One sure-fire way to help local and regional areas:

Buy only from companies, corporations which do business in your state / the states, are NOT foreign owned… nor publicly traded.

These ( walmarts, mcdonalds, etc ) may offer cheaper-priced products, but the majority of the money is leaving your hands and going to the capital owners.

Only a touch goes to your local tax coffers, and only a bit go to the local labor force running the operation.

Consider inner cities and how they are dominated by big international corporations.

Consider smaller communities which do NOT allow big conglomerates enter their district due to the reality stated above in my post and this article’s message.

Support your local business, not some capital return to who knows who?

Natural Scientist, what you may be referring to is the illusion of value and worth attached on people via their monetary significance.

Since all things have a value amount attached to them ( what is the U.S. citizen’s, the surety for the nation’s debt, valued at today according to the bond? ).. well, we are ‘programmed’ to view the world according to a valuation.

We look at the price of gas, and whether you consider that to be valuable, you simply go pump it because it IS what is NECESSARY to do your ‘work’ or the duty of doing something ( deemed valuable since you get a paycheck from it ) in order to pay for the cost of your existence.

So, we see most people are ‘captive’ and held in a state of ‘awe’ when it comes to money, which again, is the very thing ALL ARE chained to.

Some very sly shysters have ‘capitalized’ on the mesmerizing affect of money and the chattel’s ignorance of that subject.. and have had their way with us all.

Why did the Christ become angry and actually physically removed certain someone’s from the temple?  Look it up, for this is who is against all of humanity…. to their condemned detriment.. and sadly, all who also worship money and cannot break away from its deceptive allure.

I think we’re past the point where there is any chance of thinking of this country in terms of inclusiveness. We are, in both attitudes and government policy, a solidly “You’re on your own/survival of the fittest” country. Think of it this way: Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on handouts for the rich every year, and while we might grumble a bit, we’re really OK with it. They are the deserving rich. Welfare for the rich and our serial wars together consumes roughly 50% of the federal budget, We might grumble a bit, but no mass marches, no nationwide strikes. We do believe in the entitlement of the rich. Contrast this to the way Americans howled that AFDC was breaking the budget, driving the nation into bankruptcy, even though at its highest (back in the late 1970s)  it used a mere 6% of the federal budget. If we reward the rich and powerful adequately, maybe something will trickle down to us.  But when it comes to the poor, there’s nothing in it for us.

What drives the US today is a powerful Us vs. Them ideology. Rich vs. poor, young vs. old, right vs. left, winner vs. loser.  Everything we are today, everything we stand for,  is rooted in mindless scapegoatism. We don’t like each other. At all.

Kind of funny, when you think about it.  The middle class smiled and clicked their drink glasses together as they watched the poor drowning.  While they were enjoying the last bubbles, the richest were sneaking up from behind, and threw them in the water.  They flail around with a look of shocked amazement on their faces when they see that no one is coming to save them.

Madisolation:  Some understanding of nonviolent political action—history, strategy, tactics, attitudes necessary etc., are essential yet this subject is something very few Americans even begin to understand.  It is always pushed into the background by the “enforcers.”  Yet it’s just about the only practical method left.
  For help and encouragement get in touch with Quakers (Society of Friends). (American Friends Service Committee). Read about Ghandhi, Mandela, Thomas Merton (or Thomas Merton Society) Bishop Tutu, Fellowship of Reconciliation—for starters. Columbia University, University of Colorado (and some other colleges( have Peace Studies Departments that include courses in the theory and practice of nonviolence, but you’d never know it; they get little to no publicity, ever. Obviously. The military/industrial complex can’t make a dime off of their activities.

Forgot the speech link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UTMFQRiOo&feature=player_embedded#!

Listen closely… and at running time 53min+ he mention “The Big Sort.”

And what we’ve been subjected to… very revealing for someone of his caliber and position to be so ‘frank.’

