By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Awakening is the name of our game these days, politically, personally. It’s what we desperately need and what we studiously avoid. It’s what most do reluctantly and only a scant few accomplish with enthusiasm. Awakening is going to happen whether we like it or not, so it would be easier if we’d all just get on the evolution train, but that’s not how things work. Fear goes before us, as usual, and keeps many of us from contemplating anything that might discomfort.
Most everything is designed for self-exploration, if we’re willing to let go of our absolutes. Everything around us will reflect us truthfully if we’re willing to look in that mirror. That degree of honesty creates conflict, of course, both personally and politically. Awareness requires us to inventory our belief system, release our limitations and embrace new possibilities. All this, you won’t be surprised to learn, equals “change.” Lefty organizer and people’s philosopher, the late Saul Alinsky, put it this way: “Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.”
The whole question of conflict interests me, since I see mainstream media pummeling us with the notion that any kind of emotional outburst is somehow inappropriate to our current social and financial situation. Oh, it’s fine to #occupy as long as we remain all Gandhi-like and respectful. So long as there isn’t any property damage, any violence or conflict, a frictionless occupation will be reported in a small column, second page. Should any of these things occur, what began as a peaceful protest has now become chaos and anarchy, proclaimed a mile high on the front page, and must be corrected immediately by the authorities. But who polices the authorities? When enough of us ask that question, we’ll finally be #occupying the right spot for our coming evolutionary journey.
“History is a relay of revolutions,” wrote Alinksy in his 1971 how-to handbook for political organizers, Rules for Radicals, granting us permission to embrace our inner dissident in the name of forward motion and progress. For those who need a patriotic viewpoint, this is the American way. For those mindful of our global footprint, a quick scan of the news tells us we Americans are not the first to the party this time around. Each perceptual shift opens us to the possibility of a new experience, hopefully one of healing and growing, thriving and blooming, but one most likely tested in choppy emotional waters first. We humans resist even the necessary changes, kicking and screaming as we give up our comfort zones for the quickening power of self-awareness.
That awareness is intruding on our lethargy, now, asking us to reinvent ourselves in a new iteration of experience: Humanity 2.0, I suppose — or, if you’re a student of ancient mysteries and civilizations long gone, 5 or 6.0 or more. The enormity of this project is not lost on readers of Planet Waves, I think. We’ve taken this 2012 business seriously for quite some time, collectively resonating with the building vibrational shifts bombarding planet Terra and the astrological energies orchestrating them. When we can acknowledge that the change we’ve longed for will require us to surrender our old ways of thinking, all of this will be less painful. When we can acknowledge that the new things perking in our brains, bubbling in our hearts, ARE the change we’ve been waiting for, the joy will begin to build.
If we look around us, we will see how easy it is to identify those who are arguing for their own limitations. They look old and tired, like yesterday’s dog-eared newspaper. Although we sometimes call that “stuck” consciousness, students of this time-frame are beginning to understand that the one thing not allowed — although you’d think it was, given our continued political inertia — is the attempt to exist in a vacuum. Inaction of this sort is like a ticking time bomb. So while the two American political parties circle one another, growling and sniffing each other’s butts, energy keeps building for an explosion.
You know my mantra about consciousness is that we can’t go backward, so it’s best to admit that going forward might initially look like the recent rout in Oakland. In fact, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to breathe a little fire, this time around.
What is interesting to me, at this juncture, is who gets the inevitability of this growing social movement and who seems downright oblivious. Those who have existed on the far left of establishment thinking are overjoyed by #occupy because the internal rot of the corrupted system is finally being exposed. Those on the right of it, like Ron Paul and his followers, have a bit of empathy with a system gone wrong but little skin in the game. Once again, the left wishes to engage while the right wants to withdraw, but sitting out the game, wagons drawn in a protective circle, won’t do this time around.
