GNN forum -

The situation is already quite clear to most, if not all, of the thinking class who would be the ones to take action in the first place. If by 'the thinking class' you mean the literate public, then I'd suggest they might be the 2nd ones to take action, citing Venezuela as an example (though the sequence of events will doubtless vary from situation to situation, and this example might not be that pertinent). First the exploitative class mobilized the least-educated sector of the public, semiliterate bluecollar television audiences. Then the thinking middle class staged a counter-coup.

You could very well be correct.

Though I was suggestively referring to the free thinking class, rather than the academic thinking class, who generally think in great detail about empirical knowledge, and not about their own position as an observer.

Perhaps I was not clear, or too quick to come to a conclusion without historical context.

More clearly, what I'm referring to are free thinkers, people like us who will come to their own conclusions, thinking for themselves based on their observations, and take action based on those conclusions without addressing higher sources of authority for support.

I would think these would be the people to act first on an idealogical basis. And acting in this case could be as simple as simply rejecting state and corporate authority, at first, only in mind.

Quoting now from a Noam Chomsky lecture, "Democratic Fears of Corporate Power", John Dewey held that:

"'Politics of our society is the shadow cast on us by big business, and as long as that is so, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.' Therefore, reforms are basically pointless.

Democracy requires the shadow of big business be removed, so that the system can function. Such large institution's stress undermines freedom and democracy."

It's these massive pyramid structures that we lean on every day, which are leaning right back on us, exponentially harder.

Business men for example. There are many businessmen. Millions of them, and we buy things from them. But when all is said and done, their jobs don't accomplish a whole lot, though they're often very rich because they're in a responsible position which is very often abused.

They don't grow our food, and they don't build or design our technology, they don't entertain us. They usually don't even know a thing about what they're selling. They hire people who hire people who do something real, who sell their time up back through the inefficient layers of middlemen, from which they benefit, eat for free, and drive porches.

This is the system that is broken, and therein fucking each of us every day of our lives, and we've almost come to accept it.

This is the system that must lie to us to maintain it's existence. A system that balances on a war economy which kills thousands of people every year, just so we have the free time to build 100 story high rises while thousands starve to death in our own streets, and millions more a couple thousand km away, on the other side of political borders, don't even have clean water to drink, often as a direct result of our actions... our submittal to, and supporting of the system.

There are those who are playing the system behind the shadow, and they are the cracks through which a lot of money flows... and as time is money, that's our time they're basically stealing, which is what is undermining freedom. The lack of time, the 8 hours/day, 5 days/week life, just to maintain the progress they demand.

And businessmen are usually slaves to their own agendas, under incredible stress and irrational fear, many lose themselves and therein actually become the machine. So it's not as simple as just pointing the finger at them, some businessmen are legitimate, it's just that there are too many, and system has evolved to allow it. Too much marketing, too many shadows in the the way of the truth.

It's like an old tree tangled in itself, seized up, and about to die.

A revolution is not as easy as demanding it, or walking down the street with signs, or 200,000 people yelling at the state. That may work in a democratic system, but this is not that. Our cries fall on deaf ears.

To beat the system we've got to have our own. If we cannot organize on our own, we'll continue to let it organize us.

It's hopeless to try and change it from within. We must start anew. Something less massive, which is decentralized. Each individual must find himself and detach from the current system.

People are attached, and attachment is the root of all suffering.

It's claws are deep, and it hurts pulling them out, but it must be done or you're part of the problem.

I think, ultimately defeating it would also mean rejecting it's entire system of money, because it's a blatantly manipulated illusion, now. It is very abstract, no longer based solely on goods or services. And money is it's power over us. It buys our time.

And our time exists without money.

We've got to stick together and barter, grow our own food that isn't genetically modified, poisoned, build our own houses which don't have huge mortgages on them which we must enslave ourselves to pay off.

People know they don't like authority, but they still submit, cause they often rely on it. And because authority is conscious enough to know the people rely on it, it can treat the people like shit, lie perpetually, and they come back for more. The best we can hope to do is beat the shadow, which just rolls over and starts fresh... an illusion, which is just a new label with the same controllers.

Democratic vs Republican, back and forth, oscillating perpetually... whatever. It's the same party. The same system. Two sides of the same coin. There is only subtle difference between the two when it comes to action. It's a joke. Democracy is dead, and we know it. Despite the illusions, realize we're living in a corporate controlled totalitarian state, and we rely on it every day of our lives.

It's not just the state, it's every company we work for and buy things from, which own our time, and control the state.

It feeds us. It clothes us. It transports us around.

It isn't accountable, but we the people don't have the leverage to hold it accountable either, so it naturally evolves out of our control. Most of the people are dispersed in lower modes of awareness and are often irresponsible, so to maintain itself, the state becomes an entity separate from it's composing individuals, evolving it's own ego and casting a shadow, so it can be controlled by a nervous system composed of a select few in a pyramid structure. It is no longer the sum of the individuals it serves. It's a system that transcends the individual... so to fight back, the individual must transcend the system.

And this takes a long struggle on behalf of each person seeking escape. There is no easy answer, it takes hard work. Because after deconstructing the old, you must start anew.

