Forum Post: What force can stop us??????????????????
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 5, 2011, 8:20 a.m. EST by therising
(6643)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The people are rising. Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.
Bongo Jerry, the great Rastafarian poet, put it this way:
The only force that can stop us is us, if we succomb to divisiveness. Therfore let us try to include as many people as possible, so long as they agree that they are tired of their lives being micromanaged by a craven, violent and ignorant elite!
I'm with you. Right on GypsyKing. Here's the weird part though. When you get right down to it, the 1% aren't really happy as a result of all this plundering. I know many of them. Some of the biggies. And any happiness they have doesn't come from the wealth that came from all the destructions of lives and the environment. That's really the saddest part of all. All his human, animal and environmental misery is done in the name of hoarding wealth that mostly isn't used. It's just stored and passed on.
And when it is used, it's used for junk. Granted, their junk is bigger, fancier and more long lasting than ours but the key point I'm trying to make is that the buzz they get from it quickly fades. So it becomes an addiction just like any other addiction. They're going after the dopamine buzz and it gets harder and harder to get it.
If they're lucky, they come to their wits end and discover family, art, life, whatever. But most don't, the poor saps. Their extravagant resources enslave them as much as our lack of resources enslaves us. Maybe moreso.
It seems strange to say but we need compassion for them too. We really do. For our own good and theirs too. The reason they're plundering the world is that they're lost.
There's a move in Aikido where, when your opponent aggresses towards you, you take a slight step to the side. Then, instead of aggressing towards him, you move with him and "help him to the ground where he'll be safer." It's remarkable because you use his energy. You harness it. And you do it with the true motivation of helping him. I agree with others who say that all power flows from that mindset and approach.
@therising : Excellent reply! And the Aikido analogy was poetic as is the style itself.
The world is on a cusp of social evolution and just as in any birth process there is both pain and joy. It is the birth trauma we hear from those who resist the inevitable. All we need to do is make the transition as comfortable as possible for everyone, and that includes the 1 %.
I love the way you think Idaltu! I agree with others that actively nonviolent resistance ala the genius Gene Sharp (plus King and Gandhi and a little abbey Hoffman sprinkled in) is the way to go.
Yes, yes, isn't it insane! We are all trapped in a system that doesn't really make ANYBODY happy, like sleepwalkers in some petty, two-bit nightmare of our own creation, and all we have to do is just WAKE UP!
That is totally it I think. Rage Against the Machine was shouting it at the top of their lungs in the early 90's. We need those guys on an armored flatbed U2 style traveling the streets of major metropolitan area and small towns. "WWWWWWWAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WWWWWWWAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WWWWWWWAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every "successful" man I have ever known has been miserable, spending their whole lifes worrying, in a constant rage because something wasn't going their way, sometimes abussive towards their own family, and all for what? We have the machines to set us all free from this madness, even the 1%, if we just open our eyes!
Every step of the way we chose more money rather than more leisure time. There is a Puritanical "work ethic" issue at work here. They've built that into us.
Yes, average worker productivity has risen about 300% since 1960, and real wages (adjusted for inflation) have fallen to half what they were then. Maybe it's time we all took an overdue vacation.
Damn right!
It all comes down to how one measures "success".
Good point
Yeah! We're like passengers on a runaway train, so high on some drug that we just stare out the window in a stupor and wait for it to crash! It's really collective madness!
We think it's complicated because there are so many KINDS of exploitation and so many TYPES of stuff to buy with the money that comes from the exploitation. So it all seems mystifying and we're all in a fog of exploitation and stuff.
But it boils down to this: There's just:
exploitation and
stuff that comes as reward for being an exploiter
The exploitation has terrible affect on environment and our lives.
The stuff we buy as exploiters gives us small fleeting dopamine rush but the buzz wears off even before the stuff wears out.
But there is another way. We can follow James Baldwin's advice and "step out of the lie and the trap of our history and be, just be."
It was Baldwin who said "They see the light in the eyes. It is the only light there is in this world and it is always there, waiting to be found."
Thanks
Cheers!
nice Aikido analogy
Hopefully we can bust that move :)
There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
Arrest House of Rothschild Rockefeller,Bush1,2 for crimes against humanity,mass murder,genocide,war profiteering,market manipulation,bribery,extortion,High Treason,these are the ones who own the politicians and media, control the money supply and care not who is president or Queen..Who controls the money supply controls the world.. Seize their assets,estimated 500 trillion dollars,distribute to the people of the world,the ones these transnationals stole it from.. Cancel the debt,it is a fake debt,based on fake currency. Fire many people in Congress,The Supreme Court,charge them with treason,for printing 50 trillion dollars,bailing out the richest companies and people worldwide,giving bonuses to the very people who bankrupted the world economy,stick us with the bill at 5% interest..This bailout cost us $100,000 for every man woman and child..Travesty at best,High Treason more like..
power to the people, please take a look and see if you agree: http://occupywallst.org/forum/i-demand-informed-direct-democracy-online-whos-wit/
Correct, there is no force that can stay the People, there are not enough cops or jails or bullets to stop the craving for freedom and fair treatment.
Let just be sure we don't stop till we control the spending through direct democracy. We must get the books and control the spending and defund our enemies.
Along the way, hopefully we can also show our enemies the goodness of our new way of life, our new way of being. We're going to haw to love them enough to set them right as Martin King would say.