"Those in power can handle people going on the occasional police-controlled march. They can also, let's be honest, handle small groups of people doing actions that no one else gets involved in. What they can't handle is people making alliances, building links, supporting and learning from each other through action." - Noam Chomsky
Sixth World Social Forum, January 24, 2006, Caracas, Venezuela:
"The battle must be waged in the entire world. We have to link all of our causes -- unity," [Hugo] Chavez said.
Increasingly, those causes are being linked. The United States is not only facing an endgame financially, it has --through the belligerence of the Bush administration-- enraged the rest of the world and essentially united it in seeking a way to reign in Imperial America.
More after the bump.
Traditional media in the United States doesn't talk much about it, but America and Americans are today deeply reviled around the world. America is seen as essentially a rogue state; a bullying, bankrupt superpower unhinged. Its citizens are seen as amoral, fat, obnoxious, willfully ignorant dupes. Another thing not discussed much in traditional media is how neoliberalism (aka free trade uber alles) is being utterly swept away in Latin America and is being replaced instead with self-sufficent economies that rely on local resources and local labor to build a sustainable future one nation at a time. We don't need your stinkin' IMF loans and WTO thank you very much.
Let me be the first to say that with the arrival of Peak Oil and with the collapse of the Republican-fueled (and fueling) ponzi scheme of a U.S. dollar-denominated world, America will eventually be forced to follow in the wake of Latin America and embrace a similar model: sustainable growth based upon intelligent use of indigenous labor and resources. A progressive future is being forced upon us all as it is the only way to sustain civilization.
DailyKos is poised to be part of that transition, which admittedly may take many years to arrive, but is looking increasingly inevitable. After all, while the Roman Empire most assuredly did fall, Romans still needed to get out of bed every day and find some way to carry on and feed themselves and their families. Note that Italy is still here long after the fall of the Ceasars.
If we somehow lose this battle over the filibuster of Alito, don't despair. We are learning, linking and organizing. Someday soon will be our time. America too will still be here after our own Ceasars fall. We've got a lot of organizing to do to find a way to carry on when their dreams of endless empire are finally shattered once and for all.
Keep organizing. They can't handle it.