by Scott Creighton (reposted from jan. 31)
The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.
George Washington
Over the course of the past 60 years, great leaders and average men have suffered and perished for the cause of liberty and equality all across this nation and the world. Leaders who attempted to reform the corrupt foundations of their savage-capitalist systems were falsely accused, imprisoned, or simply killed, to make way for the new robber-barons of the global elite.
The campaign for “democracy” is a war to spread slave-wages to millions and unrestricted free-market profits to a few.
Slavery is no longer a question of owning the man, but rather subjugating his dreams as well as the reality that bears them out.
They no-longer seek to enslave races…now they enslave nations. But a growing number of opposition will not lay down and the servants of the system will not back down.
The hard time approaches.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Frederick Douglas
Ours is a just, quiet war. This war is yours and mine, and here are but a few of our soldiers; but where am I.
The war will not be televised nor glorified nor rightly reported for all to see.
Ours is a war of priciple and instinct; of empathy and justice; of moral obligation and basic human rights.
Who are we here to serve?
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The law will never make men free, it is men that have to make the law free.
Henry David Thoreau
The struggle is epic in scope to be fought for the very souls of men. To live as slaves, even house slaves, in a caustic system of inequality and oppression is no legacy to pass on to our children.
Power never takes a back step only in the face of more power.
Malcolm X
As they draw up sides and we watch from afar we must decide where we stand and with whom we will place the trust of our future dreams. A man who has found nothing worth dying for has nothing to live for.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Frederick Douglas
Filed under: Globalization, Iraq, Regime Change
I am on the side of freedom, liberty and democracy — for all.
In fact, I demand it.
I demand that more people demand freedom, liberty and democracy for everyone.
To understand freedom, true freedom, one must look within. For Fear is the Great Oppressor.
Master Fear, and no one can Master you.
“Over the course of the past 60 years, great leaders and average men have suffered and perished for the cause of liberty and equality”
Read “Up From Eden.” This condition has existed for the past 100,000 years, ever since man-unkind became conscious of death. Our entire systems of government and religion have evolved to what they are today from the fear of death. We have eaten of the tree of knowledge, and know that we will cease to exist in this realm. We shrink in horror at that understanding, and, paradoxically, fear to eat of the tree of life.
And equality. How could I forget equality?
How do you like the first picture?
with fava beans, and a little chianti.
The cop is scared shitless… can’t look him in the eyes
Great, great photo, the first one. Great job, willy.
Now, the struggles are nothing new. The ruling class use several tools to keep people oppressed: the US ruling class uses a lot of propaganda. Fear and Consumption is the driving key in order to get the system going (the system that ruling class wants) I would hardly find some black single mother working triple shifts, saying the system is working.
These struggles are unescapable. There is no way the ruling class will step down without violence. This is a social human constant.
juanc. I disagree. just like they have sold us this form of capitalism as a given and as the best system to have, I think that the “social human constant” is the exact opposite.
otherwise, why would they spend so much time trying to convice us we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, when we don’t?
because the constant is what they are working to avoid in order to facilitate their profit and control.
how many other countries do not use this model of savage capitalism as their system? See SickO? Unlimited sick-days, maternity leasve for a year, universal health care, workers rights puts ours to shame (of course the European Union is doing it’s best to wear that system down as well).
Sweden, UAE? Lot’s out there put our system to shame…
it is not the way of things because of human nature…it is this way here because we have accepted it.
and it looks like there are some of us who are no longer willing to do so.
Juan,
You’re on the right track. Fear and Consumption. Do you not realize Consumption breeds Fear? One of the greatest Fears is the Fear of Poverty. Yet we are driven by our culture to consume to excess, to be indebted to the capacity to pay. And when that capacity is diminished through illness, or injury, bankruptcy ensues. However, this indebtedness keeps us slaves to our corporate masters. For sudden job loss will also cause bankruptcy, as most people cannot survive a month without a paycheck.
Next, I take exception to your assertion, “These struggles are unescapable. There is no way the ruling class will step down without violence. This is a social human constant.”
First, the struggles are escapable. Give up Fear. Give up being controlled by possessions.
Second, replacing the ruling class through violence, still results in a ruling class. Only the names will have changed.
Finally, although the necessity for a ruling class has been a social human constant for the past 100,000 years, that equation is changing. If our species survives its collective adolescence, we will outgrow the need for a ruling class.
Enlightenment will spread. It is inevitable.
These specific struggles are new. I wrote 60 years, for a reason. These are the same post WWII military industialists, oil barons, and global banking companies that used the CIA, CFR, and their influence within the beltway, to change every aspect of our way of life.
They pushed the cold war with “Team B”, and the gas shortages in the early ’70s. They helped arrange the October Surprize and the mythology that made Reagan the defeater of the Soviet Empire and the “genius” of the “supply side trickle down” lie. From Standard Oil to the Trans Afhgan pipeline; from the Gulf of Tonkin to the anthrax scare.
I said 60 years for a reason. Not an abstract concept of ‘haves vs have nots”, but clear and present danger, that we are tired of ignoring.
