The Bloodless Revolution - Be a Part of it
77The Story So Far
A couple of months ago, I produced a hub called Can We Engineer a Bloodless Revolution?, which struck a chord with many readers. That, in itself, is unexceptional. There is nothing unusual or difficult in whipping up an enthusiastic following. The crowds are already there, waiting in the wings. Here are a few titles that, unless seriously botched, will turn anyone who can type into an overnight success:
- Is Barrack HUSSEIN Obama the Antichrist? What does the Holy Bible say?
- GOP or KKK? Can Anyone Spot the Difference?
- Liberal Today - Communist Tomorrow. It's Time to Man the Barricades!
But are these the mobs you really want at your back? The soundbite generation. The 'great unwashed' of earlier times has given way to the 'great unthinking' of today, who have no use for questions because they have answers, ready made, courtesy of Wholly Owned Media.
What was different about the Bloodless Revolution topic was the diversity of support. It did not tap into a ready made liberal or conservative opinion bank. It did not pander to fundamentalism or atheism. Instead, its thesis was - we are all in this mess together and must get out of it together, or not at all. The tired old partisanship is sterile. We must stop the mud-slinging and take control of our lives.
Particularly gratifying to me was the response of James A Watkins whom most readers will recognise as a champion of the Conservative right. On what I took to be a superficial first read, James assumed the agenda was socialist and came up with a standard off-the-shelf comment. Challenged to reconsider, he did just that. He read the hub four times and his final offering was:
"Not much to disagree with here. What I really like is your Revolutions 1 through 5. Each of those are outstanding ideas that would benefit humankind".
What Happens Next?
It is one thing to write an article; it is quite another to follow it through with action. Many of the comments were, in effect - yes, that's great, now what do we do about it? Well, around the same time, Pam Grundy had started up a blog to campaign for a national strike in America in protest against the unprecedented inequalities in modern society. We decided to join forces, invite a core team of writers, and expand the agenda to encompass the five tenets of the Bloodless Revolution. And so began a cooperative convivial venture called Dropout Nation.
The Dropout Nation Blog
Dropout Nation Welcomes Your Input
We are in the early stages. We are trying to raise awarness, not of ourselves, but of the dire consequences on society and the environment that result from unchecked global corporate expansionism. We are no longer interested, if we ever were, in the traditional battlegrounds of left vs right, black vs white, Muslim vs Christian, man vs woman. All of these are as nothing compared to the unprecedented distortion of the haves vs have-nots.
Of course we would like to see peaceable replacement or realignment of global corporatism, but that's not about to happen soon. In the meantime we are exploring and sharing ways to get on with our lives without them, ways to make them more and more irrelevant in the convivial world of real people.
Hubbers who visit will find lots of familiar faces among the authors and followers we already have. Following is a great idea. You'll be first to know when a new article appears.
Thank you for reading!
Postscript - Within minutes of launching this hub, I came under attack for attacking and even, would you believe, "inciting hatred" towards "the rich". Let's put this in perspective. Around 1970, a political theatre company called 7:84 set up in the UK, with a base called Citizens Theatre in the notorious Glasgow Gorbals district. Why 7:84? From the statistic: 7% of the people of this country own 84% of the wealth. In the late 60s, that inequality was enough to stir people to action. What has happened in the meantime? Does anyone seriously think matters have improved? Deregulation, globailisation and unaccountability have conspired to distort the imbalance to unprecedented levels. I used the phrase "mega-rich" perhaps carelessly, but to refer to those people who control corporations and financial institutions for their own benefit, at the expense of everyone else and without a thought for environmental consequences. If you do not think such people exist, that's fine. Take care!
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Comments
I love the rich. Have you ever asked a poor person for a job?
Nicomp, good point!
Aya, liking or disliking doesn't come into it, and for inciting hatred, that's a gross misrepresentation of my position. These people, or corporate 'persons' in some cases, need to be stopped from doing what they are doing, because we are all suffering, as is the environment.
nicomp - we will always have rich and poor. We have never before had such obscene distortion of the differential. And yes, I have quite often worked as a contractor for people who earn substantially less than I do.
Paraglider, wrong. Show me a poor country that cares about its' environment. Show me the sewers, the clean water, the green factories in the Calcutta, in Soweto.
