Recently I wrote about "The Urgency of a Middle Class Revolt." In that diary I wrote that "[t]he ruling elite [has] institute[d] a regime based on Neoliberal policies; policies designed to systematically undermine the public sector, i.e., democracy itself, in favor of profiteering, of the systematic transfer of wealth and power from the citizenry to the tiny ruling class."
When I write things like that what I'm trying to do is distill the essence of the fundamental problem we face as a people. What motivates me in the search of an inconic-like representation of the problem is because I believe that in our collective struggle against the brutality of the Corporate State, which is now as you read this instituting a regime of austerity measures on behalf of the ruling elite and specifically designed to induced poverty and economic insecurity, we are failing to to engage at a very fundamental and important level: the root causes of the dysfunction, of the oppression, of injustice, and ultimately, of a lack of real democracy.
It benefits the ruling elite to have us all divided, only focusing on narrow issues, whether that is expansion of medicare, or voter suppression, or a host of other issues. When the social justice movement is thus fractured and diffused, its power is rendered ineffective and diffused as well. It is a divide and conquer strategy, as I discussed in "An Open Letter to The Occupy Wall Street Movement."
Given the hegemonic tyranny of the corporate state, the movement has to find a way to unite under a common cause, not only here in the U.S., but intentionally, until is able to garner the overwhelming cohesiveness and strength it will need in order to fundamentally change the situation, from the façade of democracy that exists today, to real democracy and justice.
The situation has become so severe, that now even one of the top technology research firms is predicting a big resurgence of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2014, as I reported recently.
That is the reason there has been a spike in protest rallies, as reported in a new study by Initiative for Policy Dialogue and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York on world protests from 2006 to 2013. Some of the key findings show that people are rising up due to "the failure of political representation and political systems," and that the top demand for the protests is "is not for economic justice per se, but for 'real democracy' which would allow national governments to address core economic issues."
Given all this, why do you think we don't see the type of massive, coordinated, and sustained social justice movement that would be necessary to truly challenge the depravities of the corporate state... If all this is true, and the time for action is now, as I argued yesterday in "
Occupy Movement Call to Action: The Time is Now," what's preventing us from doing it?
Please share your perspective about these questions...
Also, I'll be doing some thinking today about a non-violent, non-hierarchical protest tactic I've been discussing lately... Imagine this: Somehow the core and iconic understanding of the biggest challenge we face is translated into "A Demand for Justice And Democracy," and everybody in the movement embraces it. Or maybe it takes a different form, but somehow we all come to a common understanding of the situation.
And then following the non-hierarchical approach I've been discussing, you start seeing spontaneous gatherings and protests all over the country. One minute there are 50 people gathered in front of a Bank of America building in San Francisco, and an hour later there are 2,000, and it ebbs and flows... In the meantime people connect, talk the issues, form alliances, exchange ideas, and then it is all shared with the broader movement as we march towards the type of consciousness we need to build to overcome the overwhelming obstacles we face.
So as soon as I publish this, I'm heading to beautiful San Francisco. I'm just a regular middle class guy who is self employ and have the same pressures as anybody else; pressure on customer projects, on generating business, etc. So I made a couple of appointments with prospective customers (to take advantage of the trip). But I'm also going to make some time to run a little experiment as it relates to the movement: At different points I'm going to be posting messages on Twitter sharing ideas and perspectives.
I may write, "Okay, I'm in front of [a bank]. It would be nice to have 100 people join me." And I post pictures of the street. Or I may share some thoughts, and ideas.
Here's what I'm trying to do with this experiment: I'm trying to see if it is something that could be done by others (the spontaneous, flash-mob-type gatherings), if we are able to eventually articulate a motivation and a reason for people to participate (something I agree is extremely difficult).
So, off I go... I'm going to be using hash tag #JusticeAndDemocracy
I'll be updating this diary later on today...
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