Gerard, you write:
“How to?  Call some friends together.  Talk things over. See what your locals want to do that’s possible, right where you live.  Once you begin, things start happening.  Groups build themselves in ways you can’t predict.  Human organization is as natural and organic as any other form of growth.  It happens.”
Thank you for the advice and encouragement. I’m coming to the realization that the ideas you stated are the only way we can respond to a system that has gone so seriously off track.
I’d like to be a part of a fifty state protest strategy. Most people don’t have the resources for a trip to DC, but they can go to their representative’s HQ’s and they can go to college campuses. I’d love to get speakers like Chris Hedges and Glenn Greenwald and Ian Welsh (there are so many) speak to those gathered. At least it would be a start.

Hedges has pointed out that revolutions generally bring out the criminals and sociopaths in society, leading to another round of the same old crap you were fighting against.  It is informative to realize that the French revolution, a true uprising against the elite, ended with Napoleon and more suffering.  One crazy megalomaniac replaced another.  And someone else in this stream pointed out that Mao went to the dark side once his revolution was finished.  That is often the way of violent upheaval ... the most charismatic and destructive rise to the top.  If there is a revolution in America, the people must be diligent in keeping the opportunists from taking control.  Unfortunately, given the general condition of our population, I fear that is not likely.  Look at the ‘cream’ that has floated in the tea party.

kerryrose, you and I may have more in common than most people.  During the Depression I was growing up in Pittsburgh My father, being a teacher at Schenley High School, did not suffer from job loss but he saw and felt what was happening.  Every Saturday he went downtown to McCanns where jobless men would be standing alongside of buildings looking desperate and defeated.  He bought as many bags of groceries as he could afford and handed out bread, milk, meat and fruit.  Other people were doing the same.
  “I don’t know whether it does any good or not,” he said to me.  “But I can’t stand to see them standing there.  i have to do what I can.”  When he broke with relatives by voting for Roosevelt, they laughed at him behind his back. 
  At school, he was already coping with too many kids per classroom who came from economically defeated non-English-speaking families and, being minorities of all kinds, found themselves far from the so-called American Dream that had already slammed the golden door shut.
  Now, again, we’ve got our Fricks and Mellons and Carnegies to deal with in spades!  Some people would say we’ve lived too long—but I beg to differ!

This guy is on the other side ( Clinton ) for he is a patrician… yet, you must learn how to decipher the pooh from the porridge.

He’s warning of the agenda…. simply encouraging these kids to go along…. yet, that is the agenda… and the people in the other countries are the next victims of the empire… as we just experienced.

JDMYSTICDJ: Good post. Society has been conditioned to believe that those who’ve suffered severe psychological/social/spiritual “DAMAGE” are lazy malingerers and phoney nutcases. I understand your point. Sometimes people get broken beyond repair. The entire MIC/Prison Corporate spin that people are replaceable cogs (and should be considered thus) without recourse denies and defies all spiritual/human/social value. That those who speak for human worth and dignity are deemed “enemies of the State” and labels like “commie” and “socialist pinko” says all a Human Being need know about the soul crippled thugs in Corporate Washington. Evil is to knowingly destroy the economic base of entire communities and manufacture a lie that openly steals the homes, money and lives of multi-millions. We all FEEL IT. It’s alive.

    Likewise, your point about the abortion issue is well taken. Few look past the popular polarities.

      The “DAMAGE” is a living evil infection sprung from that foul beast Baboonus Washingtonus. Indeed, the diseased American Soul, Mind and Body may not be cured without major psychological catharsis as in say, the French Revolution and the guillotine. I pray we avoid those extremes.

      I’m trying to take GERARDS advice but it is difficult. These days, when I venture out to mingle with my fellow Americans, I try very hard to SEE THEM. First as Human Beings and second as people trapped and alone, suffering the same American madness as myself. It seems to make things a little better.