Thank the rich for their contributions to the economy. Give them your gratitude for the jobs they create, the risks they assume, the taxes they pay.
Paraglider, you are part of the rich! If you work for people that make less than you, then you are exploiting them.
nicomp - I accept that you think I'm wrong. Run along now, won't you?
Paraglider, I'll hang around a tad longer until I change your mind.
Love the rich!!
I have nothing against 'the rich'. Everything is relative. I am richer than some, poorer than some. I have lived long enough and travelled widely enough to see at first hand the social and environmental damage that can be laid at the doorsteps of a small ruthless coterie.
By the way, it is quite normal for contract engineers to earn more than the HR Manager who contracts them. He's not paying with his own money, you see. He works for a corporation on a salary. Not difficult, and no exploitation involved.
Paraglider, it's the government, at least here in the U.S., that has given the average person, of whatever income level, the incentive to over-use natural resources. It isn't rich people, poor people or any particular class of people.
However, by using a term such as "mega-rich" and laying the blame at their feet, you are not uniting your followers under a banner of concern for all equally. Wealth, when you come right down to it, means "savings". Anybody who has a little saved away is frightened by a campaign against wealth.
If you want to save the environment, then support private ownership of land and low -- or no -- property taxes. The higher the property taxes, the more the land will have to be exploited in order to pay them.
For a list of other government incentives for spending and productivity, see my latest hub.
Aya, I know you support almost zero government and almost zero taxation. We don't agree about that. And as I've said repeatedly, I'm not talking about "a little saved away". I'm talking about global corporatism. It does not exist for your benefit or mine. It exists to suck your resources and mine upwards. It has all but destroyed the middle class. The small group of people who control and benefit (hugely) from it are not included in "we're all in this together". They are not queuing up to help fix it, because for them it's not broken.
Paraglider, the thing that has all but destroyed the middle class (and all other classes as well) is the anti-thrift mentality that government intervention has created.
People spend because the government subsidizes it. Industry is encouraged by this. Jobs are created. The environment is depleted of natural resources... It's the Keynsian economists who are driving this with their incentives.
Paraglider...I have to side with Aya on this...her points are reasoned and fundamental...The positioning of an ambiguous group as evil has certain connotations that I really do not wish to associate with you ...
Your plea for peace, equality, and general lets-all-hold-hands-and-sing-Gumbuya is an old one that resonates with the same, time-worn, well meaning folks that I remember shouting " Power to the People " in 1964, in the " Peoples' Park " at UC Bizerkeley... I look at all " social " revolts and note the same result: Cosmetic relief followed by the status quo...
Human nature, being what it is, will always deny a sustainable " equality " in the long term.
Certainly, equality of opportunity is a noble and just cause to defend and pursue, but equality at the expense of another is not equality; it's fascist socialism... another Harrison Bergeron...Larry
Aya, I know that many people share that view. I don't. However,I will, on re-reading change the words 'mega-rich class' (which is more careless than wrong) to something else. Probably multinational corporations.
Hi PG. Sorry this got sucked into the same old vortex.
Instead of arguing political philosophy it would be good to see some bottom-up solutions proposed for some of the bigger problems facing people around the world and exacerbated by the global financial meltdown. Instead of assigning blame, how about some ideas for change?
Maybe I am misunderstanding the discussion, but I feel like all I ever hear lately is "Not my problem." It's hard to admire that perspective. The best response I can muster is a certain disgusted tolerance for it, and that doesn't even come easily.
PGrundy, but I am proposing positive changes. I suggest that we cut out all government incentives for economic activity. I think that when the economy stops being hyperactive we will see gains both in quality of life and environmental conditions. These gains will be for everybody!
Maven - Aya took exception to one word which I have now replaced. I do not wish to imply that all very rich people are evil. But I'm afraid you are doing exactly what is not needed - deciding that I am advocating 'fascist socialism', even though I specifically stated that the old left-right debate is dead. You're setting up and tearing down a straw man. But consider this - the rich poor divide that we were denouncing in the 60s is as nothing compared to th divide of today. I am advocating a bloodless revolution because the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.