Willy, I understand. But these specific struggles are but the symptom of the underlying disease. Those in power will keep you battling the symptoms…they are a distraction, something to keep the masses preoccupied and controlled.
Read the book I suggested. Then read Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions, by Richard Bach.
When you make a cloud disappear, contact me at Briseadh_na_Faire@yahoo.com.
You asked me to let you know what I think, and I have done so. I do not disagree with you, I merely offer you another way to see.
Peace and Blessings.
Fair enough BnF.
“Let’s begin with level flight…”
Fletcher Gull….
To travel as fast as thought, you must begin by knowing you have already arrived.
I wonder if the cop can’t look the guy in the eyes because he agrees with him — but must do his job.
That’s a good observation Zooey. The guy on the right seems to have a certainty about why he is there, and the other man doesn’t.
willy, the social constant I was speaking is the way working class aquires or achieves its goals. The only way is by violence.
See also, 1984.
The framers of the Constitution sought a way to allow the working class a method other than violence. Even then, there were constraints; the electoral college, the indirect election of Senators. Jefferson’s hope for the working class lay in education. But even he recognized that education was too potent to be given over to the federal government.
Early on, business favored education; the common man opposed it. ‘Why should my son know more than me?’ Now, business favors only so much education as is necessary. And if business can obtain an educated workforce without the cost, so much the better: hence, outsourcing.
Unregulated capitalism leads to economic disaster. And globally, we are embarked on a period of unregulated capitalism through such mechanisms as NAFTA. Sooner or later, the global economy will collapse. No one has the courage to rein in the capitalists. And the stage will finally be set. Freedom is slavery.
Willy,
I got the idea of making clouds disappear from Illusions.
First, you must begin by being one with the cloud…
JuanC: During the Civil Rights Movement, I doubt that the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been as successful without the efforts of Malcolm X as well. The civil unrest of that time frightened the general public into recognizing the problem; and of course, Kent St. crystalized it.
The difference is that then the press was independant and news agancies (for the most part) reported the news, rather than filtering it, as they do now. So a relatively small ocurance like Kent St. took on a greater significance whereas today, I feel, it would get lost to the Emmy’s and the OJ stories of the day.
BnF; Agreed. Education is the key to all things for the individual’s growth as well as the stability of the culture. A well informed populace is vital to the health and security of any Republic. That is why these elitist wish to hamper education and the disemination of actual news to the people at large.
I am not sure there is a period in our history that we can compare this form of Global Capitalism to; with the possible exception of the original robber barons of the turn of the 20th century.
When the original Rothchilds and Rockefellers pushed to create the IRS and the Fed Reserve Bank System (not to mention the CFR), their parents had been looking to do it for 30 years, and it was W. Wilson who finally gave in. (he regreted it after he left office).
But you are right; this system, unless maintained by strict authoritarian rule, cannot be maintained over an unwilling populous. See the demonstrations world wide against NAFTA, GATT, CAFTA, WTO, G8 Summit, NAU, EU,…ect.ect.ect.
Naomi Klein talks about this ecconomic model (Milton Freedman, Alan Greenspan) is based on “the ranking of life” and that it is coming to the point that we are going to have to put this system itself on trial.
As I state in “Prescription for a Free Iraq”, this kind of “profit over person” administration is, effectively, treason. Now whether it is written that way now or not (and I argue, it is) in the constitution, we have to come to the point that we see it as such.
An egalitarian system can work in a practical sense along side limited and restricted capitalist notions.
I will be putting up her Youtube talk at the CCPA in the next few days.
if you wish to see the 6 part discussion, you can here:
Willy, thanks for the The Take links. They seem great.
I knew Naomi Klein after her movie: THe Corporation.
If you get achance, check out the link to her speech above…It’s great. she talks about Pinocet and about the Faulkland Islands….
very bright…
Naomi Klein is hot…sorry for the non-intellectual argument.
Damn she is hot! I mean, … damn!
One of your most inspiring posts, Willy. Thank you.
I have to admit, Juan and BnF were right.
This is the most inspiring article, and the most inspiring commenters i’ve ever had the privilidge to be exposed to. Im humbled before you all. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts here tonight.
Considering all the comments are almost a year old, they are still vibrating with today’s concerns. I would disagree with the term ‘class’ as the current ruling factor….. class brings up a level of society…. but the so called rulling group now is not even a class…. they are a group of criminals that are using politics as a ladder to control power and money. They are a group of thieves… who can now force the police and military to do their bidding.
Hi
Can you let me know who the photographer is who took the top photo in this thread. The one of the demonstrator nose to nose with the riot cop.
It’s a tremendous picture and I’d like to make contact with the person who took it in relation to a project I’m currently working on.
Thank you
Al
Hi Al;
Honestly… (and I hate to admit this) I don’t know. I found it doing a standard web crawler search (Dog Pile maybe) for confrontational demonstration images. Let me look around and see if I can find out.
It is a good shot though, isn’t it?