Americans Unready to Revolt, Despite Revolting Conditions
June 16th, 2007Entertaining the author’s proposed solution will waste valuable time that people should be using to escape/prepare, but he describes the situation well.
Via: OpedNews:
Part of the genius of our contemporary ruling class elites is that they have engineering a state of political and economic oppression that paradoxically is still embraced by the Lower Class. The rational way to understand this is that ordinary, oppressed Americans are in a deep psychological state of self-delusion. Despite all the empirical, objective evidence of a failed government, they fail to see rebellion opportunities. Many still believe they live in the world’s best democracy. But across all elections considerably less than half the citizens even bother to vote anymore. Yet, as the new NBC/Journal poll results show, people are cognitively aware of just how awful the political-economic system is. Yet they are not feeling enough pain to seriously consider rebellion. And it is visceral pain that must drive people to the daring act of rebellion.
Why is there insufficient pain for revolution? This is a deadly serious issue. What is historically unique about America is that even the most oppressed and unfairly treated people are distracted by affordable materialism, entertainment, sports, gambling, and myriad other aspects of our frivolous, self-absorbed culture. Even failed school and health care systems do not drive people, paying enormous sums to fill up their SUVs, to rebellion. So, Americans are aware of their oppression, but the power elites have successfully drugged them with a plethora of pleasure-producing distractions sufficient to keep them under control. We are free to bitch, but too weak to revolt. The Internet has provided a release valve for some pent up anger and frustration. But it too has mostly become another source of distraction, rather than an effective tool for rebellion.
Though these new poll statistics make news, those in control of the political-economic system are not afraid that the population is on the verge of retaking their constitutionally guaranteed sovereign power and take back their nation. Thousands of people like me keep writing books and articles and creating protest groups and events. Those in power just find new, ingenious ways to keep the population distracted – if not through pleasure, then certainly through fear of terrorism. Growing economic insecurity also contributes to self-paralysis, as do never-ending political lies.
What a system.
Many of us are part of a passive resistance. We quietly promote tactics such as educating people on Jury Nullification and the Right to Remain Silent in all interactions with authority. We are the folks who carry extra sets of keys in our pockets to slow down the TSA Gestapo checkpoints at airports. We are gentile yet Courteously Uncooperative. Some may know us as those who give the Census Takers the names of our dogs and cats when we are asked for the identiy of household members. We ask the names of public servants whenever we have interactions with Government Authorities. Many of us are middle-aged, graying and conservative-looking, even Cheneyesque. But don’t be fooled, we are not with “The Man.”
Kevin,
This is not a uniquely American condition. It’s part and parcel of the UK as well. It seems to exert its greatest power over the Anglo-origin countries. The effects seem as apparent in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
It’s almost as if the various rebellions and revolutions have selected out (in the Darwinian sense) the will to revolt leaving only the complacent and malleable.
It’s worth considering the last act of rebellion in England occurred in 1549 in Cornwall. Since then, zip. There have been some others as England sucked in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, sure. But, strange as it seems, Cornwall was the last of the lands under direct English rule to rebel against the government.
It may be a simple matter of selection. Those most likely to rebel would also be most likely to be killed in a rebellion. Have enough of these rebellions and eventually most of the populace predisposed to rebellion will be removed from the gene pool. Given enough generations the rebellious type would become an outlier and have little or no impact on the balance of the population. Indeed, this may be a general trend for civilisations in general. Perhaps that is one of the great features of civilisation. Its ability to breed out rebellion and optimise for complacency and acceptance. Don’t really know, it’s just an idea that came to me.
Finally, at some point in the proceedings conditions will become so detrimental a sufficient number of the populace will rise up and replace the existing members of the order. Big deal. A rebellion only replaces the current regime with new members. What is really needed is a revolution. Now, with a revolution the old order is replaced with a new order, so to speak. Major problem with this is the underlying populace are still as complacent and compliant as ever. Time runs its course. Things do as things do and, almost by magic, we’re right back where we started. Bummer.
I have to wonder just what will happen if all of the enlightened citizens of the US escape to NZ, Mexico and other regions of our precious planet.
I live in an area of the US where the citizens look at new people moving in as aliens and treat them as such, mostly because they do not want the status quo upset. Some of the newcomers do bring their old ideas with them. Funny thing that people who supposedly are escaping an area where they feel squeezed in some way move to an area where they feel more freedom is available and bring all their baggage with them. This scenario is within the US, what happens when groups of US citizens move to a new country (Mexico? NZ?) and bring their old ideas with them. You know, we all bring our baggage with us in one fashion or another.
Not to mention the thousands of folks living in the US who do not have the means to pick up and move to a new country. Also consider those folks who do not want to leave family behind.
Revolution, quiet or otherwise, is a possibility for change. I like the idea of quiet revolution, and looking back at my life (I am 57) I can say I have lived a life of quiet revolution, most likely I will continue on this path.
@goritsas, very interesting comments re the gene pool being depleted of men of action.
A few of us here in Ulster have long pondered a similar theory. We had been trying to rationalise why the Ulster Protestants (i.e. ourselves) were so utterly impotent at doing anything meaningful to take control of our country’s own destiny, i.e., declare independence from the UK and forget about this insane loyalty to the English crown that has led to the cusp of a united Ireland (something anathema to us for generations). One possible conclusion was that we were seriously hindered by the horrendous losses we suffered in WW1 at the Somme and other key battles, which saw the cream of our youth slain for no good reason. A small nation like Ulster enduring losses on that enormous scale simply had to have been seriously emasculated by it.