Pam - bottom-up initiatives are exactly what we're trying to evolve and share on the blog. Unfortunately here, at hubpages, everything tends to get polarised. To be told in the very first comment that my words are "calculated to incite hatred"... Oh well, that's a first, I suppose, but it left me feeling rather sick.
Paraglider...I would gladly take my broken bottle to the barricades to defend equal opportunity and individual rights, but to ask me to join a bloodless ( read toothless ) revolution that satisfies pseudo-intellectuals and provides a forum for progressive expression, I must respectfully decline...
My " straw man " is built of sturdier stuff. Do you deny that your aim is to remove power from one group and give it to another..? That by pointing to a group and laying all the blame for human injustice at their feet are you not advocating a populist fascist tactic of pitting one group against the other..? This tactic is as old as the Roman Empire, probably older, and still appeals to uncritical thinkers...
Yes, there is Evil in the world, but all the braying and pontificating about it does nothing, zip, nada...you want change, you have to grab it by the throat, shake the hell out of it, follow up and check results...Larry
Maven - did you read the original hub?
"Do you deny that your aim is to remove power from one group and give it to another..?" Yes I deny that absolutely.
As for pitting one group against another - that is the status quo - the infantile red/blue divide. And it is encouraged by the true power-holders because it distracts us from monitoring their excesses.
Paraglider, who are the "true power holders"? By what means do they hold power? Is it your aim to dis-empower them? What do you propose to replace them with? Inquiring minds want to know!
I could not agree with you more regarding the media-driven red/blue BS...and, yes, I did read the first Hub...just who do you propose filling this power vacuum with..?
Is it not your aim to " spread the wealth " amongst the world's poor..? Just how do you go about doing that without taking from some and giving to others..? How do you pick and choose this " fair " redistribution of wealth..? I'm thinking I would much rather distribute education, knowledge, opportunity, than the impossible dream of wealth redistribution...Larry
It strikes me that what is behind a lot of this polarized dialog is fear and panic. You scratch anger, you get fear. Why would anyone want to show up anywhere carrying a broken bottle as a weapon? What's wrong with sitting down and having a beer and getting to know each other?
Power from one group to another? From what group to what group? What is that even about? What on earth are you talking about?
It's like Hub Pages has gone mad in the past month or so. I'm not the only person to notice it either.
OK I just got read your explanation about redistribution of wealth. I see where you're coming from now, although I don't think that's what Paraglider means, not to speak for him or anything.
God, put down that broken bottle. :)
pgrundy...That is simply a metaphor dear...and i would much rather have a glass of wine...Larry
Good Hub, Paraglider.
The problem with these political debates is that they start off with ideology and go downhill from there. Ultimately, we are all blowing hot air out of our backsides because we are completely powerless to change anything. A few loonies throwing insults around will change nothing. Instead, we must concentrate upon things that we can change, in our immediate society and familiy.
The one thing that I have learned during these arguments is that we all, at the bottom level, want exactly the same thing.
Aya - you detest multi-national corporations and so do I. You blame the government, I blame immoral businessmen (The truth is probably somewhere inbetween). Instead of arguing about who is to blame, why not starve them by refusing to buy their goods.
I think that I am safe in saying that we all want to support small businessmen and local entrepreneurs. Let's do it.
I live in a small village with a strong community spirit, common land and water supplies (for many hundreds of years). People help each other out. I am pretty sure that libertarians and conservatives want to follow those ideals. Government interference in my life really is minimal.
I read your Hub about thrift, Aya, and it is an idea that I like very much. We live like that, too - nothing to do with political ideology but common sense.
That is what we are talking about - stripping away the bullshit that divides and find a place where we can have agreement. It is not about enemies or hatred, but starving those who would feed off us - stop giving money to the large corporations and to the governments.
Hope that makes sense - it has been a long day.
Aya - I am not a megalomaniac. 'I' am not in a position to disempower anyone. The limit of my ambition in this direction is to try to open a few people's eyes to the reality of the situation - that the present model of global corporatism is untenable. If enough people learn this soon enough, there is just a chance that we'll fight the right battle, for a change.
Sufidreamer, sounds good, but why can't we agree to starve the government? When Paraglider agrees that we don't need government intervention in the economy, and that his movement is aimed to put a stop to it -- he'll have my full support!
