I am a constitutional lawyer who happened to have discovered something quite remarkable: Namely, that our constitution can be easily amended and that we could end our current oligarchy. This was lost to academia, but has been recently rediscovered by constitutional scholars. The activist community is completely unaware that this mechanism for constitutional amendment exists. Our Founding Fathers referred to constitutional amendment by popular sovereignty as a means for peaceful, legal revolution. Based on this, I too have been openly using the word revolution. What popular sovereignty means is that we can alter or abolish the constitution at any time by simple, majority vote. Installing a new constitution is a revolution. The word is simply accurate based on the fact that what I am proposing is a thorough modernization of our Constitution.
I have detailed several substantive and/or tactical issues with this mechanism. But what I find when I can start to convince people shows that the American public is terrorized. What I am advocating is perfectly legal. I advocate no violence or illegality. Nonetheless, I am being told - forcefully - that if I pursue this, I will be crushed. I am calling for peaceful, legal constitutional amendment and almost everyone I encounter informs me that my life will be ruined or ended.
How can a democracy function in that environment? People do not feel they can openly discuss peaceful, legal constitutional amendment? THAT is our biggest obstacle to organizing. Not money; not organization; not even a corporate-owned media. Our biggest obstacle towards organizing is a terrorized American public.
My family and friends are terrified for me. A friend told me that he paused before responding to an email of mine, wondering if he would end up on a list. Two separate friends have said "hi NSA" during skype conversations. I have repeatedly been told that I would be smeared in corporate media. I have been told I would be taken to offshore prisons, unlawfully detained and tortured. I have been told I would be extra-judicially assassinated. Two friends have told me not to use the word revolution - even though I'm talking about revolution through constitutional amendment which is perfectly lawful. I have been told that the fact that I would openly use the word revolution is proof that I am mentally unstable. When I told my mother and one of my best friends that I felt obligated to try to get this information to the world, I was told: "I don't care about the world, I don't want YOU hurt." My own decision to do this resulted in a breakdown because I too understand the nature of the power that would oppose me.
Think of that. Think of the fact that this is occurring in the United States of America. When presented with something that could actually work, people spewed forth to me their absolute, unbridled terror. What I offer is completely legal; it is in every way protected speech. People assure me this does not matter in the slightest. People know - in their hearts - that there is no rule of law in America. We are no longer a nation of laws; we are a nation of men.
And everybody knows.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows that the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
Everybody knows
And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows
You can find evidence of this terror in my twitter exchange (plutocracyfiles) as well as in the comments of my recent Daily Kos diaries (also plutocracyfiles). Go read it; witness a terrified American public.