What an ambitious title, don't you think? I guess I have to try to deliver on it... I've been thinking about these things (in detail) for almost 15 years now. During that time I watched with horror as the nascent oligarchy was becoming entrenched and consolidating power, while the institutions and framework of democracy were being dismantled.
I clearly witnessed the transition of the U.S. security apparatus into a veritable police state, which is the situation we have today. After all, the rise of a police state comes hand in hand with the rise of an oligarchy.
And I've seen the effects of the most powerful propaganda machine in the history of humanity, in the form of the U.S. media corporate conglomerate, and much of the Western European media, which has managed to entranced much of the population to such a degree, that one would not be exaggerating if it were to be compared to the effects of mind control or brainwashing.
That explains, by and large, why the great majority of the populations in the United States and Western Europe have let themselves be totally subjugated, manipulated, and exploited (on the way to serfdom).
When the tyrant and oppressor is able to control the collective mind of the entire population (as its the case now), he doesn't need a whip with which to force the slave to comply. The corporate media hegemony is the whip of the modern age.
I want to see what I'm about to describe within ten years, but I'm very patient; I can wait 20 years or more. After all, the carefully-planned strategy by the oligarchs to destroy any semblance of democracy took about 40 years to come to fruition.
But we need to get going now. Right this moment.
I'm not going to take time here to describe the enemy we are dealing with. However, for those wanting to understand their mindset, I recommend people read what I consider to be the best description of the new global crop of plutocratic sociopaths: The Rise of the New Global Elite, by Chrystia Freeland, writing for The Atlantic.
Here at DailyKos I've written over 160 diaries mainly focusing on "the problem." I vow to focus my next 100 diaries on the solutions (as I understand them).
In the article by Ms. Freeland you will notice that the plutocratic sociopaths have been able to accumulate the wealth and power they have used to destroy any remnants of democracy by exploiting the benefits of technology, communications, and free trade.
I argue that those who take on these sociopaths should use the same tools against them.
Greed is evil. Those who acquire wealth and use it to influence the government and turn it against the citizenry by dismantling democratic institutions and the social safety net (without which you can't have a middle class) are evil, in the true definition of the word.
They try to hide their shameful lack of humanity and decency by engaging in "philanthropy," which at the end of the day is a grotesque and almost-transparent farce used by all the oligarchs to justify their greed. For find me the philanthropist that advocates for a strong progressive tax system (which is one of the few institutions absolutely necessary for a democratic a decent society), and you would have found the exception to the rule.
Media
Please join me in coming up with a nation-wide, long-term strategy to reach every single citizen and let them know about the extreme harmful effects on their minds, their psychological well-being, and their livelihood, the entire mainstream media landscape has over them.
The goal is to get to a point where the average citizen fully understands that the reason supranational corporations took over the entire mainstream media landscape was to use it as a brainwashing propaganda tool used to manipulate us into acting against our own interests.
Any source of news that emanates from organizations who are controlled by corporate conglomerates is suspect, and should not be trusted.
Let's support and grow the concept of citizen journalism, and let's try to find a way to fund it. We should come up with a way to establish media organizations completely free of paid-for advertisement of any kind.
For example, let's say that a group of journalists decide to start a news organization of this type (100% free off advertisement); let's finance them with donations or subscriptions.
I will have a lot more to say about this... I'll be doing research; talking to people; getting more ideas. The goal is to make all corporate media irrelevant to the point that they will all collapse. I want their total implosion, dismantling. They are evil.
Jobs and Markets
Let's come up with a long-term plan to disconnect from the current corrupt plutocratic kleptocracy. In the final analysis, the issue is not with "capitalism" or free-markets per se. The issue is with using wealth to acquire power, which in turn is used to exploit and oppress the citizenry. We're are talking about very despicable, sociopathic characters.
There are proven ways of doing so. One good example which could be replicated world-wide is the Mondragon Corporation:
The MONDRAGON Co-operatives operate in accordance with a business model based on People and the Sovereignty of Labour, which has made it possible to develop highly participative companies rooted in solidarity, with a strong social dimension but without neglecting business excellence. The Co-operatives are owned by their worker-members and power is based on the principle of one person, one vote.
In the United States, one of the best examples of a similar business structure is the Green Bay Packers football team:
The Packers are the only community-owned franchise in American professional sports major leagues. Typically, a team is owned by one person, partnership, or corporate entity, i.e., a "team owner." The lack of a dominant owner has been stated as one of the reasons the Green Bay Packers have never been moved from the city of Green Bay, a city of only 102,313 people as of the 2000 census. While the team is operated as a non-profit organization, technically it is a for-profit corporation because under Wisconsin law non-profit corporations cannot issue stock.
A better world is possible. Any feeling of impotence or the inevitability of brutal "austerity measures" used to oppress us, and used as an excuse to take down the infrastructure of democracy and freedom, and decency, is the effect of the brainwashing propaganda that is being inflicted on us every minute of the day.
You can free yourself from it. Start by turning off the TV, or at a minimum, cut down substantially, and especially reject the framing from corporate-owned news media outlets. I can't emphasize enough the harmful effects the media has on our minds, and on society.
Next, I want to collaborate with others who share this world view and put together a five- to ten-page "PowerPoint" presentation to be used by hundreds of speakers across the country, in an effort to spread this message of true liberation.
But I want to make it fun, hopeful, exciting.... I've attended countless seminars; I know all about MLM, and all the high-profile speakers on positive thinking and business.
When I've attended these events, I watch (in horror) how many people get duped into getting up from their chairs, and start jumping up and down, and sing slogans, etc.
But on what? The latest fad someone came up with to take your money by telling you to go write your plans, or even better, that if you look through a window of a high-priced jewelry store, that if you really believe you can have the most expensive item, you'll have it--and it's a secret someone told you.
Imagine energetic and powerful speakers across the country filling up conference rooms by delivering the most important and truthful "Think and Grow Happy" seminars?
It can be done... A better world is possible.
As I mentioned, from now on, I'll be focusing on developing ideas about how to free ourselves from the tyranny of the international plutocratic kleptocracy. After all, here's how they feel about us:
The U.S.-based CEO of one of the world’s largest hedge funds told me that his firm’s investment committee often discusses the question of who wins and who loses in today’s economy. In a recent internal debate, he said, one of his senior colleagues had argued that the hollowing-out of the American middle class didn’t really matter. “His point was that if the transformation of the world economy lifts four people in China and India out of poverty and into the middle class, and meanwhile means one American drops out of the middle class, that’s not such a bad trade,” the CEO recalled.
I heard a similar sentiment from the Taiwanese-born, 30-something CFO of a U.S. Internet company. A gentle, unpretentious man who went from public school to Harvard, he’s nonetheless not terribly sympathetic to the complaints of the American middle class. “We demand a higher paycheck than the rest of the world,” he told me. “So if you’re going to demand 10 times the paycheck, you need to deliver 10 times the value. It sounds harsh, but maybe people in the middle class need to decide to take a pay cut.”
Well, maybe we can all unite, change the paradigm and cut these parasites out of the picture. After all, they are just mainly middle-men. Maybe Mondragon-type organizations can spring up in the U.S. and Mexico, and China, and Japan, and France, and Italy, and Germany, and the U.K., and maybe we'll decide to completely change the world economy--by taking advantage of communication technology, and free trade!
Let's do this folks... I'm willing to do what I can (within my means) to make it happen.
And, by the way, let's keep the revolution going as well...