Paraglider, how about this: we strip corporations of limited liability and keep the government completely out of the economy of each of our respective countries. Can we agree to make that our goal?
I can only speak for myself, Aya, but I am already on the case. My tax burden is entirely sales tax, so we just buy less and also barter a little.
The only payment I make to the government is health insurance, and it is not a lot of money :)
Sufi - thanks for the breath of fresh air from the olive groves. As we've said many times, the people who control the money ultimately control natural resources and weaponry. They can't be beaten at their own game, and we should not be trying to. We should be trying to sideline them, make them irrelevant in our lives. To do this, we need to make money less important in our lives too. And we've discussed ways of doing this.
Maven - when you say spread the wealth - what wealth? You mean the multi-trillion debt?
Blessed are the cheese makers. It's late here. Goodnight all!
No worries Paraglider, Goodnight!
We had a beautiful day so I am in a relaxed mood :)
I think that you hit the nail on the head - starving the people who control everything. It is actually irrelevant who is stealing our money and work, only that somebody is doing it.
I am with Aya when it comes to natural world analogies, so here goes :D
Every morning, when I wake up, I notice that all of the ripe figs have been stolen from my tree. I suspect that it is the birds, but it could also be my neighbour.
I could go around to my neighbour's house and threaten him, or I could shoot the birds.
Much easier if I get up a little earlier and pick the figs, then there are none left to steal and the perpetrator will have to go elsewhere.
Very simplistic, but you get my drift :)
Aya - we can go a long way towards starving the corporations by (re)learning a combination of restraint and discrimination in our purchase and consumption. Also by barter and local currency initiatives. Starving government by not paying taxes is harder and you have to choose your battles carefully as some taxes are entirely reasonable.
Sufi - no figs here but plenty of dates. This was a good year because unusually we had maybe as many as 5 or 6 rainy days in February. I don't much like fresh dates from the trees, so I just by dried ones over the counter. But some of the young lads have great fun climbing the palms for the just out of reach bunches. Free food - you can't beat that.
Enjoy the discussion. I've been on both sides of the argument in my life. It is all about me, after all. Thanks.
Hi Paraglider
I have never had fresh dates, but I can happily sit and eat a couple of boxes of dried ones. Believe it or not, many farmers are looking at planting date trees here. If the climate warms up, they may need something to replace the olives and oranges, so are thinking ahead.
Talking of free food, a friend just brought us some fresh picked wild greens - I look forward to those tonight :D
Hi Storytellersrus - Glad that you are enjoying the discussion, a little pocket of civility on Hubpages!
Aya: You have inspired a couple of blog posts that I am now working on. Thanks! :)
Storytellersrus - thanks for visiting. I've been on both sides of the left-right argument in my life, but I've left that behind me. I'm now far more interested in the possibility of global justice, and that's certainly not all about me. It's more about everyone, and the Earth. Why not be ambitious for justice after all? :)
Fresh dates are yellow or sometimes red, and crisp, with the pressure inside against the skin. But quite astringent. Here is the desert heat they soon start to dry and wrinkle on the bunch. That's when I get interested, when they start to look like this: http://hubpages.com/u/1326652.jpg
Hi Paraglider, I'm glad your earlier hub generated a tangible response. It's hard to see, sitting in a comfortable corner of south-east England, where exactly the bloodless revolution might take us, but I'm willing to go along for the ride. I'll keep an eye on how all this develops...
Hi Amanda - Maybe here with 5-star hotels cheek by jowl with windowless slums, it's easier to be conscious of inequality. What we did in the West in the early days of goloalisation was export oppression to 'developing' countries. Out of sight out of mind. That's coming home to roost.
Sufi, the peacemaker! You choose a good moniker. :)
I also think we could starve the corporations by refusing to do their dirty work. I went through this last last year and it was very scary. I'm sure Aya remembers that, and actually she was quite helpful. If we agree to do work for bad pay under inhumane conditions and we know it perpetuates something we despise, aren't we at least partially responsible?
People say they have to work these jobs. I'm not saying it's easy to go your own way, and I don't go as far as Aya does on government. I think government has a purpose and isn't pure evil. I also think we do better when we look out for each other instead of only ourselves. But sometimes you have to just say no to BS. When you see your job is BS, you have to say, no I won't do this. If enough people take that attitude, corporations won't be able to make us help them pick our own pockets.
