Three months before Occupy Wall Street came into being, I wrote this essay under the title "National The King Is Naked Week" Coming to in front of your home!" (jun 5, 2011)
It got no traction here at all, and was itself a more detailed rewrite of a diary published a day or two before.
Since then I've shown it to a number of people, some of them famous if you listen to NYC radio, who've praised it and called it "prescient."
I'm just republishing, changing only the title, Not even fixing the typos. The reason is that it remains the one way, imo, in which we can stymie the suppression and spinning of protest in this country. As you will read, I anticipated every tactic the 1% would employ. Which was no great trick since they been doing these exact things since the Pinkertons were hired to suppress labor protests in the 1880s. (I didn't know just yet to call them "the 1%.")
Now the topic I picked: Letting Congress know we all know they are corrupt, is not necessarily the best topic or the only topic. But I still sort of like it at this point. A little outside-the-Beltway-coffin pressure on all Congress will go a long way, I suspect.
Originally published June 5, 2011. Please mentally adjust to current calendar as necessary.
I'm wearied, we're all wearied, of mass protests which get little or no coverage. If it gets coverage the ass with the mask throwing rocks and being tear-gassed gets most of the visual time. While the voice-over mischaracterizes the issue which got everyone there in the first place.
And if a protest gets full-day coverage, like the before-war, world-wide, Iraq protests did in some places, so what? The people who make decisions have made decisions, and anyway they didn't really ask for our opinion in the first place.
We all call and write our Congress critters, but it is discouraging that time and again we end up with exactly the opposite of what we ask of them. Even when it's a simple majority, or two-thirds, or four-fifths of the general public who want the thing.
In fact, there seems to be a rule that democratic outcomes cannot possibly result from our democratic system. "Soooo, this would actually solve real critical problems, and the people really want it? Completely not pragmatic, off the table and into the rubbish with you."
Somebody says that somewhere. Is it an elite body, or just a class custom? Doesn't matter who or why. Still gets said.
Well, dang, this ain't a very good situation, now is it? It's like our government is blind and death to We, the People. Oh, sure, they all have a sound bite here and there, throw a few bones, sing a few tunes... But decisions are made as if we had no say. No democratic outcomes from a democratic system? That ain't right.
So maybe there's a way to fix it, something we've not tried yet, maybe something like...
Okay, we all know that mass protests and mass contacting-the-pol leads to whatever it is they want to do anyway on a pretty consistent basis. Not what we want. There's exceptions, meaningful exceptions, but the split runs about 90-10 against us by my sense of it. Might be too optimistic on that point.
Well whatever the split, it consistently runs against the public will. Of course anyone paying attention knows this is because our political class has effectively resigned from "Serving the People." They've got a business enterprise going with the Bankers and Big Money in general, and We, the People are not shareholders in this enterprise. And as the saying goes, "anyone not a shareholder is expendable." At least I think that's what the law on business partnerships says.
Did I say we ain't shareholders in this politics/money business?
How do we get the politicians attention then? How do we make them take notice and start talking about what we care about? They ignore the mass demos. True, big enough and intense enough they might notice. Then, too, under the law organizers of such can be called terrorists, and everybody who shows up can have exotic sound and heat weapons aimed at them, get tear-gassed (that ass with the mask again), etc etc. Like what happens in Greece and Spain and the like. (And don't think "they won't go there.")
They ignore the phone calls and emails unless they come from somebody who can deliver money or insider tips to them. Every now and then we can make them back off an egregious thing. Now and then.
We need another tool, because these have been around a long time and are not doing the job.
And this is where "National The King is Naked Day" comes in.
We pick a week. First Monday of August, for discussion. That week, everybody makes a sign, makes copies of signs to hand to their associates if they can't make their own. The sign has a message.
And here's the message:
Congress, We Know You Are On the Take.
This goes on your sign, maybe it's red on an letter-size paper. Maybe it's a plaid and on a banner ten feet across. Whatever, it's your sign. But it has this one message. You can add footnotes, but it starts with those words (or whatever we settle on, but this is best, imo.)
This is a very important part coming up, so please pay close attention to what follows.
The message is not partisan. The idea is to cut through Congress' habitual ways of taking things. To throw a Godzilla-sized monkey wrench into the nice little money machine they've got rolling over us. Make them pause and think "Wait, they all see something's horribly wrong with Congress!" Or even "Curses! The game is up!" We need every stripe of American if this is going to work. At the hint of "faction" people throw this in a box and it ain't getting out. Consider yourself "managed." Off the table, and into the trash.
So the message has to be not partisan. If you have a partisan message, the project is dead on arrival. I'm repeating myself here, but everything depends on this being clear. This is about making an all-America moment. The only antidote to "divide and rule" is "union." We've all got to be here for this if it is to actually affect anything.