      Keep it ROCKIN”—I’ll catch you on the turn around.

kerryrose: To answer your questioin, no, it isn’t necessary to “love” anybody—just to acknowledge good ideas when you come across them, especially if they are even halfway encouraging in looking toward the future.
  Actually, my thinking is that we need to not depend upon the big NGOs as much as we do because they are too conservative to listen long term to the root causes of need except on the scale of huge disasters where they can raise big money quickly and act for immediate relief.  Usually they are soon gone. And they can make big mistakes.
  The real need is for “little” people to take local matters in their own hands and do what they can to right wrongs. That enspirits people to build communtities and to get a sense of their ability to take control, to govern, participate, and see results first hand.

Interesting that Staughton should comment: “My favorite book is Ignazio Silone’s novel ‘Bread and Wine,’ particularly the first edition before he started rewriting all his books.” Ties in with Ignazio Silone’s remarks under ‘Author’s Note’  ” . . .if it depended on me, I should gladly spend my life writing and rewriting the same book . . .the single book that every writer has within him that is the image of his soul and of which his published works are only more or less rough fragments.” FYI ‘Bread and Wine’ is also my favorite book.

A great column about two courageous activists, especially compelling to me because I was not familiar with Staughton and Alice Lynd.

Just wondering

Are we loving and believing Bill Clinton?  He who ushered in NAFTA and dismantled Welfare, stranding millions of vunerable?  It has never recovered.  Not to mention his horrible ecological record.

Really?

How can such a situation exist in a state where staunch supporters of democracy like John Boehner hold sway? I am shocked! Truly shocked!!!

THANK YOU! NapoleonDoneHisPart.

Here’s the site again.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UTMFQRiOo&feature=player_embedded#!

The substance of the video makes great points simply:
1. “We need to think.”
2. “If you make a decision when you are angry, scared or frustrated, chances are 75% that it will be the wrong decision.”
3. “Answer the ‘how’ question..”
4. “It doesn’t serve any purpose to deny the facts.”

Thanks KerryRose,

Greed at the highest levels displace those unaware of the business practices of such greedy and ‘sophisticated’ men.

I have never heard of the Lynd’s, and am glad to know them now.  I do understand dying mill towns.  My father started his own business that was directly tied to the the steel mills in Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Youngstown.

As a girl I remember him so upset, sobbing to my mother about the bread lines he saw when the mills closed.  His business could not longer survive, so we moved to the Northeast.

They remain my people, though.

And this was quite the eye opener…

VERY COMPELLING!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UTMFQRiOo&feature=player_embedded#!

running time 53+ says ALLOT about the Big Sort.

Oh, that reminds me….

“The Big Sort”

Worth Googling

madisolation:  Your comment-name says a lot. Isolation may be the most destructive, deeply rooted problem in the U.S.  Rugged individualism did its work over a couple hundred years and we have 2% of isolated rich at the top dictating orders and 98% less rich, middle and poor unable to come together and defend themselves.  They too are isolated from each other in isolated communities where neighbors don’t speak and races don’t like each other. None of them knows how to build a cooperative movement.
  Yet within this isolation are hundreds of individuals who have been working together like the Lyhds, as free individuals working among prisoners not behind bars but people jailed by fear and ignorance.
  These working individuals, acting as human anti-septics in cities and towns all over the country, deserve publicity but never get it—not even in Truthdig!  So nobody knows about them except through isolated happenings like the publication, for instance, of YES Magazine, small, limited, struggling for funds.  I repeat, there are tens of thousandds, yet millions know nothing about them.
  (Hint:  Do some serious Googling.  Chances are, you’ll find some of them and can get busy.)
  How to?  Call some friends together.  Talk things over. See what your locals want to do that’s possible, right where you live.  Once you begin, things start happening.  Groups build themselves in ways you can’t predict.  Human organization is as natural and organic as any other form of growth.  It happens.
  It’s inevitable. You can trust it.  Your work will be to guide it well, to help it get where it wants to go.  It’s very likely the one and only cure for “mad isolation.” Cheer up!  “We have not begun to fight!” as some patriot said—only this time it won’t be fighting that does it; it will be caring and loving and creating.

I was referencing alphabet caricatures like the FBI, CIA, IRS, etc… not true patriots who see and will NOT accept, like that man you mentioned.

Thanks ITW.

I first came across Staughton Lynd as a kid in the early 60’s. His kids were at the same summer camp and I knew them both.  Not long after SL made the NYTimes Sunday Mag when he was at an early anti Viet Nam War demonstration and was doused with a bucket of red paint, and, if I remember correctly, went on speaking.  This was while he was still at Yale.

I didn’t know he was still alive and with us—and obviously is VERY with us.

Despite seriously p***ing off the main stream of scholars many of them still respected his work well into the 70’s and beyond.

It all comes down to RACE and that man-made slogan “whoever dies with the most toys wins.” 

Yale, and all their fancy alphabet costumed caricatures can call it quits… and stop worshiping at the house of the earthly temple made by man’s hands of things we deem valuable, like a thing you can’t eat ( gold ), with the fiat being the carrot for the masses to peddle for their earthly pedigreed lineage of nobodies, dusty names of an old boast.. and stop believing a man can be a god… for THAT man already made is mark in history… and his Essence has Permeated every living thing we know and yet KNOW NOTHING of His Essence.

A man, nor group of veiled men, can stand against the TRUTH of God, the LIGHT of history, nor the REALITY of our point in time… they can only shutter in their boots in amazement as they watch the Truth unfold.

That ‘man’ will return, and he’ll be asking: Luke 18:8

“I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

The earth is STILL God’s possession, albeit trampled by one sicker than us all, calling it ‘his dominion’.. which, as every other thing that comes out of that one’s mouth… is a lie.

Much like our monetary system.. is a lie.

The fiat, is not money as we’ve been taught money to be ( a store of value ) for that value has been stripped, stolen, ShangHied, kabish?

So many are prevalent in our modern society, the empire of illusions and empire still alive and propagated by dark hearted men… to further enslave people via their mind.

Christ showed the way to true Freedom, not by currency nor capital nor obedience to Caesar…. but to God.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

Let me take this opportunity to thank Chris Hedges for not using the word “we” and mostly for writing an article of definitive reality and mostly, especially and absolutely for not proselytizing.

Though I have no ammunition for funning this week, (except for the usual posters)  well hopefully for all of us there will always be a next week! 

Did we miss the Porn convention this year?

Your article, Mr. Hedges, is inspirational.

A couple of things:  It took one man in Parliament
and one man ‘on the street’ 50 years to pass a law
making slave-trading by the British illegal.  The
Lynds need a champion in Congress.

Secondly, I’ve been blaming the Big Pharma Lobby for
keeping marijuana illegal.  Given Mr. Hedges’
article, I’m adding the Prisons’ Lobby to the mix.

JDmystickJD:
“I personally will continue to advocate for coalitions to reform and repair, and to avoid nihilist thinking. I’ll suggest that the Left/Center coalition needs to prioritize goals and avoid alienating the electorate by emphasizing divisive, libertine, periphery issues which can only be considered the ultimate nihilism by rational thinkers. Ignorance may be bliss, but irrational thinking causes psychic anxiety, and neurosis.”
And while you do all that, the Lynds will be doing actual work that accomplishes something.
Not to offend, but whatever you wrote sounds like something out of some DC think tank formed for the purpose of who knows what…gobbeldygook.

Revelation explains these extraordinary end times, times & events of such magnitude never recorded in history.
Read the ‘4 Horsemen’ of Revelation to see how these times are clearly depicted as now- times that we all are experiencing.
Don’t look for world conditions to get better- they will only get worse- “FAR WORSE”.
“The Threshold of Revelation” w/o any ability’s of human man to halt the procession into final collapse.

Futility can be noble, but it’s still futile. Alienating ones self from the main stream may be principled but it is also counter productive. The goal within democracy is to build coalitions in order to achieve goals, not to alienate potential allies. “If you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao, you ain’t going make it with anyone anyhow.”

Having studied the life of Mao Zedong, and the history of China, I personally find much to be admired in Mao’s early years, not so much in his later years. Successful grass roots organizations sometimes become totalitarian, replacing one group of disconnected elitist ideologues with another group of disconnected elitist ideologues.

C.Curtis.Dillon states the goal of radicals well.

“But it will take more damage to the middle class before true rage begins.  When the poor can no longer see a path to a good life because the barriers have been raised too high, then the real war will commence.  Unfortunately, we are still some distance from that moment but it is coming.”

More rational thinking would advocate for eliminating the outrages, thus avoiding the rage producing suffering, would be the most fortunate of outcomes. If one ascribes to the radical philosophy, coalition building and struggling for reform is to be avoided; hastening the “…real war…” is the goal, but the outcome of the “…real war…” is far from certain, and could well lead to more tyranny, not less tyranny. Populations have, in the past, rejected radicalism and become reactionary. Right-wing, disingenuous, hypocritical, opportunistic, propagandists are very effective at focusing on divisive issues to misdirect the electorate.

Many in the radical-left fail to see that the diminution of liberalism, from both ends of the political spectrum, discredits the radical-left most of all. The electorate will see the radical left as extreme liberalism.

Our destiny will be directed by an event in the immediate future. We can abandon liberals which will facilitate the Right, and be a further setback for the progressive agenda, or we can abandon counter productive nihilist thinking.

Personally, I believe the Lynds are highly principled and laudable in philosophy, but naïve. As an example, I’ll suggest that aligning themselves with the worst of the worst, and coalitions of the worst of the worst, is correct from a purely sociological perspective, but naïve from a real world and humanitarian perspective. The worst of the worst are frequently sociologically and psychologically damaged beyond repair. An unbiased, informed observer may well come to the conclusion that our society has been sociologically damaged beyond repair, if that’s true, the future can only be tragically bleak, regardless of strategy.

I personally will continue to advocate for coalitions to reform and repair, and to avoid nihilist thinking. I’ll suggest that the Left/Center coalition needs to prioritize goals and avoid alienating the electorate by emphasizing divisive, libertine, periphery issues which can only be considered the ultimate nihilism by rational thinkers. Ignorance may be bliss, but irrational thinking causes psychic anxiety, and neurosis.

50,000,000 abortions can in no way be considered virtuous, sexual promiscuity and infidelity which effectively destroy lives, families, and love itself, can not be considered virtues. Millions of deaths from sexually transmitted diseases can not be considered a sign of virtue. Conspiracy theories aside, the obvious reality can not be avoided by a rational thinker.

When rational thinking is seen as heresy by a society, that society may well be damaged beyond repair. Hopefully, that won’t be the reality. The consequences of that reality could be tragic beyond imagination for that society, and for other societies as well.

Just when you think Chris Hedges is hopeless he comes up with something like this excellent piece, about people who are actually doing something. 

Yale, birthplace of the CIA, is still kicking inconvenient activists out.  Maybe CH should look up David Graeber.

“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from the defects of the Constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nation, of coin, credit and circulation.”—b. A.D. 1735 John Adams, 2nd President of the United States of America.

These shysters WILL pay, if not with the very fiat they believe to be real… or otherwise… but they will pay!

“World does not reward moral virtues”, being an overgeneralization needs to be
clarified.

First of all, i suggest, we at one time were quite honest-truthful-peaceful-
secure; thus, narry a soul ever needed rewarding. The quality of such being,
appears as a reward;either god, nature, or nature-god.

What happened after that and why-when what happened to us, happened,
appears worthy of study and not at all the study of “World does not reward
virtues”.

The word “is”  or “are”, suggests strongly immutability of needless or flattering
praise-reward for honesty. Not so, if ones say: This became so and so; evoking
conclusion that we cannot change the undesirable phenomena.

I am curious why hedges so assiduously skirts the fact that, say, swiss became
honest to a degree [possibly becoming more honest] than americans.

I am not going to get into whether ?all americans by now became dishonest. Be
as it may, most now behave irresponsibly-unsane-angry-frightened; and so do
i.

if i wasn’t scared of people’s meaness-uncivilized behavior, i’d shout this truth
from street corners.
Actually, in ‘98 we did protest US bombings of iraq and US sanctions against it.
No, i never shouted!

And early ‘03 i did hold banners, distributed leaflets and organized marches
against coming war against iraq.

I no longer am able to do that since i have to look after my wife who has the
Alzheimer!

I assert that main actors in the robbery of our once cherished interdependence
[high dependence on one another and nature] were priests; later joined in these
infamous labors by the most avaricious and dishonest people; socalled nobles.

The bastards are still with us: amirs, sirs, aghas, ceos, senators, princes, et al.

Since hedges shows strong bias against elucidation; prefering solely
lamentation, i seldom read all that hedges write.

As for the posters on TD, good 90% just lament also; or defend US system of
governance; which appears one of the factors that manufactures ever greater
paroxicism and dishonesty.

Culminating in use of even WMD. this is quite likely as americans appears os
uncivilized against the aliens. And hedges appears not much dif! thanks for ur
Right Ear and the Finger!

This country is sinking, brought down by the plutocracy, who are far far removed from
the people who live here. At some point the people are going to realize it’s either us or
them. The plutocracy has realized that decades ago.

Trying to make meaningful change in an electoral process that has been so corrupted at the national and state levels is an ineffective and often futile use of time and energy.  While it is necessary to remain engaged in the pseudo-democratic process we cannot expect that our political leaders (except for a few like DK), aka shills for these corporate oligarchs, will do anything more than provide small economic crumbs and superficial social baubles in order to stifle the major systematic changes needed.  People like the Lynds illustrate that the only effective response – resistance – to the current oligarchic system is cultural.  While the media focuses on the tea baggers, extra ordinary people all across the country are working to create an economic, social and cultural web of life that takes care of and benefits all beings – not just a few rich humans. 

True resistance is a culture, and the heart of this new culture is building the resilience of local communities like Youngstown.  Resistance as a culture means creating an alternative, parallel economic, social and cultural ecology rather than trying to violently tear down or replace a corrupt, dysfunctional and self-destructing system.  The current economic and hierarchal social systems are already rapidly collapsing and the very act of creating a life affirming alternative will itself speed things along – but that is the problem.  How do we survive in the transition where basic necessities like food may become unaffordable or difficult to obtain for ordinary people?  The Fall 2010 issue of Yes! Magazine “A Resilient Community” http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/a-resilient-community provides a look at how we can survive the transition.

Fear not, Youngstown residents, Jim Traficant is on the ballot in 2010.

http://www.jimtraficantforcongress.com/

Visit http://www.mediasanctuary.org/movie/1953 to see a new talk by Chris Hedges on the day his new book, “The Death of the Liberal Class” was released.  See http://www.mediasanctuary.org/movie/1954 for the introduction of Hedges by RPI Prof. Tamar Gordon.

This talk was recorded on Friday, October 15 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy NY.

“Too many movements are directed from the top down. They are not rooted in local communities. It is we who should be building local movements to tell those in power what to do, not the other way around.”
I’m sure Lynd is right, but how?

I’m sure building prisons in Youngtown will be a tremendous growth business.  In the coming years there will be a huge demand for prison cells as the society falls into ruin.  And the rich, ever aware of financial opportunities, will be there ready to service this growth industry.  We can always count on greed to show the way.

As for organizing against the powerful, I suspect there will be a time in the not too distant future when many of the issues that now divide us will merge into something more coherent and powerful.  When all races see their futures being destroyed I have this feeling that color and ethnicity won’t be as big an issue anymore.  But it will take more damage to the middle class before true rage begins.  When the poor can no longer see a path to a good life because the barriers have been raised too high, then the real war will commence.  Unfortunately, we are still some distance from that moment but it is coming.