It’s money driving the conversation, money insulating the elite from having to care about the great unwashed, money that keeps the mythology of class divisions in place — it’s all about money. And money isn’t real. You know that, right? We write pieces of paper, sign cyber-drafts, bank numbers not backed by anything tangible, and there actually isn’t any THERE there. It’s all symbolic. Of all humanity’s agreements, money seems the oddest to me. And — honest — money isn’t going to protect anyone when the heat gets turned up.
And the heat IS growing in intensity, despite the cold fall weather. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Watch this YouTube and you can feel that heat licking at your heels:
Meanwhile, the establishment itself appears pretty much bewildered by the whole thing. It’s hard to believe, I know, but those on Wall Street not only don’t think their competition for maximum profit is in jeopardy, but they don’t seem to consider their way of life threatened in any way, even as the financial centers of the world tremble and quake under the load of internal corruption. Obama — a student of Alinksy’s radical tactics — seems tethered to the banksters and big money, even as his base looks on in disgust. His persona as leader of establishment politics becomes smaller as the populist movement against government corruption continues to grow. It appears that our president, like Saul Alinksy, believes that political change, while receptive to dynamic movement, takes time.
I fear that is not the case this time — I think it’s too late in the game for gentle turnings. Even my favored economist, Robert Reich, did a bit of prophecy, this week:
The disconnect between Washington and the rest of the nation hasn’t been this wide since the late 1960s.
The two worlds are on a collision course: Americans who are losing their jobs or their pay and can’t pay their bills are growing increasingly desperate. Washington insiders, deficit hawks, regressive Republicans, diffident Democrats, well-coiffed lobbyists, and the lobbyists’ wealthy patrons on Wall Street and in corporate suites haven’t a clue or couldn’t care less.
I can’t tell you when the collision will occur, but I’d guess 2012.
I’d guess so, too. That’s less than 60 days away. Smell the smoke? Me, too.
Thanks for your response, Judith. The violence in the French Revolution came from the oppressed. It is clear that the violence that I am sensing in the air at this point on the calendar is the violence of the oppressors. In 2008 a demonstration of 50 medical professionals that I participated in that was speaking out for healthcare reform was met by the most unbelievable amount of metal (SUV.s –FBi owned?–police cars, motorcycles, plain clothes police cars) was more than one on one per protester, along with the yellow tape cordoning of the protesters to a very small area with heavily armed police on foot along the yellow tape lines, to protect one contestant for vice president. That was one of many tastes I have had in the past 3 years of the police state that has emerged since the early 80’s that Brendan was referring to in his post.
Well I DID Occupy the Juice Conference this weekend. ( the 3rd. bienniel to ‘juice” the creative economy.) In the Sustainable Living Workshop, some guy i on the panel told how he had been selling illegal weapons around the world making a nice piece of change, until the Exon Valdez spill, “brought a come to jesus” moment, and he quit that job pared down his life and reduced his footprint. he took in borfers sold all his “STUFF”, got rid of his car for 14 years until he found a (00. Honda that got 40 to the gal………………….& he was boasting about having his capital intact living off the interest.
I blew………………having wanted a passive solar house since i lost my log cabin in the preview mortgage scam of 1990, and winding up with an old tired farmhouse way out in a rural area where income is HARD to earn. If I had his capital, I would knock the damned thing down and rebuild intelligently. ( The sun in the shortest coldest days of the year, hits the corner of the house instead of coming in the windows……….., the cabin had windows the 45’ length of the south side, & rooved porch on the west & north so it stayed cool in summer. The huge fireplace heated the whole house in winter………….need I say more? Most of the group had a little trouble “getting it”, they are still in the blind spot comfort zone, younger , couples, employed……….
Meanwhile MY (uninsured) house exploded all over the place Sat. with 240 volts coursing through due to a corroded ground wire, blowing out a florescent fixture, a surge protector, practically every light bulb, and the starter to the furnace! The power company & the electricial were there until 9:30 PM Sat. night, I had only the woodstove for heat, and the next day had to have someone install a new starter……….
so 1/2 my Nov.SS income was gone even before it came in on the 3rd. Yes they are trying to kill Grandmom!