Okay? There are some of you, here at a partisan website, if you aren't clear, please read the previous two paragraphs. If you think partisan, you stink partisan, and the message is dead.
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Just to be clear about "not partisan, all-American."
Here's my one-minute design version. It could be done better, maybe with a picture of the Capitol Building behind it or whatever. It's late. Here's a picture.
Next. So it's the first week of August. Do not get on a bus. Do not go anywhere. Do not arrange meetups and marches. Okay, if you have to, do it. But really we don't need everyone to do that. What we need is that everyone set aside 5 minutes, a half-hour, or 18 hours, your call, that Monday and every day that week. During 9-5 hours is best. It can be different times every day, even 10 minutes 3 times a day, whatever you can do.
We take time to stand in front of where we work, or our home, or along main street, or in front of a Representatives office. Maybe near a media headquarters, print, radio, or tv. And we hold up the sign. Have extras to hand out if other people want them. Print the directions on the back of the sign about how to use it.
Here's the advantages if ... and it's a big if... "National The King Is Naked Day" goes viral.
Strategic Advantages |
- Honest Congress critters will be heartened. What's been eating them is finally out in the open. They can use the hammer of public opinion and the anvil of truth to beat some restraint into the system. The slightly-fallen Congressionals will start asking themselves questions, take an inventory. The rotten through and through will find things more complicated. This will slow them down. It's all good.
- The politicians will see it. Some sign-holders who've covered their own turf, or who want to assemble, can go find where the politicians dine, drive or walk by, or just hang out. You can tweet, fax, and facebook them pictures of what the signs on the streets look like. They'll be at the Fancy Restaurant coatcheck thinking "the coatcheck person thinks I'm a crook." Same at the 4H Club meeting, or anyplace they go. This'll make 'em at least reign it in, or even try to do what's plainly right.
- At the least, being corrupt will be constrained. There might even be salubrious effects on their character, lifting the illness of vanity, greed, and indifference. From which too many of them suffer.
- Each politician will reveal what they are really about to anyone looking. Do they deal with their lack of credibility openly, act in Congress to change this? Or do they try to pretend it never happened? The public will want to know. Which leads to:
- The media's gonna want stories. We'll set media and politicians against one another.
- Who are the flying squads going to tear-gas and beat? Everyone, everywhere?
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It's Easy! It's New! It's Fun! It's Effective! |
- You're an American, right? What more do we want than easy new fun that's effective? This is the dream, baby!
- Low investment. Here's what you need: a pencil or crayon, a piece of paper, and an outside.
- It totally accommodates your schedule and your finances.
- You are free to create. Make your own colorful signs and bumper stickers. Have sign-making meet-ups and sleepovers!
- You can do this while your laundry is in the washer. Then you can go back out when it's in the dryer. Activist types can get together and stand in front of CNN! What fund! A little commitment, but no limits!
- You'll feel a positive glow, having expressed something and getting validation from other people.
- Your associates will be prodded to think, and likely they'll respect you more for taking a stand.
- You'll be part of a new experiment in political action. Bring your camera and cellphone!
- This builds community, and would be an damper on media-generated heat and factional fights. You can bet money your neighbors feel the exact same way about Congress. Whether they've got sandbags around their house or rainbow chimes tinkling in the window, everybody knows the fix is in, and they don't like it.
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Media Trumping Advantages |
- It doesn't matter if Media covers it. Everyone in America has covered it. On your street, the shopping mall, on youtube, wherever you go, there it is.
- Media will see it, and if they report on it, they can't stuff it in a little box, show scenes of mass violence, or pretend the message isn't saying what it's saying. They need photos to cover a story after all. Photos of what the signs say.
- And if they don't talk about what everyone is seeing, they discredit themselves with people who didn't question them before. (And yes, that's a lot of people.)
- Editorial policy is going to have to deal with us for a change, instead of us dealing with their daily irrelevance. We'll likely see more coverage of what real people say.
- The role of money in politics will have to be discussed, front and center. Let's talk Campaign Financing finally, eh?
- Stories. They are going to have to have stories on corruption. People know it's there, ignoring it isn't going to sell papers and get eyeballs.
- In the back of their minds, they know they could easily be the subject of the next "The King is Naked" campaign. Who's as disrespected as Congress? Media!
- Maybe we'll get the chance to discuss realities of power in this country. There's all sorts of things we don't discuss in public right now. Maybe this jars the gates open.
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Well, it's late. I'm going to try the automatic scheduler for the first time, so here's hoping. I will be asleep when this gets posted, but I will check the comments as soon as I can.
Please, discuss, embellish, improve. Thank you for your time and attention.