Our corporately owned media has repeatedly reported that the Occupy
Movement is nothing more than a bunch of ragtag, homeless commies,
socialists, and disenfranchised, angry anarchists – hell-bent on a
violent overthrow of our government. Sure, these elements
exist to the tune of about five per cent or less, which is mostly
positive, because any activist movement needs some tough hombres with an
edge. Even Dr. King said you’ve got to challenge and incite
people if you ever hope to bring about radical, fundamental changes that
are so very necessary.
Let’s face it, our media monopoly has
done an excellent job of dividing and dismissing the Occupy movement as
powerless and irrelevant. And eighteen mayors, led by the
richest 1% of them all, “mendacious Mike” in NYC, conspired together to
delete eighteen occupied parks in eighteen major cities. Not
having a physically tangible, visible, place to call home and a viable
location for millions of people to visit and volunteer, has severely
hurt our movement, — as intended. Their pernicious “occupy-cleansing”
has been effective and has especially hurt our ability to raise funds.
Round two to the 1%!
Our media’s response to Occupy is
pretty much their stereo-typical reaction to anything outside their
accepted “status quo” – a locked-up, highly dysfunctional and unhealthy
status quo, which quite frankly, is precisely why our country has
“gone-to-hell-in-a- nasty-hand-basket” while our Earth continues to cook
24/7. Our college-trained media knows full well that
large-scale corporate capitalism is unsustainable [based on infinite
debt and infinite growth to pay off that debt] and that it is
systematically poisoning and destroying our only environment and
resource base. Someone ought to ask the 1% what our other options are
besides planet Earth?
Occupy has also been accused of being
too non-descript, as well as too generic, carefree, and uncommitted –
to nothing save a few idyllic goals. Most of this staid media
pabulum is by intentional design called “framing”, but nevertheless, it
is much more difficult for these “truth spinners” to utilize their
“yellow journalism” to destroy our movement when they can’t clearly
define and control it. Kudos to Occupy!
In truth, Occupy stands for the most
important human and American values of all, which is precisely why the
1% must “rally around Americana, infinite jobs and growth, and
large-scale corporate capitalism” to defeat us. As more and
more Americans become well-informed, stop being hoodwinked, and begin to
awaken en masse, our Occupy Movement will suddenly flourish and
explode. This is the “American Spring” that we must have in order to win
our war against the evil 1%. Wealthy, powerful people who don’t care
about our Earth or its people are horrendously evil. Anyone in Occupy
who doesn’t understand that this is clearly a war against evil wealth
and power, truly doesn’t realize what we’re up against!
Our cutting edge ideals are true
freedom, equality, justice, a sustainable world economy, and real
participatory democracy, — basic human rights which the 1% have
guaranteed for them- selves only! By the way sports fans, our
“founding fathers” never intended for America to be a true democracy,
only a nefariously representative Republic that they, the white wealthy
men, could control and dominate. And they have done a marvelous job of
implementing that insidious intention, because a horrific lack of an
independent President, Congress, and Supreme Court is incessantly
wrecking our planet and destroying our once great country. Do
you realize that labor wages have been flat since 1980 while
executive/white collar salaries have increased by several hundred per
cent? Do you realize that over 30 million Americans are unemployed,
another 30 million are under-employed, over 7 million have lost their
homes, and over five million are homeless or in prison. And how many of
our college students have $50,000-$100,000 or more debts? But don’t
worry, “all boats will be rising soon” with big capitalism.
Global-Warming-Burning/Climate-Change
presents the Occupy Movement with a fabulous opportunity to move into
perfect alignment with the most critical issue in the history of human
civilization. More and more Americans are now waking up fast
today to the realization that our Earth is in a severe crisis that
threatens all life on Earth and that “business as usual” is making
things much worse every day. The vast majority of climate
scientists now firmly believe that we are definitely headed
for a double crash, ecological and economic, of cosmic proportions!
Our atmosphere is being continuously
poisoned and heated with toxic greenhouse gases, our oceans are being
trashed with toxic waste, plastic bags, oil spills, and pernicious
carbonic acid, while our tropical forests and farmlands are clear-cut
and fracked. And it’s all being committed in the holy,
untouchable name of infinite economic growth and jobs. If our
corporately bought politicians would transfer $300 billion from their
sacred cow, the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex, to a 100
percent Renewable Energy Revolution and a Green Jobs Program, we could
create ten million new jobs over the next decade and stop Global Warming
in its charcoal burnt tracks!
Last January, the General Assembly of
QWS in NYC, passed a monumental resolution expressing their deep
concern and veracious commitment to Earth’s environment, our only
resource base: “We are now at a very dangerous tipping-point in
history! The destruction of our planet and climate change is
almost at a point of no return.” OWS’s [NYC] resolution links
climate destruction to the shift in political power that lies at the
heart of Occupy. ‘We must reclaim our democracy to protect our
planet!’” OWS’s Direct Action operating group is targeting
all toxic fossil and non-renewable fuels and is being spearheaded by a
group called ’99 for Earth’. The OWS’s resolution also calls
for “connecting the dots between the 1% and the destruction of our
planet. At one end of the chain are specific depredations on
specific environments: ‘Our mountains in Appalachia are blasted; our
drinking water in the Northeast is threatened by fracking; our American
heartland is charted for an oil pipeline [with the dirtiest possible
tar-sands oil in Alberta, Canada, that will be shipped to South Korea
and China], and our forests in the Northwest are targeted for further
deforestation [while the Obama administration continues to approve more
and more oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico, even after the
recent BP disaster that spewed over 200 million gallons of toxic oil
into the water]. Connect the dots and you’ll find that the
corporate destruction of the Earth’s [biosphere] and climate have been
‘financed by the 1%’ and that a ‘ small group of polluting businesses’
have hijacked our political system for their own benefit,” says Jeremy
Brecher, a founder for the Labor Network For Sustainability and author
of more than a dozen books on labor and social history. 1
It’s of absolute importance that the
Occupy Movement get seriously involved with the
Global-Warming-Burning/Climate-Change movement right because many top
climate scientists believe we have already gone past the “tipping-point”
and are now running on toxic fumes only. Dr. Jim Hansen,
Bill McKibben, and others have made the seminal point that this very
moment in history, 2012, is arguably the most significant juncture in
Earth’s evolution!
“ ‘Sometimes facing up to the truth
is just too hard! When the facts are distressing it is easier
to reframe or ignore them [and stay in one’s comfort zone while doing
nothing]. Around the world only a few have truly faced up to the facts
about global warming. Apart from the climate skeptics, most
people do not disbelieve what the climate scientists have been
saying about the calamities expected to befall us. But
accepting intellectually [too easily dismissed ethereal thoughts] is not
the same as accepting emotionally [in one’s heart and gut], the
possibility that the world as we know it is heading for a horrible
end. It’s the same with our own deaths; we all accept that we
will die, but it is only when death is imminent that we confront the
true meaning of our mortality.’
‘Over the last five years, almost
every advance in climate science has painted a more disturbing picture
of the future. The reluctant conclusion of the most eminent
climate scientists is that the world is now on a path to a very
unpleasant future and it is too late to stop it. No one is
willing to say publicly what the climate science is telling
us: that we can no longer prevent Global Warming that will
this century [or even by 2050] bring about a radically transformed
world…a world that is much more hostile to the survival and flourishing
of life. As I will show [in this book], this is no longer an
expectation of what might happen if we do not act soon; this will happen
even if the most optimistic assessment of how the world might respond
to the climate disruption is validated,” says Clive Hamilton, author of
“Requiem For A Species.”2
Anyone with half a dinosaur’s brain
who’s done the intense research, knows the draconian truth and is not
about to be put-off by climate change naysayers and
deniers. Our “goose is cooked” –
literally! Americans must wake-up now, vacate their Pollyanna
comfort zones, and join an “Occupy” group some place in America to
participate in Direct, Non-Violent, Civil Disobedience
Action. The honest challenge before us today is to see how
well we can pull together in unity and solidarity to be effective and
impactful agents for significant change. How much of this
Global-Warming-Burning/Climate-Change crisis can we successfully
mitigate, and really fast? This is the omnipotent challenge
now raging and burning before us all right now.
“As the Occupy Movement evolves from a
wave of encampments to new forms of a densely networked, virtual and
face-to-face political community, its concern with Climate Change and
environmental devastation is growing and converging with activism aimed
more directly at the economic depredations of the 1 per cent. That
convergence may be crucial for the future of the Occupy
story. The Occupy Movement is about reclaiming
the future for people who have had their chances rubbished by
three decades of global neo-liberalism and austerity. But it’s not just
about paycheck economics. The destruction of the climate [the air our
children breathe] and the environment [our only true home] are an
integral part of the neoliberal world order. [Perhaps it is
true that ‘the new world order desires to eradicate 80% of the world’s
population’?]. The same corporations, banks, and financial
institutions that destroyed the economy are destroying our global
environment, — for pure greed! The struggle to preserve the Earth
and its atmosphere [biosphere] is, by necessity, a struggle against
those forces,” Brecher says.
Occupy would be wise and mature to
adapt a new mantra: “The police are not the enemy – the 1%
are!” Anyone who fails to get the reality that we are engaged
in a death knoll battle against the darkest, most forbidding, and most
penurious forces of evil, is a badly deceived fool. The
police are the mercenary tools and lackeys of the 1%, but are mostly
slaves and serfs as we are. Occupy must make every
intentional effort to constantly convince the police that they are being
co-opted, controlled, and psychologically manipulated into doing “the
master’s dirty work”. Eons of history tell us that kings,
dictators, tyrants, and the wealthy, privileged few, have always acted
in precisely this fashion. Therefore, if we are truly
committed to winning this war against the evil 1%, we must absolutely
win over the police to our side. Nice challenge, eh!
The notion that “violence only
creates more violence and only encourages the police to react more
violently, and never works, is mostly true,– but not
totally! The Black Panthers held the police to a standoff.
There may come a point in this revolution of great ideas and great
potential solutions when violence will become our only option. There
certainly are limits to how far we can allow the 1 % to decimate our
only planet and wreck total havoc on our economic lives
too. No one in their right mind wishes for such a terrible
confrontation because all wars mostly kill everyone. Remember, one
million Americans died in our Civil War and it was incredibly bloody!
Nevertheless, it may become necessary at some point to pick up a gun and
fight. About five per cent of our Colonists decided they had to fight
against Great Britain to regain their freedom from the yoke of economic,
political, and military oppression. Today, We the People are
being severely oppressed and threatened with
Global-Warming-Burning/Climate Change, as well as economic, political,
and the military oppression of two more atrocious, unnecessary wars that
will end up costing us five trillion dollars. Is the future
wellbeing of your children and grandchildren worth fighting
for? I suggest you ask yourself that salient question.
If you haven’t read “The First
American Revolution by Ray Raphael, buy it ASAP! I can give
you a 1,001 prime examples where violence was used to stop violence, —
our Revolutionary War and World War II being just two excellent
examples. A third example was when the people of Western
Europe grew furious at the Vikings annual rampages of raping, killing,
and plundering, and decided to lie in hiding and
attack. Guess what? After two more seasons of
attacks, all Viking raids ceased.
Sooner or later, all bullies,
despots, and 1 % exploiters need to be faced down and fought, to the
death if necessary. Anyone who thinks we will be able to
negotiate with the tyrant rich are operating in “la la
land”. They have most of the money and power and will never
condescend to negotiate with a mere “rabble-in-arms”. We’re
nothing except slaves and trash to them. All bullies and the
vast majority of the wealthy 1 per cent are into power-dominance to
control, and all bullies like most of the 1 per cent are evil
doers. They are evil because they are taking so much more
than they need, leaving billions of others starving, thirsting, and
destitute, and even worse, they are intentionally and systematically
raping our Earth for pure greed. If money and greed are the
roots of all evil, then the 1 per cent are the perfect personification!
Again, anyone who fails to realize
that Occupy represents a colossal world battle against the worst
imaginable forces of evil, has his or her head totally in the
sand. The most dangerous disease is not cancer, it’s a
terminable case of cranial-rectimitis. Edmund Burke said it
best: “All good men need do for evil to succeed, — is NOTHING!”
Once again, while I remain in favor
of every conceivable form of courageous non-violent civil
disobedience/direct action, as well as many creative, impactful forms of
social change action, — I also realize that “there are definite limits”
to how much more We the People can take. While our Earth’s only
environment is incessantly laid waste for greed, and for oil, water,
food, land, gold and power, — how long do We the People dare
wait before we pick up a gun and declare: “NO MASSE!”
At some point we must insist on a new
national election and elect an independent President, Congress, and
Supreme Court, or, at the very least, a majority of Independents to
Congress. We fought The Revolutionary War to become
independent, but we’ve now allowed ourselves to become prisoners of a
very rotten, two-party oligarchy that no longer represents us
effectively. We the People can also demand that a new
peoples’ empowerment law be passed: The National Citizens’
Initiative For Democracy which would allow us to pass two or three laws
of our own choosing each year by majority vote, the first time in 236
years that we wound actually have any real participatory democracy. This
would allow us to complement our Congress, not replace it. To register
and sign up in favor of this great new opportunity, go to
www.nci4d.org. Our
“founding fathers” – all white males who were wealthy merchants or
wealthy land holders or both, specifically wrote our Constitution so
they could power-dominate to control, and they have, quite successfully
and ruthlessly. I say this bad shit needs to end NOW!
In “The First
Revolution” – the good, courageous people of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts finally said “no masse” after Great Britain passed the
Massachusetts Government Act in which the Colonists forfeited control of
their own parliament and courts among other dear freedoms, and began to
act with intentional violence to protect themselves. And
their violence was totally understandable and
justified. Killing other people isn’t the worst
crime: Lacking the courage necessary to rise-up and overcome
evil is!
Guess what happened to those
Colonists who had the courage to use violence to overcome the violence
that was being perpetuated against them? Because they had the
backing of many people who were totally fed up and disgusted with the
oppressive acts, writs, laws, provisions, regulations, and
oppressions of the British Empire, their violence was incredibly
effective and impactful. We the People kicked these evil,
oppressive tyrants out of Massachusetts – and eventually out of our
America – forever! So Thomas Jefferson is
right: Every so often We the common People need to conduct a
revolution, like a good thunderstorm, and cleanse the land of its putrid
stench. Today the stench of greed and power is pretty damn
stultifying on Wall Street, in our big banks, brokerages, hedge funds,
large corporations, national governments, and even in many colleges,
universities, and other major institutions. Truthfully, today our
America is way out of economic, environmental, ethical, and spiritual
alignment.
Right now, Occupy is only a
revolution of accusations, grievances, and bold new ideas, along with a
lot of courageous/creative direct actions. We must greatly expand
these endeavors and “Occupy America” physically wherever and whenever we
possibly can. My new not-for-profit, an educational/activist
organization, the National Alliance Of Concerned Americans For The
Wellbeing Of All People And Earth (
www.ethicalwarrioractivists.org)
is committed and dedicated to creating and implementing 5,000 new
activist organizations in every city, town, and neighborhood in
America. You can support this most worthy and necessary
endeavor by going on-line and taking a $25 annual supporting
membership. I believe it is only through massive American
citizen protests that We the People will be able to elect an independent
Congress and get really strong, significant Climate Change legislation
passed. Since we have already moved beyond a perilous
ecological “tipping-point”, the fate of our planet and our civilization
are truly in the hands of her people–and the sand in the hour glass is
running out!
Although it’s encouraging and
necessary for our Occupy movement to increase, expand, and accelerate
its network, both virtually and through face-to-face political/social
interactions, we must also continue to occupy as many parks, streets,
and other public/private areas as possible. After spending 7 weeks
camped out in Zoucotti Park, I grew to realize how important a physical,
tangible place actually is. Why? Because our
body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit all need a physical place to call
home and because mainstream America needs a physical – heart and guts
place – to visit, encourage, and celebrate. I will never
forget the beautiful fall day at Zoucotti Park in 2011 when tens of
thousands of ordinary Americans stopped by to thank “We the Occupiers”
and to make a sweet donation. That day was truly heart-felt
and inspiring!