That’s of course, on top of the previous vast migrations we haemorraged to North America of those with “get up and go” in an age when England was jackbooting it over the Ulster-Scots (that’s “Scots-Irish” in American parlance) here. That also depleted the gene pool of a lot of “doers”. What we’ve bee left with is a population of loafers, hapless flag wavers and weak-kneed old cowards whose idea of a stand is a watery letter of protest to “Her Majesty’s Government”. I’ll never forget how, one evening after the army and police had beaten the living crap out of hundreds of them at a protest parade, one of their clergymen got up and started to pray for the Lord’s protection on “Her Majesty’s Forces”, yes, the very ones who had just battered them senseless. And nobody present raised so much as a whimper in dissent. It’s this kind of mad loyalty to the crown, this inability to see the world in any other way, this certifiably mad allegiance to a misty, rain-lashed scrap of earth, that I cannot fathom.
The most effective revolutions of modern history have been non-violent. Ghandi, Rev. Martin Luther King, Mandella, Solidarity in Poland. I believe that Larry has the right idea. As more of us become aware and refuse to cooperate, we will create a stelth revolution that will be harder to suppress. Walter Wink in “Engaging the Powers” is a good resource for non-violent resistance. Lets not become what we deplore.
Nonviolent opposition seems to be the only kind that has a chance. Even Kevin has stated that direct opposition is easily put down by TPTB, and actually works to their advantage.
Also, the French were starving to death before they revolted. I think its simple human nature: most people won’t take a big risk unless things are “really” bad.
@Barbara,
Yeah, Dr. King was truly successful. Can’t imagine anything better that being black in a southern US state. Even today, do you actually think the lot of black folk in the US is something desirable? You must be nuts. Sorry, you lost that round.
Mandella? You’ve got to be kidding, right? The state considered him a fucking terrorist and then proceeded to incarcerate him for 27 years. The violence then proceeded apace on all sides for another 30 freakin years. You lost that round too.
Do you know anything about the battles that raged throughout Ghandi’s “non-violent†campaign? Anything at all? There were millions killed during the drive to independence and the killing didn’t stop after that. Pakistan and India were locked in a pitched battle that continues to this day. Not to mention that Britain finally figured it was a far better bet to get out and come back using relentlessly victorious predatory capitalism than continue to invest in the cost of a war with no hope of a return on the investment. Oops, another round gone.
As for Poland, did you have your eyes and ears covered during the Solidarity movement? How many images were beamed through your television screens showing pitched battles between the Communist state and those seeking to bring it down. This isn’t going too well for you at all, is it.
The notion of a non-violent revolution is hog-wash. How do you expect to non-violently alter the outcome of a 9mm slug bearing down upon you at mach 2? Sing more loudly. Pray with greater fervour and conviction? Hold hands with those idiots stupid enough to stand even remotely near you?
I’m not advocating anything in particular but you need to get a grip on the reality of the situation facing you and your fellow citizens, otherwise, you going to be chewed up and spit out by some of those said same citizens that continue to align themselves with the state. Like your local constabulary and your secret services and your army and navy and air force.
Good luck, you’re sure gunna need it. And stop reading those stupid Barbara Cartland novels.
Detroit is essentially abandoned. Now look at these photos of Gary Indiana.
http://www.growingchicago.com/images/other/mypicsVI/
No need for an expensive neutron bomb. Just ship all capital and manufacturing to slave camps in China. Voila…the US wasteland.
Dear Goritas,
I recommended author Walter Wink, not Barbara Cartland. Your defeatest attitude is not going to win many to your cause, but then you don’t seem to think much of humanity so perhaps you prefer a revolution of one. Living a decent, loving, self-sufficient life is the best response in any and all circumstances. To paraphrase the saying that a coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave only one, I would state that living with love and compassion under opression is better than living with hate, anger and fear in freedom. Another book I would recommend is “The Hiding Place”. This is the true story of a family that maintained their faith during the nazi occupation of the Netherlands. All of us will die eventually. The challange is in how we live, authentically with honor, compassion and dignity, or not. King, Mandella, Ghandi, lived lives that made a difference no matter how
@ Barbara re goritsas “Your defeatest attitude is not going to win many to your cause”
Um, what “cause” might that be? I must have missed that particular goritsas posting.
I myself am so deadly weary of being surrounded by people who CAN’T FACE REALITY because it’s just, like, you know, too freakin’ depressing to think that holding hands and singing kumbaya isn’t going change human nature.
Don’t forget we ARE the Prozac nation. TPTB (I like that abbreviation BTW) saw revolution coming and rolled out the drugs, to render the few people of action that were not bred out of the gene pool, impotent. Every person I know that would normally revolt under the current conditions are medicated into passivity. TPTB have all the cards stcked in their favor. We, the sheeple, need to find a way to beat the house. Violence is not it – TPTB have superior weaponry. Quiet revolutions do not bring about the necessary change in a reasonble time frame. What else do we have? I’m seriously asking the question. I for one would die for our cause but it would take many for death to have the desired impact. One dead person, that would be labeled crazy, does not a revolution make. So I ask again – what have we got?