Pam - It is hard to walk away from a job. I've done it twice. The first time after 20 years, which was a wrench. The second was easier because it was only 1 year and not a good one. Apart from these 21 years I've been self employed an/or running a shared business, and far prefer it that way, with no boss to report to.
Hi Pam and PG,
I hope that you are all well!
Certainly, that is another area of agreement. Many years ago, when the coal mines, industry and agriculture were hit in the UK, people did not have a choice. You had to take whatever job you could - it was impossible to migrate and look for work if you have no money, or have a family.
In the technological age, of internet and mass transportation, this is becoming less of an excuse. Therefore, I do have some sympathy with Aya's idea of personal responsibility - self-employment is much easier nowadays.
PS - new post on the blog:
Very well, thank you!
I think the days of full time long-term jobs are behind us. What we need is marketable skills and/or locally barterable skills. But moving together as a family unit is difficult if the work is temporary. There are still a lot of questions regarding the 'brave new world'.
Excellent new post - I'll comment on it, not here, except to recommend everyone goes for a read.
Another fine piece of work. I am all for zero taxation and minimal government. I never knew I was the Champ though! :D
Hi James - zero taxation isn't on my agenda; I quite like my street lighting and good signage on the roads, for example. But a government that represented the (majority of) people rather than corporations would be good. Interesting to note that this is the change that Japan seems poised to make at the forthcoming elections.
Please note, though, that the bloodless revolution is individual first, then local-societal. Think web, not mob :)
There was a guy called Robin Hood ... aw, you know the rest, don't you?
And another called Dennis Moore.
Good Hub.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism
I feel most Western, reasonable, intelligent people, most middle class (though not all, certainly), and most people of modest means have already been living as Paraglider suggests...at least in the physical realm, if not the mental/spiritual. I don't think many here on Hubpages are very connected to the "super rich" (could be wrong about that, too), and what limited exposure I've had to them would tell me that they are not built like many of us. I truly feel they are pathological or have anti-social tendencies...in the true definition of those disorders. What I think many of us are talking about is ultimately about power and control, not about wealth or the distribution of wealth. A healthy human being can only consume so much in any sphere and does not seek to exploit others.
And no, I'm not talking about industry in general, the entrepreneurial spirit (I consider myself something of an entrepreneur), but of the set system of laws and induced behavioralism that people are coached into concerning corporatism. I believe it is a system of control and also a leftover from the Industrial Age. And fit for machines, not people. Paraglider said it right in his first hub. We must choose our birthright, not the ridiculous 'dream' of more stuff and more control.
It really is not about the same old left-right tired debate.
Lita - thank you for that considered comment. I haven't really added anything new in this second hub. The first one was the 'manifesto' of the bloodless revolution, in its small way. The main purpose of this one was to promote the associated blog. (What, a promotional hub? Very bad form!)
I am wholly convinced that the left/right debate is sterile. While we waste our time and energies fighting the old battles (with phrases, not words - no thought required!) the consortium of exploiters (of people and resources) go their own self-serving way.
Excellent, excellent, excellent. I have long held that an appropriate metaphor for what is happening is that we are hurling slogans, and sometimes worse things, across the baricades at each other when it might be more appropriate to actually try to listen for understanding of what the other person or persons is/are saying.
That said, it does seem to me that the corporations are running the world and just individually trying to use less soap or take shorter showers is not going to change the power relations, and I thinks it's those power relations that are strangling the world. I'm not sure how to get around this because I do feel that the convivial approach has merit, that we can do more individually than we are doing, but while the corporations rule the world through the politicians they have in their pockets, I think we are pretty powerless.
We want things to be different but have so little hope of ever bringing about the change we want to see at a structural and systemic level that we just give up. My little gesture of perhaps not using a coroporate product is not going to hurt the corporation at all. It would take probably hundreds of thousands of people all doing that to make a difference, and that seems too much like a pipe dream to me.
And so I come back to the position of organising around specific issues and that again means taking up an ideological position and so we're back to square one.
The fact is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, perhaps not in an absolute sense, but certainly relatively.