I think a new system should based on psychological relativity, and the recognition of individuals. Based on new knowledge that has come to light about our position in the order of the universe, with a respect to history, so that we might not repeat ourselves... again.

One which is flexible enough to withstand a regular rebirth process so that it may be revitalized throughout time, and continue to function as it should in the future.

A system which fosters individuals who respect themselves enough to respect the system which supports them, willing to put their very existence on the line to stop, before it snowballs, the greed which we all feel, but when realized, enslaves our peers.

Individuals don't fit into rigid systems. It must be organic. Forgiving. Perpetually evolving.

And as I said before, it takes a critical mass of people realizing this system to maintain it, or it will also collapse. And I'm not particularly hopeful that it is possible at this point on a large scale, without millions of people self-destructing.

Most people I meet would not fit into a new system. They are deeply conditioned to be enslaved and think nothing of it.

So, can the current system be beat, we ask?

Of course, but we've got to beat it. Or it will beat itself, and us with it. Every day we submit, it beats us. Every time it forces us do something we don't wish to do, we lose.

Thinkers like us who search in great detail to uncover the truth of the state's actions, even if they are not presented directly on the evening news, who pro-actively search and dig up a foundation, are the only ones who can hope to take the right action.

And if we are the select few who see through and we don't act upon it, then nobody will. Ever. We are it, and we must live by example.

I think if you see the truth, you have the responsibility to become it.

I would hope we would be the first to act. But I understand people often need to lose something to be prepared to take action, as somewhat of a revenge, so they make pact to themselves to justify whatever further they may lose.

But I think losing your rights, freedom, dignity and privacy to the system is enough reason to act against it. Some people need to lose lives. Some people need to be physically attacked by it before they're ready to act up, but then they're not being proactive and ideological, mainly reactive, which is most likely emotional. Emotion provides good motivation, but it can't be the driving force.

Well there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives that have been killed under the crushing weight of this system, they're all around the world. Perhaps our tax dollars bought weapons which killed them. Many people who feel enslaved in this system, buy from and support corporations which enslave children all around the globe.

They're suffering too, under the current system.

And if we're leaning on the pyramid, it's leaning on us.

Regardless, even if a non-thinking class took action, it'd just be a reflex to the intolerable conditions they were withstanding, but without the proper ideological foundation for a new system, they would easily get sucked back into the same system if it just had a different label.

That which you claim to defeat may not be left standing.

In this case, it must first be defeated in our minds, or it will still stand, and we will continue support it with our own feet.

What does this new system look like? As Stephen was saying, we need to come up with it before it can manifest. I know, though, it's not tiny apartments cells, and there are no cubicles. There are no pop cans, corporate logos, fast food, or gas powered cars.

The way I see it, if we use cars, if we fill up our tanks with gas and give them our money, which is our time, to support wars to ensure that gas keeps flowing into the tank, we're part of the problem.

The problem is immense. We're all tangled in it.

If you want freedom you'll have to cut through the mess. Make up some massive scissors in your mind and cut the foundations which bind you to it, or we may as well admit defeat.

Imagine a world without this system. It is vastly different.

You're responsible for your own survival, within a community of peers who respect and support you. You've got to balance yourself on the edge of time... but you've got all your time to do it, and once you're in the routine it only takes about 2-4 hours/day, of your own time, working for yourself, then you got 20+ hours of freedom and human living to do. You have no boss, possibly no watch, and very few luxuries- though your time is yours.

Are we prepared for this, or are our minds so conditioned for the system that we are convinced by the illusion that if only there was a political reform it might simply be returned to perfection?

Do our lifestyles need a pyramid to organize us so we can be forged into bricks that build it up with our time? Or are we prepared for a world of uncertainty, in which we are in control?

We'll need to see every power seeking multinational corporation go bankrupt. We'll have to see millions of businessmen retraining to help the world more practically. We'll need to see 200 million gas powered cars in one big junk pile, and their loan papers burning.

This will not happen without a fight, but it's now fighting itself. It will take itself down, but then we've got to be ready to stand on our own two feet, and realize our existence as humans. It will no longer define us, and many borders will be smashed.

We'll have to see millions of people who are then out of work bind together to build their own houses and gardens so they can balance independently.

And if we don't see this, the system is still with us. It's defeat will only be an illusion, and we'll always, forever, be a slave to the will of another, and reflecting our position, we may unconsciously take every chance we can to enslave others under our own will.

It's a tough situation that everybody is in right now. There is no one person to blame, and there is no easy solution. A lot of sacrifices will have to be made, and we can't cling to the current system if we're attempting to get rid of it. The problem must be identified before it can be fixed.

A new model must be devised before it can be built. Help me out here.

The battlefield is in our minds, and they've already got a head start. The war is already underway, and if we can't at least take responsibility for our place within it, the shadow has already won.

We can't fix the problem until we know what it is, and see ourselves objectively as part of it. We are all cells in this system, so we should all work together and face ourselves before we have a chance against the big elusive 'them', which may be us if we're not careful.

We must make sure we're not about to cut off the branch we're sitting on, or it'll take us down with it.