Forum Post: IF YOU READ ONE POST TODAY, read this one: To the 1%............. And the 99% ........ Vincent Harding says it all....
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 26, 2011, 7:34 p.m. EST by therising
(6643)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
(NOTE: If you don't read the whole way through, you'll miss the message).
This message has 3 parts. First part is written to the 1%. Second part is a message to the 99%. Then, the 3rd part is directed to the 100%.
To the 1%:
You are not a mystery. You are an open book. We see you clear as a bell. We have seen you. We know you. You feel fleetingly superior but mostly you feel inferior. This is why you plunder. This is why you horde. This is why you shop for "the good stuff."
The good stuff isn't good by itself, is it? That should be a sign? You need to show it to your friends and associates and competitors don't you? Think about that? What does that imply. It implies you're climbing. How high have you climbed? Does it ever end? Did you ever consider the damage your manicured hands do, those clumsy hands? Did you ever consider that there might be another way? Isn't the dopamine burst getting harder and harder to trigger with the snazzy stuff?
To us..... To the 99%: Do we feel superior? Are we better than the 1%? What have we bought in the last 90 days? What has been the impact of those purchases? The price of gas, we're told, is about $100 if you factor in the cost of the troops protecting that oil. Did we pay $100 for each gallon over the last 90 days? If not, who did? Do we hate the 1%? What does that hatred do to us?
Isn't it 100%? Isn't the damn slogan really supposed to be "the 100%"? How can we really win with hatred in our hearts?
TO THE 100%: Aren't we really all in this together? Isn't there a good heart in each of us, no matter how deep that goodness is buried? Isn't it the system in which we're operating that is distorting human community?
Vincent Harding pretty much summed it up in this quote (paraphrased here): I feel that the traditional explanations for human misery are insufficient. It's not simply capitalism or racism or sexism or classism.... There is something deeper, a loss of attunement, a lack of sense of self. And there will never be justice on these shores until the issue of the human spirit is addressed.
What is it. Where did we take a wrong turn. I think it is Descartes' fault. I'm not kidding. He introduced reductionism and we followed him down that long dark road, never stopping to ask for directions. Now we think reductionism is the whole world. We can't see beyond it. We think we can understand something by cutting it into pieces and examining its parts. But we can't. Together, we are so much greater than the sum of our parts.
Modern physics shows that everything is actually connected. Yes, connected. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way: "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I what I ought to be. All of us are inextricably linked."
Together, united, we can rise from the ashes of our disention and separation and lift each other, nurture each other, recognize what James Baldwin called "the only light there is in this world," the light in the eyes.
Can we let go of the story in our heads? The story of the 1% and the 99%. The story of us. The past, the future. Can we get out of our heads and relate right here right now to the person across from us as Thich Nhat Hanh would suggest. Thich Nhat Hanh was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. but this gentle Buddhist monk was labeled as a terrorist by the Vietnamese government because of his active work in villages.. How can someone be a terrorist and a man of peace at the same time? What part do you personally play in maintaining this dichotomy, this illusion of separateness? The harder we fight the more solid the walls become. It is only the walls and the mindset that maintains them that are the enemy. No person is the enemy. Not the 1%. Not the 99%.
Am I advocating doing nothing? Oh no. Get out in the streets my friends and make noise. Make your presence known. Get organized and focused and push like hell in strategic nonviolent ways to reveal injustice. Love the 1% so much that you want to set them right. Love them. Love them. Without that minder we will lose lose lose.
Can we do what James Baldwin suggests and "step out of the lie and the trap of our history and be, just be?
Can we rise to the challenge? Or will we just play out our adversarial roles?
Do we have the courage to step out? Do you?
The ultimate solution to those who want power over you is to walk away from them Just don't give them any fuel for their fire. disempowered they will have to abandon their illusions and delusions and do what all of us were meant to do - see what is - do what works (for those around us as well as ourselves) - and be the cause of right actions.