The old myths of the larger cake, or the "trickly-down effect" have just been so disproved they are hardly worth debating.
So while I support the efforts and the blog and all, I just feel a little like the boy with his finger in the dyke trying to stop the flood.
So here's to the drop-out nation anyway, but forgive me my little niggling sense of doom and destruction (maybe it's something of my dour Scottish heritage coming through!).
Love and peace (and I really mean it!)
Tony
PS I want to sing "Give me hope Joanna"! Anyone care to join me?
Hi Tony - I agree with all of that, and will come back with a more coherent response, but it's 01:30 and I have an early start. So, till tomorrow...
Tony, following up - thanks for signing up to follow the Dropout Nation Blog. I agree that we are fairly powerless against Big Money, whether that's corporation, finance institution or aspects of Government. That's why I think we have to focus on not fighting them at their own game, because we'd inevitably lose. And I don't have unrealistic dreams that any one blog is going to achieve much, but there is a groundswell of dissent, evidenced by many small ventures in many places, and virtual places. I seriously think we are in the earliest stages of raising awareness though. And the biggest hurdle is overcoming the ready-made answers of - blame the socialists, liberals, reactionaries, immigrants, etc, etc.
Well I certainly hope that the groundsell grows and if this blog can help to make it grow I'm all for it. I lived through the dark and dismal days of apartheid and we kept going when so much seemed hopeless - the power of the regime was just so great and of course it was ready to use any means to maintain its power while the opposition was bound by its relatively high moral standards and so could not retaliate in kind. We often felt that nothing would ever overcome the regime, but of course eventually good did overcome evil - but then some of those previously on the side of good have started to behave in ways frighteningly similar to the ways the apartheid regime behaved. And so we are getting back to where we were before, but without the hideous apartheid ideology, which does make some difference. And I think civil society is too strong to allow the authoritarian ways to overtake the light too much. But still, it's worrying.
I will keep doing what I can to raise awareness and to fight against the encroaching gloom (doesn't that sound a bit like a hymn?) and keep up hope.
Thanks for starting all this with that brilliant Hub, BTW.
Love and peace
Tony
Tony - one of these dinner-party games, who would you most like to have dinner with - I've always said Bishop Desmond Tutu. You're closer. Maybe you know things against his character. But for me, an incorrigible agnostic, Tutu seems the best advert for his faith in the modern world. would that there were more like him.
Funny, I don't actually see the term "mega-rich" in the article at all. You are correct however, the disparity between rich and poor has rarely been higher than it is right now.
This is particularly true in the United States.
In some small way Bernie Madoff corrected that a touch.
The I.R.S. is working to bring that back some too by pressuring UBS to release the names and account numbers of Americans with off-shore accounts. This way the I.R.S. can determine which of the accounts are hidden assets that should be taxed.
Still, I always have to ask myself. Just how much money does one person need? If someone makes so much that they can't possibly spend it in a lifetime (or two or three) just how fair is it that this money is tied up and unavailable for someone else to earn?
Hi LiamBean - I used the phrase 'mega-rich once, perhaps carelessly, in the article as first published, and within 24 hours changed it 'global corporatism'. Unfortunately the damage was done and the knee-jerk comments about redistribution (which is not my topic) started flowing in. The Bloodless Revolution recognises that the liaison between corporation, government and military muscle is the true culprit in the current state of gross inequality and injustice, but our aim is to sideline them by finding ways of not playing their game; making them irrelevant in time. Please read more at the blog: http://dropoutnation.blogspot.com/index.html
Thanks paraglider I will.
Aya Katz says:
3 months ago
Paraglider, I, too, am looking for peaceful solutions and am less interested in knee-jerk reactions. However, let me point to the one spot in your hub that was calculated to incite hatred for a particular class of perhaps largely imaginary people:
"overthrow of the predatory mega-rich class" .
It seems as though you really, really don't like these "mega-rich" people, and putting "peaceful" right before "overthrow" doesn't really make it any better.
I've recently completed a hub about how government intervention fuels negative ecological consequences. I would really appreciate your input. If we're all in this together, then it includes everyone, of whatever income level and capital accumulation -- even the mega-rich. In my hub, I show how everyone can reduce the problem if allowed to save rather than spend.