Forum Post: America is awakening from its slumber: 1% shouldn't be able to rule 99%

There are clearly people across America who know in their gut that something is wrong here where the financial sector shuffling paper makes up 40% of GDP, where unemployment is high but corporations are at the same time riding high. Something needs to spark and inspire people to speak up, emerge from their silence and feeling of defeat and realize.... "HEY, Wwwwwait a second. We're the 99% and they're the 1%. We have the votes. 1% can't rule 99%." Direct action can help awaken people from their slumber. It has direct and indirect results. It worked for millions of people under King and Gandhi. We need to all read up on their methods because they are as fresh and radical today as they were decades ago.

Here's the quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. about the power of non-violent direct action:

Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation.

HERE'S THE FULL TEXT OF THE LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL: http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html .

Before you criticize these methods, read the whole thing. To the critics of non-violent active resistance, he's speaking directly to you.