I love the compelling earnestness of the DKos community - reading and posting here has helped me survive the dark days of American pseudo-democracy since the Bush coup d'etat. I appreciate the hard work being done to change the illusion we call "America" into something that more closely resembles the myths we were taught in grade school - thank you to all of you for reminding me I'm not the only one who cares.
Daily Kos is about Democratic activism and I support the goal of helping elect a Democratic government, but I agree (partially) with the excellent diary by thereisnospoon - the Democrats we've been able to elect are letting us down and we can't rely on them to make the changes for which we long.
We can't look to the politicians and we can't look to the co-opted and corrupted media. We have to look to ourselves, individually. The good news is that there is a way... the bad news is we aren't willing to pay the price.
Here are a couple of apparent truths, obvious to anyone who closely observes American society - the rules are made by the rich, and the rich will do whatever it takes to remain rich. I guess I don't blame them since it's always been so and we all tend to stick to the ways of our tribes. I don't begrudge them their wealth.
I am, of course, generalizing. Forgive me. More than a few of my fellow DKos denizens are wealthy and I'm sure they (you) don't feel responsible for the mess we're in today. I'm not interested in class war. In fact, the course I propose is one in which the wealthiest among us can be especially useful - without spending a dime.
My idea is this: the rich would rather be rich, by and large, than have their way in matters of war and state. If all of those against the war, even a large proportion, stopped consuming anything other than their minimum requirements (I use the shorthand "rice and rent") it wouldn't be long before the war was over. Period.
I've heard the arguments against large scale boycotts - economic displacement, crashed markets, etc., but do not find them compelling in the face of the destruction we are visiting on families around the world in pursuit of, it can only be called, empire. I've read with horror comments and diaries here on DKos that wildly call for civil disobedience or even civil war without thought of how truly awful the consequences might be. It disgusts me that we seem so willing to call on violence but so unwilling to do without an IPod.
We cannot look to politicians to change us, we must change ourselves and eventually see it reflected in the politicians. We cannot hope the media will suddenly start acting against the interests of their corporate masters, we must make the interests of the corporate masters more in line with the interests of peace. When defense contractors own media empires we're sure to get media cheerleading for war.
This is not idle theory, nor is it the kettle calling out the pot. I surrendered my corporate ways and privileges years ago to take up a simpler life, a life not based on production and consumption (and large tax payments to support the war-state) but on being a happy human being. I have no regrets. Rice and rent are enough.
So many diaries and front page postings call for drastic change. As I said before, I support the goals of electing more (and better) Democrats, but it isn't enough. We have to change ourselves if we want a better country. The beauty of this path is that even if we don't get a better country we'll at least get better lives. Maybe that's enough.