Thanks Judith,
When Robert Reich writes that he is guessing 2012 is when the collision will occur, that is perfect. 33 of 100 Senate seats, all 435 seats in the House and the Presidential election. All we need is a strong push to elect capable third party write in candidates that represent the 99%. One term representatives (that take NO lobbyist $$$) to make the shift. The power of social media can make this happen! THE CURRENT SYSTEM IS BROKEN and it must change by creating a solution at a higher level. 469 opportunities to place a representative. Come on- it can’t be hard to replace the deaf ears we have on both sides and surely we can find a few better specimens than the clowns that are running now! The fire starts to burn when #OWS has a statement- voting at the polls with a purposeful option-NOT it’s better than the alternative- should be the first and foremost shot across the bow!
GaryB
Thank you Jude, clear as always.
I’ll jump on the train here, and add my vote for a difference in the air. In the 60’s and early 70’s (albeit I was rather young) it seemed that if we just changed the players it would be okay, that “the system” was essentially not all that bad.
But it was all that bad, and with Ronnie’s coronation the shift really began. He was why I didn’t want to make a career in the coast guard: it began to quickly re-militarize fast after his election, and became something that I actually didn’t like anymore.
Yes, the air is “different,” River — I agree. What causes the air to stir isn’t different from the 60’s, however — in this fading paradigm, it’s always unchecked authority. When we notice, the clouds begin to gather and the temps begin to rise. This time around it isn’t just the young insisting it look different; it’s ALL of us. 99% is pretty much all, various of us just don’t realize that yet.
Good link, Maria and yours too, Sun. I don’t think this revolution needs to be bloody, but a paranoid establishment and frightened 1% will insist. That’s worrisome — but it’s just a hurdle to leap. Too late to stop this now.
When I think of how this might work out, I think of the scene in Ben Kingsley’s Gandhi where volunteer after volunteer walks up to the entrance of the salt works, only to be struck down by a guard. Eventually, it stopped because the inevitability of those willing to sacrifice themselves overwhelmed the activity.
We need to support this effort not only with growing numbers, but with the Highest and Best thought-forms we can manage. Whatever turns violent or threatening must fall back to Light; it’s our responsibility to see to it that we bring our best to this party.
Peaceful thoughts for determined change and ethical evolution — for all the marbles.
Thanks, Judith. Great article, as always.
This is different to me in feel from the 60’s. Both then and now, we all who could feel, felt “something in the air.”
It’s the air that is different. Really different. I would say that we are more pre-French Revolution in the air than the *all you need is love and give peace a chance * in the air of the 60’s. Just my opinion.
Thanks for that link, sunsprawl. Adds some depth of understanding that has been missing from the historians of the peace movements, but not from the labor movement historians.
Yes. Deep breathe. Pray. Do.
+_+
This is exactly what we need to be talking about, and getting our heads around. Fortunately, economic (and any kind of) crisis tends to open the doors and windows of perception that make deep cognitive changes possible. So we’ve been doing this, as a culture, on some level, at least since 2008. Fire? Yes, I think so too. This article at the Utne Reader really opened my eyes about the nature and myth? of non-violent revolutions. http://www.utne.com/2007-05-01/Politics/Arms-and-the-Movement.aspx If things do heat up even more, it is when it will be most difficult to maintain our commitment to this process of self and social transformation, especially if we continue to harbor the idea that the best revolutions are exclusively peaceful. I write these words with a prayer in my heart. Prayer for compassion, discernment and courage. May it be so.
This was a great column. The image of protestors as a bunch of spoiled kids and homeless people is still being sold really hard (not least by NY Post)–that’s what makes it easy to dismiss/deny. So far.
And: more smoke? http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dc-authorities-3-struck-by-car-at-occupy-dc-protest-in-downtown-transported-to-hospitals/2011/11/05/gIQAhybJoM_story.html
Jude – Wow! Thank you. I’m speechless – I’m glad you aren’t. Kat