Sounds good most of the time. Other times I think active nonviolent resistance is necessary. During the civil rights movement for example.
Thorsten Veblen's "Theory of the Leisure Class", which I just re-read, is all about the "to the 1%" part of this.
Wealth is relative.
Will check it out. We have to love these 1% folks if we're going to change this world for the better... For their sake, our sake, everyone's sake.
Definitely check it out. It explains why and how people of wealth feel the need to dominate others.
What's wrong with adversarialism? Vigorous debate is a healthy thing, I think.
I think Harding's text here is mostly feel-good platitudes, with a little corn syrup on top.
Who said anything about vigorous debate being bad? We're fighting for the soul of our country. Of course there will be vigorous debate. But let us not descend into the basement of hatred. That, my friend, is the key. You think it's hurting them. Well guess what, it's hurting you. He who demeans another demand him or herself.
I'm not sure we are descending into the "basement of hatred" as you write. We're the ones getting beat up and pepper sprayed. Are you sure it's not you who is descending into the "basement of hatred"?
The country is dead, its a rotting corpse, that died back in the 1950's. Now what CPR? You think anything can bring back a corpse? The USA is a nation of parasites. Not worth saving.
Clarification: I'm not sure OWS is descending into the "basement of hatred" as you write.
That wasn't me, I really 'hate' this OWS FORUM editor, I placed my comment above, in reponse to someone who wanted to save ameriKKKa. I never used those words 'basement of hatre.
To me anyone who speaks of 'hatred' is just using ADL/AIPAC/DNC talking-points. We're all here trying to have an honest discussion about this PUTRID-CORPSE we call the US government.
Pay no attention to those who speak about 'hatred', their game is to only control the debate.
You think it's hurting them. Well guess what, it's hurting you.
No, I don't think that. I never advocated hating anyone, nor do I. What made you jump to that conclusion?
You said: "What's wrong with adversarialism? Vigorous debate is a healthy thing, I think."
I responded by pointing out that there is a big difference between vigorous debate and hatred and I cautioned against allowing vigorous adversarial debate turn into hatred. We have seen too many times that that can happen.
By the way, your adversarialism may feel good but in the end you're only strengthening your ego by planting flag in ground and defending position. The point is, it is this mindset of incessant endless adversarialism that prevents us from truly engaging with others and finding common ground.
I get concerned when people. (not you but people in general) are more interested in defending positions than finding common ground. Theirs is a lonely win and, in the end, not really a win at all because they haven't really accomplished anything other than further entrenching themselves in ideology and ego, just more walls.
Loving people (universal love of agape) leaves room for compassion and forgiveness and that, my friend is the beginning of true power.
Adversarialism is a fine democratic tradition. It's not about hating people and it isn't about ego.
Ideally, what it's about is taking a position you feel is the truth and defending it until such time as someone demonstrates that it isn't the truth, at which point, you abandon it for something more accurately truthful - perhaps something that came out of the debate.
I agree that some people don't really understand how it is supposed to work, and just defend positions no matter what, use cheap tricks to try and "win" and so forth. That's not in the tradition of genunie adversarialism, such as used in peer review and whatnot.
The purpose of adversarialism is to subject ideas to critical examination, and thereby develop them to more accurately reflect the truth. For adversarialism to work, participants have to be willing to accept criticism of their ideas and, perhaps, abandon or modify them. It requires a willingness to listen and adapt.
Of course in practice people do get frustrated, tempers heated and so on. This is often true of love as well! Nothing is ideal but we should not abandon ideals. The ideals may never be perfectly achieved, but in striving for them we improve ourselves.
Universal love isn't a critical process. It doesn't subject ideas to any sort of critical examination. Universal love is about people - adversarialism is about ideas. They are not incompatible or in conflict with one another, they are on a completely different plane. Adversarialism isn't about people or egos or anything like that. You, are not the ideas you hold. You should not be attached to ideas for emotional reasons but because you feel they are an accurate reflection of the truth, and you should always strive to improve that accuracy by being willing to be critical of your own ideas and perhaps change them. Adversarialism is simply a social process of critical examination of ideas (not people).
Compassion and forgiveness, these are things about people. I can have compassion for you and still be critical of ideas you hold. I don't have to accept every idea you hold. That isn't what compassion is about.
But truth is the opposite of adversarialism. By viewing the world through the narrow misshapen lens that is adversarialism, we cut ourselves off from the truth and we are not aligned with life. Once we accept, forgive and love, we can act deliberately and powerfully. Compassion brings the ultimate power to the group. Unstoppable.
You can't get at the truth without critical thought, and universal love isn't about critical thought. Love is about unquestioning acceptance. If you love someone, you just accept them for who they are. But ideas are different. You can't arrive at more accurate truths in ideas by just unquestioningly accepting them all. You must critically examine them and see which ones stand up to critical examination, and which don't.
People, and the ideas they hold, are two different things altogether. I'm not rejecting you if I reject an idea you have. These things exist on completely different levels (though for some people, their ego is bound up in their ideas and they take it personally when their ideas are questioned - this is caused by a failure to recognize the distinction I am trying to make).
Critical thought, if followed with adherence to the rules of logic, brings one to the position of active nonviolent resistance. If the crowd at the pepper spray incident at UC Davis had reacted violently, what would have happened?
Logic is helpful. It brings you back to the heart in the end. It brings you back to the fact that compassion and forgiveness bring a presence of mind that yields far more powerful results than reactive violence. We need to stay in control. We need to take actions similar to those that helped Gandhi and his supporters beat the British out of India using zero weapons. We need to use the same force King and his supporters used when they helped win civil rights for millions of citizens against all odds.
They did not achieve this by violence. They achieved it by intelligent nonviolent force.
Who's talking about violence? Is debate violence?
In the scope of OWS if your not part of the 'consensus' then your by definition adversarial.
I say FUCK-YOU to all political correct assholes who worship the godess of CONSENSUS.
Let's rise and shine
Truth in this. What we resist persists. We change the world for everyone, not just some. We have to grab those 1%ers and bring them along on our march. Inclusion is the way. Easier to contemplate than loving them, but it will amount to the same in the end.
I am excited for "the 100%" to rise.
And if you have time to read one more post, please come here:
http://occupywallst.org/forum/something-to-think-about-part-3-toshiba-hates-mino/
The Revolution starts here!
I am the 1%
OK. So what do you think about the ideas expressed in the post above?
Occasionally. Not always. On some of these issues, almost never. Why? Because,
selah
Well.
You know.
Something like that.
I hear you. I know. But we can win this if we release our hatred and act with powerful deliberate calm nonviolent active resistance.
Toltec Wisdom is also an excellent guide to understanding humanity. It speaks of the personal "dream" that each person lives. In other words, each person has their own view of things, they are coming from a past and an experience that has shaped them. So, the Toltecs say follow the Four Agreements:
Be impeccable with your word.
Don't take anything personally.
Don't make assumptions.
Always do your best.
I think this is helpful advice for dealing with people who disagree with you or who are nasty or who just plain see things differently from you.
Read "The Four Agreements," "The Mastery of Love," and "The Voice of Knowledge" by Don Miguel Ruiz. Brilliant and life changing philosophy.
That's cool. Will check these out. Someone else just recommended same the other day to me. Thanks.
"we are the 100%" should he our rallying cry.
GREATEST PROBLEM OF THE 21ST CENTURY?
Underlying all the finger pointing going on in America and around the world about who's for this or that or against this or that, there runs a deep theme of two philosophies rearing their heads against each other.
"Broadly, speaking, Western society strives to find and prove "the truth", while Eastern society accepts the truth as given and is more interested in finding the balance."
"Westerners put more stock in individual rights; Easterners in social responsibly"
It may very well turn out that the greatest challenge of the 21st century needing to be solved by our greatest persons will be the reconciling of these two quarreling brothers and sisters into a better all inclusive family so they may inhabit the world together in peace. -Jaded Citizen
http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/cultures_east-west-phylosophy.html
I will check this out. Thich Nhat Hanh in "Touching Peace" and "Being Peace" discusses active Buddhism and active nonviolent resistance. He calls it engaged Buddhism. Thich Nhat Hanh was called a terrorist by the Vietnamese but was nominated for Nobel prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. Fascinating.
We have got to realize as a people we are all connected. We have to start having compassion for every human regardless of race or economic status or religious background. We have the power to change this planet. We just need to get people to put down their video games, turn off reality television and step outside and see there really beautiful and posituve things happening in the world. We have lost touch with our true mother. Mother Earth. We need a more sustainable existence or there will be no existence. Treat everyone you come in contact with kindness. If you do a kind act it not only benefits the recipient but you as well. You will feel great.
I have to agree. As long as we feel separate from everything we will suffer. We are not connected to the Earth anymore. We are shielded from everything.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
www.thrivemovement.com
Right on
You should love your enemies, but don't let that love keep you from understanding who your enemies are.
The ruling classes will destroy all human life on earth (whether through economic/ecological collapse or through apocalyptic wars over dwindling resources) if we let them. There are now seven billion persons on this planet, and things cannot keep going on like this.
There are powerful forces fighting to keep things the way they are, to keep us going down this track and off a cliff.
There are things worth being pissed about. And there are things worth fighting for.
This is class war. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
"Anger is a gift"--- Malcolm X
Malcolm X actually moved towards MLK's point of view toward the end of his short life.
Which is to say he became more tolerant and inclusive after his trip to mecca. Not that he dismissed the idea of firm and justified anger and resistance.
Nonviolent resistance is firm and powerful. And hatred poisons the hater. Sorry, you're barking up the wrong tree with the "my anger is justified and I can hit or kill people if I want" angle. Of course you CAN. The point is that there is another way that is more powerful where you are proactive instead of reactive. You can muster all the bravado and defensiveness you want. You can reflexively defend your ego all you want. It just isn't as powerful as nonviolent resistance.
If someone is being brutalized/raped/murdered then your "anger is justified and [you] can hit or kill people if [it's necessary and non-violence isn't possible]"
To passively allow it in the name of absolute pacifism is extreme moral cowardice.
To assume that such situations never arise and that there is ALWAYS a non-violent solution to every problem, is to be sheltered from reality.
I used to count myself among the naive liberals privileged enough to believe in total pacifism. It is a kind of beautiful delusion. It has a romantic appeal to it, and it's an understandable reaction to the horror of violence and war. Having served in the army I went through a period where I never wanted to look at another weapon in my life, but that same experience kept me from ignoring the reality of violence.
http://stuartbramhall.aegauthorblogs.com/2011/04/23/how-nonviolence-protects-the-state/
I respect your experience. Please respect mine. No one said anything about pacifism. Read about the radical work done by Gandhi and King and see what they accomplished against horribly violent regimes....... Active nonviolent civil disobedience is more powerful than violence.
When/Where/In what context?
I engage in civil disobedience quite frequently, in fact. It is a tactic and it has its uses. Sometimes it is the most effective/only practical method. In other cases it isn't even a serious option.
The extreme fetishizing of non-violence has been an historical excuse to defend tyranny.
I had a discussion with a gentleman a while ago who was insisting that the Libyan revolution wasn't succeeding as well as Egypt's because they weren't as committed to non-violence and had taken up arms against Gaddafi.
The insensitivity and ignorance of this guy criticizing a people suffering through a situation he couldn't possibly imagine is deeply frustrating. It's easy for people to call for civil disobedience when they live in a country where they do not (yet) mow down peaceful demonstrators with mortars and machine gun fire.
We don't hate the 1% as people, we hate what their unjust system has done to the world. Think about the poor factory workers in China, the suppression of women's and LGBTQ rights, and the abuse of animals. These things all come from a corrupt system that places all the power and wealth in the 1%. We hate the system, not the people.
We just have to make sure we don't slip into hatred of the 1%.
I have the courage. I've seen the light, dimly. It will take much courage, cooperation, exertion to improve lives and the most efficient focus is local. Help neighbors, buy local, ensure our most vulnerable folks arent abandoned. Then confront the cronies most familiar in your communities and out them publically. Denounce corruption. Demand transparency and accountability. Impeach public figures who fail to represent us. We don't need them and if we're going to care for one another better than they ever did we may as well opt out of the unfair tax scheme and underwrite a more compassionate approach more directly. I still believe humanity could enjoy a less austere more hopeful future if all nations collectively in concert tell the IMF to eat it.
Right on.
This is not about vilifying people. This is about recognizing what isn't working, isn't appropriate, isn't just.........practices, thought forms, beliefs that limit instead of build. Its about discarding the illusion of money and "power over" for the reality of value and "power with". You are correct that until we are on the same side of the table efforts to correct systemic problems will be handicapped. But there is nothing wrong with doing so many right things that wrong things lose both their power and their attraction. Please consult the post "A parallel Economy" for a suggestion on how.
Will do
Heaven ain't out there. It's right here right now if we're paying attention and let go of all the the thoughts in our heads, drop our roles, just let go and be. Let's rise. Let's lift one another. Let's occupy our own hearts. Let's join together, us 99% and help the 1% see where they've gone wrong. Let's then rise as the 100%. And never stop rising...
This is not a treadmill. There is a way out of the loop. There is a virtuous cycle possible where we lift one another up by being there for one another, recognizing that light in the eyes...
Do we have the courage?
I wrote this little Christmas jingle a while back, it still needs some work though...maybe a few more lines.
"What do they do at a factory?
Well, they make a lot shit that people don't need.
Then they bombard you with advertisements,
to make you all wanna go out and buy it.
To impress your friends and family,
and fuel a broken system of perpetual greed."
Who cares though? I don't need my huge tv, I sure do love watching it though.
at least you're honest :-) I have a lot of stuff I really don't need either...still looking for that job though...
Shopping hysteria -- such nonsense. All those things can't fill the hole.
Love is power. Love is force. Let's get in the streets and provoke with love. Let's occupy the world and plant our flag.
A big gap has opened up and we have a chance to unite and RISE!
Do you have what it takes to love? Are you wired for human community?
Let's rise..... Together....
Why does the children of the 1% protest? Cuz mum&dad lost all their money in the MADOFF PONZI scam, now they have no HOPEorFUTURE, and thus their only hope is to rob others because their rich jewish parents were fucking greedy assholes. ( by definition anyone who invested $50Billion USD in madoff was greedy and stupid, which was the majority of NYC rich jewish elite )
Veblen said : A leisure class exists at both ends of the economic spectrum
I would suggest that most OWS protesters given that they're part of the leisure class, are also part of the 1%.
Factually incorrect. Spend some time at the occupations and you'll see that's wrong.
Are you calling Veblen incorrect?
Jeebus, baby jeebus, I have spent my whole life climbing on trains at night and sleeping in parks, and on most outhouse walls we have that quote "A leisure class exists at both ends of the economic continuum", Veblen went on he said that those on the ends of the continuum had more in common than the middle, the middle folk work, the people on the ends don't fucking work, they just have a good time and fuck and get high their whole life.
My only thinking is that 'therising' either has never been on the end, or has never been to a really cool place where people just hangout, I can think of a lot of such places but I will not mention them here, for fear they be destroyed by the 99% parasite class.
Ahole.