many are folding out of fear of being forced to treat the volunteers as employees. There is reference to other co-ops not facing this problem and it seems to me to be one for which there are multiple possible solutions. Because co-ops can be a weapon or tool in the struggle, this is an area which needs thought and experimentation. Let a thousand co-ops bloom.

Also for utopians, another article discovered via boingboing that has some merit, but which requires a lot of attention to the details. The devil is always in the details, and in this instance, it is perhaps more devilish than normal. I put this into the "within reason" and "moderation in all things" category, yes and no, as it were. While the gist of it is to embrace progress, technology and, yes, growth and consumption, the kicker is to reject capitalism and its processes and trappings while so doing. The article is [https://boingboing.net/2016/01/12/keep-your-scythe-the-real-gre.html] here, and is, as is the case with most things boingboing, a review and link to yet something else. In this case, it is a book by Leigh Phillips, a journalist, progressive and Marxist. The review provides plenty of food for thought in itself, as well as plenty of incentive to read the book.

I was once in what many then called "the movement". Our goal and motto is usually rendered as "Power to the People". One organization that was part of that movement was SDS. SDS was decried by many in the traditional or historical left as evil for their implementation of that goal, for trying to act according to and upon consensus. Whoever heard of such a thing? The very idea, managing by vote. If you're hankering for a good read, go check out the "Point Huron Statement" [http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/huron.html], here. You might also take a peek at the original draft [http://www.sds-1960s.org/PortHuronStatement-draft.htm], here. Whatever, that isn't why I brought this up. I wish to clarify that goal, as it existed before being sloganized. The goal was:

All Power should vest in All of The People.

That is one scary ass proposition in terms of devils and details. The goal is not simply majoritarian. The rights, freedoms, liberties and equality of minorities must be preserved and respected. OTOH, this should create no prerogatives. All should have full access to the public square, but none should be permitted to monopolize it, to overwhelm others, or to intrude into the privacy and lives of others within or without that locus. That is just the tip of one example. When trying to move forward we must be ever wary of the innate tendency of humankind to support and seek the shelter of authority and authoritarianism, of the rigidity of thought processes and ideologies that impedes and stupefies.

Every day, the earth makes a revolution. Every year it makes a different kind of revolution. So why don't we?
Is the world today ideal, in any way whatsoever?
If not, why not try to fix it?
And really, doing the same old shit over and over will not change or fix things, or it would have.

We can, ya know, have more than one goal at once, as long as none is to just sit still -

the main thing is to work together

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inequality.jpg

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enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --