Solutions: A How-To Guide for Citizens in a Dying Empire ~~ Maxwell

Let me package a "solution" for you in nice and pretty, American-style,

wrapping. All slick and shiny and ready for you to take home.

I really hope that's not what you expect when you ask for some "solution." The mere

asking of this question betrays a lack of understanding of the fundamental issue here:

That in order to find a "solution", or is it THE SOLUTION®, you must completely remove

yourself from the false reality that you have accepted through the years. This in and of itself

is a difficult task, and most people who sincerely want to "help the earth", “change the world”,

etc. die never understanding this. This is why so many feel hopeless about not being able

to create meaningful change in our society. Stuck looking for solutions based upon the same

platform that caused the problems that you seek to “resolve” keep you trapped on the

American political merry-go-round forever circling to exactly nowhere. There is no political

solution within the current capitalist economic/political framework.

Strength in humility is a myth. Passive denial of the enormity of the

problems that confront us and the radical solutions needed to address

these, while understandable in light of all the devastation being

visited upon the Earth by developers, corporate greed heads and a

largely acquiescent populace, is still an indefensible and repugnant

position.

As long as women and African-Americans were nice humble and passive

what did they get? Nothing. Unless you count subjugation and servitude as

something. Would those in power one day have awakened one day in a particularly

genial and loving mood having experienced some psycho-spiritual transformation

and said, "You are so nice and humble I'm going to allow you to vote, own property

and while we're at it let's throw in equal pay?"

Dream on.

It took suffragettes and civil rights activists being insistent, unpleasantly arrogant,

unrelenting and a willingness to risk what little they did have to attain the few

freedoms that are "allowed" today. This meant laying their bodies on the line.

Those who are destroying our earth and our communities at breakneck speed

are as humble and caring as barracudas, with all apologies to the more gentle

piscine creatures, and will not easily or at all relinquish their stranglehold on the

gasping planet or your neck.

What it will take is nothing short of large scale purposeful sustained

direct actions that bring the system to a halt. This means tremendous

sacrifice. This means discomfort. In this there is the inevitably of personal risk.

The only remedy will be when people begin to get interested in taking

back active control of the processes that rule their lives and work with

each other rather than crossing their fingers and heading off to the

ballot box.

DEMANDS:

1) Universal Single Payer Health Care

2) Promotion/Development of Local Food Systems

3) Government subsidized heating programs

4) 90% Reduction In Military Budget

5) Immediate Development Of Nationwide Mass Transit System

6) Immediate Withdrawal Of US Troops From All Parts Of The Globe

7) Triple The Taxes For Anyone Making Over $150,000/ Year. Sliding Scale Tilting Upwards

8) Immediate Dissolution Of All Federal Banking Systems followed by Creation Of Local Currencies

9) Free Housing for the poor- Elimination Of Rent/Mortgage

10) Fair Trials For All War Crimes Committed by Congress and the White House

11)Elimination of all Free Trade Agreements

12) Worker control

Naturally when I skip into my polling place and look for these issues on

the ballot I'll be aroused and gleeful to pull that lever "in favor of"

but lacking that I’d say it’s time for direct action.

HOW TO DO IT:

- Massive boycotts and a general strike.

- A huge 'None of the above' vote-reform campaign

Slowly, people ARE waking up and beginning to ask the important

questions, connecting the dots. But its going to take a huge groundswell

of people to compel essential change, for issues of social justice and

political/economic accountability, environmental stewardship and sustainable

development, etc.

We could learn a lot from the Bolivarian Revolution.

[Before getting to the meat of this, let me pause for a moment, to offer

a word in defense of righteous anger. There is a certain legitimacy to

raw anger. Anger is a correct & reasonable first response to injustice.

By itself, it is an inadequate response to injustice. But it is an excellent

foundation on which more constructive responses can be built.

And, on the other hand, the most paralyzing & crippling response

towards great injustice, is docile acceptance. THAT is what the filthy

Evilcrats & their apologists are all about — getting you to somehow

resign yourself to corporatists & warmongering imperialists, who

however (like Obama, Warren, Sanders) are skilled in the use of ‘uplifting’ language.]

OK, now the meat. We are at a time in our nation’s history where the

political system is breaking down. It is no ordinary time. Mechanisms

that have sufficed since the 1930’s are now failing.

There is zero chance that our system can be fixed through the

officially-approved mechanisms. Whether overtly recognized or not,

there’s a war going on — the US ruling class against all the rest of us.

It’s essentially a class war. The rulers want you to remain a Democrat,

because the D’s are a ruling-class institution, whose job is guiding the

Dem half of the populace in paths that are safe for the rulers. To remain a

Dem voter, and to swallow whatever slop the party dishes up, is to passively

assent to this arrangement.

Therefore, your primary focus should be on resisting & criticizing the system,

not on adapting yourself to it. You should be talking with your friends & family

about the very real things that are wrong. You should be trying to make whatever

contribution you can to elevating political consciousness. Accepting the slop of the

Dem Party is the opposite of all that: it deadens political consciousness, & only makes

your enemies stronger.

Voting for candidates only works when there are decent candidates — but that’s

not our situation. We betray ourselves if we fail to recognize

that.

“Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an

obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the

attempt to impose American hegemony.”

- Noam Chomsky

Looking at it historically, the “solution” has to be a break from the officially-approved

mechanisms. It must have the form of a broad movement based on the interests of

the bottom 80-90% of the population, rather than on the interests of the top 1%. It has

to be what they call “radical” politics — something that big business and the media are

definitely not going to like.

The 2 parties are really just a mechanism of social control. They’re not

a way for “the people” to express their will; they’re a way for rulers

to control the people — partly by making them believe that they (the peeps) have

some say (which they don’t). Building a movement to oppose this takes time. But its

sine qua non is political consciousness — the type that socialists understand & try to cultivate;

and that the big-business parties & media try to suppress & eradicate.

We need Latin American-style "socialist" revolution in the streets,

complemented by effective traditional political organizing, social-class

based. Genuine socialism is good. An honest look at history shows that

it's what the ruling class truly fears.

(This from a post made by Maxwell from around 2012)