After "Occupy" -- What Next?

"Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters." -- Bob Dylan

Non-violent revolution

America needs a second revolution. Our grievances today are every bit as complete and pervasive as those that caused the split with King George. But technological advances in warfare and the concentration of armed might that the U.S. government could bring to bear against a true insurrection combine to make armed revolution a suicidal endeavor. Additionally, humanity has learned through recent experience (Korea, Viet-Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan) that war brings unnecessary grief, destroys infrastructure, bankrupts the participants and creates smoldering enmities between peoples.

This leads to the absolute necessity for non-violent revolution. When entrenched systemic attack on the people comes to affect 99% of the populace, the only discussion left is "How do we regain citizen control of our nation?"

3 points to consider

1)  Keep the Constitution. Study the writing of the founding documents, the debates, the history of the concepts we adopted. Refresh and revive the spirit of our nation's beginning.

2)  Recognize that our government has become corrupted. The two party system of Republicans and Democrats no longer offers a choice of philosophies. Change your voter registration to independent, unaffiliated, or a third party.

3)  Work to return power to the citizenry. The robber barons and white-collar criminals wish to divide us with the false dichotomy of "right and left." They represent a dynamic of elitism that would best be described as "up versus down" -- moneyed power brokers shaking down an indentured working class -- this should be what we address!

Corollaries

By changing one's voter registration to anything but Republican or Democrat, eventually only those who are "part of the problem" -- on the take, grooming for a position of undue influence, currying favor within the party's power structure -- only those will remain. Power will shift to the "uncommitted" vote.

If we learn from history and renew the lessons taught by great thinkers, it should become apparent that perpetual warfare (war on terror, war on drugs, war for resources) and interference with the internal politics of other sovereign nations is counter-productive and results in crimes against humanity.

We must rescind "corporate personage" and purge our governance of the undue influence of lobbyists and ruling class conspiracies. End artificial subsidies, tax havens and foreign ownership of U.S. resources and property.

We must find a way to provide more than subsistence wages, manufacture and purchase goods by and for our own labor force.

The difference between socialism and rational compassion

The majority of people who embrace moral principles and retain a sense of compassion will agreeably care for their brothers and sisters, their fellow citizens, fellow humans. A properly administered retirement income program and a medical care system that realistically and cost-effectively provides for all can be instituted at manageable cost to the individual. Costs become prohibitive only when waste, corruption and indiscriminate profit-taking become rampant in every sphere. This is why citizens balk at providing for the less fortunate and "socialism" becomes a dirty word.

We are the Peaceful Center

Those in power seek to perpetuate that power. The purvey of the despot is to decrease education, increase taxation, engage in excessive profit-taking, commit our youth to wars of commerce and obfuscate the true nature of their control. This is aggression toward the very populace they should be serving. Those of us who awaken and see through the smoke screen are righteously aggravated and agitated, but great care must be taken to avoid alienating possible allies. Avoid violence, both physical and verbal. Stand up and be counted, carry placards, write. Protest mightily, continue to demonstrate. Our cause is just, we are many. We are the peaceful center.

-- Don Baraka

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that... instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the hater but you do not murder hate. In fact violence merely increases hate. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."  -- Martin Luther King