As the Occupy movement evolves from a
wave of encampments to new forms of a densely networked, virtual and
face-to-face political community, its concern with Climate Change and
environmental devastation is growing and converging with activism aimed
more directly at the economic depredations of the 1%. That
convergence may be crucial for the future of the Occupy movement, and
for the planet. Climate and environmental concerns fit
naturally into the Occupy story,” Brecher says.
Occupy has emphatically signaled that
the second American Revolution is definitely underway! The
battle lines in the sand have been clearly drawn and the 1%, including
President Obama and his minions, know this truth. Starting
right now, today, — we must employ every conceivable form of non-violent
civil disobedience first, before we are compelled to fight in order to
eviscerate the evil 1% who are destroying our Earth and oppressing 3.5
billion people living on less than $2 per day. Approximately 50 million
people are dying from thirst, bad water diseases, and starvation every
year. The 1% do not care about these people or the millions
and millions of plant and animal species that are systematically
becoming extinct every year.
If tens of millions of American
citizens can find the courage to step-up and step-out, — into our
streets, — to protest loud and long while occupying, –I do believe we
can bring about the necessary transformation of our severely
dysfunctional, two-party oligarchy and the large-scale corporate
capitalist system that owns it. And it is this evil, large-scale
corporate cancer which is systematically ravaging our only environment
for unprecedented greed. Small-business capitalism together with profit
making cooperatives, not-for-profit cooperatives, and barter and trade
options, could be molded into a mixed-bag economy that is healthy,
sustainable, and much more equitable. A sustainable economy
equals survival, but as long as the 1% are allowed to power-dominate and
rule, a sustainable world economy is simply not possible. We
must remind the 1% every day at every opportunity, that Mars is not an
option!
Our Occupy movement itself must wake-up ASAP to fully and
clearly understand the colossal evil monster that it faces and what it
will take to win. With the fate of our Earth and civilization
at stake, failure is simply not an affordable option. We the
People must win and we will!
Obviously, We the 99% have a very
formidable challenge facing us! Our “founding fathers” and
Colonists also had a very grave and formidable challenge facing them and
they prevailed. Here are some memorable quotes of
encouragement to help see us through this most difficult struggle which
absolutely must be won by 2020 or all life on Earth is totally doomed!
George Washington reminds us that all
political parties are a very bad idea [and aren’t mentioned in our
Constitution]. Why? Because they seek power for
themselves – first, last, and always. Total power corrupts –
totally!”
Ben Franklin reminds us that: “The government you get is the government you deserve!”
John Adams reminds us that: “Sometimes the yoke of oppression can only be lifted by fighting to overcome it!”
Noam Chomsky reminds us that: “Freedom without opportunity is a
devil’s gift, and the refusal to provide such opportunities is
criminal!”
Marcus Arruda reminds us that: “Global capitalism, with its
single-minded desire to consume, fails to fulfill the deepest
aspirations of humanity as a whole and of each individual!”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that: “Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility!”
Thomas Paine reminds us that: “The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth!”
Gandhi reminds us that: “Recall the face of the poorest and weakest
[person] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you
contemplate will be of any use to him or her. Will he gain
anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his or
her own life and destiny?”
George Orwell reminds us that: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act!”
Sam Adams reminds us that: “If you love wealth [or your comfort
zone] better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We
ask not your counsel or arms. Crouch down [you tyrant lackey]
and lick the hands that feed you. May your chains set
lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were once our
countryman!”
Thomas Jefferson reminds us that: “Whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of (its) ends, it is the right of the People to
alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to affect their own Safety and Happiness!”
Captain Dougars reminds us that: “There may come a time when one
realizes – in his or her deepest ‘heart of hearts’ – that evil must be
faced and fought – even unto death. In that moment of
universal truth, may Providence grant me the courage to risk my own life
for freedom, justice, and equality, — and the protection and wellbeing
of our Earth!”
1 “Jeremy Brecher:
Occupying Climate Change,” The Nation, April 2, 2012, pp. 21-22.
2 Hamilton, Clive, “Requiem For A Species,” Earthscan, New York, 2010, pp. x-xi.
