If you want to win you have to embrace these concepts: boldness, commitment, responsibility, unity and solidarity, principles and conviction, and cohesiveness.
Let me give you an example...
Boldness
Here's my agenda: I want to work with others to expose the true nature of the system to as many people as possible to motivate them and recruit them into a powerful social justice movement; one that's focused, strategic, relentless, and cohesive.
I'd like to see millions of people understand three basic features of the current system: it has been captured by the wealthy and turned into a corrupt, self-serving and exploitative machinery; it has set up a total information awareness surveillance police state to protect itself as it continues to prey on the population; it controls much of the population through planned economic insecurity and propaganda.
Once millions of people come to a clear understanding of this reality, I'd like to see them be able to coordinate a host of actions specifically designed to take down the Oligarchy, but not only that, to punish those who have been involved in crimes to the fullest extend of the law.
And so that means exposing corruption, and then finding ways to remove every single on-the-take politician through both, the electoral system (by voting for better Democrats), and a massive and relentless peaceful (but extremely organized) social justice/resistance movement.
Once a large-enough number of corrupt-to-the-core bribe-taking politicians are removed, we then need to move towards accountability: that means first and foremost a full investigation of all war crimes committed during the last 40-plus years, and when evidence is found, criminal charges/indictments should follow.
Another priority would be the criminal indictment of thousands of members of the Wall Street criminal racketeering cartel responsible for the looting and pillaging that precipitated the current economic depression. In addition any government official suspected of helping cover up these crimes should also be charged and prosecuted.
Finally, after the current crop of corrupt politicians have been removed, there should be a rapid-fire overhaul of our entire regulatory infrastructure/framework with the number one priority being the clawing back of trillions of dollars from the rich.
That could mean the immediate raising of tax rates to 95% for the top one percent of income earners; it would also mean outright confiscation and forfeitures in cases where fraud can be proven.
Then you go down the line... Break up all the big banks and as you do, prosecute the top executives of these banks and punish them with very long prison terms (after proper prosecutions). Dismantle the total information awareness surveillance police state. Rescind all laws that trampled on our constitutional protections, starting with the PATRIOT Act. Dismantle all Oligopolies and Monopolies. Public financing for elections. Single-payer universal health care. Free education to all from kinder garden to graduate school.
That's it, no equivocation; no doubt; no wondering if these things are possible or not. That's what I think is moral, just, right, and that's why I think it needs to happen.
Commitment
If you believe in something strong enough, and you base your beliefs on basic principles of justice, fairness, the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution, then the commitment to the outcome should be life-long, and not based on the current news cycle or the next election. It's a 24/7 type of commitment; it's every day, every week, every month, every year, if it takes 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 years... However long it takes.
Responsibility
The buck stops with you. There is no looking around to see who's going to make these things happen; there is no sitting on the fence to see who else takes the first step; there is no complaining about how awful Louie Gohmert, or Mitch McConnell, or John Boehner, or Ted Cruz, or the Tea Party, or the Koch Brothers, or Americans for Prosperity, are. There is no waiting on Obama, or Nancy Pelosi, or Dianne Feinstein to do these things for you, especially if they are not getting done. It is on you.
Unity And Solidarity
There are others who share these views, this commitment, this sense of responsibility. Find them and start a movement until the stated goals are achieved, however it takes. Because "en la unión está la fuerza," there is power in unity.
The Power of Your Convictions
If you don't have strong principles, strong convictions, you have no power, plain and simple. You can't have power without those qualities (when it comes to a social justice movement).
Team-Building Process
I'd like to form a group willing to engage in team-building exercises. The idea is to start coordinating certain actions to show the power of strategic thinking and cohesiveness...
Here's what I envision... We'll start with small, easy steps in order to build momentum.
I'm going to ask people to join me in taking coordinated actions on the 15th of every month, starting on October 15th. The first step (which I mentioned in a recent diary) would be to do a fund-raising drive (or money-bomb) for Daily Kos on October 15th, with a minimum donation of $3.00. I already have five people who have committed to it, but I'd like to have the commitment of 1,000 people by October 15th.
Just to be clear... I have no official contact with any admin or management staff at Daily Kos; I will get no benefit at all from this fund-raising. This is just an exercise to proof the team-building concept, and given the platform for political and social activism this site provides, and given the amount of time many of us spend here, I think donating $3 or $5 or $10 is a worthy cause.
And here is my ultimate goal... If we are able to build a team of 5,000, or 10,000 and get use to the idea of coordinating certain actions on the 15th of every month, every month, for the foreseeable future, we may find ourselves contributing to the formation of the next social justice movement.
Given the worsening conditions, it is inevitable that once again, people will rise up in opposition to the oppression, just like OWS did. In fact, I've been meeting with activists, and labor union members, and can see the offshoots of the movement taking shape.
I'll be proposing a number of actions to take on a monthly basis (on the 15th of ever month), but I think this concept could be tried by anybody. The key is to take that first step, and then the next one after that, and so on.
In a Time of Universal Deceit — Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act
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