War is one of the world’s biggest money-makers. It accounts for over 1.5 trillion dollars in business every year with billions to be reaped by those sitting atop. These multi-millionaires and billionaires are not content to sit idly by and hope more conflict breaks out. No, like any good business-person, they are out there manufacturing their markets!
And they will do this in perpetuity until something comes along to stop them. Fortunately for us, that something… is us! You and me and billions of people just like you and me.
Together, we are enacting a global ban on war – by the people for the people. It’s time for a change, and we are the ones who get to make it happen. Bold measures must be taken, like holding class action lawsuits against those who enable wars on earth. Be they in public or private service, leaders who drive us to war will be held accountable for the blood that gets spilled. No more forgetting their false pretences.
On top of this, we can continually strip away the grease from proverbial the war-machine. Imagine if, on a global scale, we could invoke a 100% tax on all proceeds made from making and selling weapons and arms. How quickly the drums of war would fall silent.
These billions we’ve been pissing away on war every year on defence budgets can find a much better home improving the world in which we live. Let’s end global poverty, eradicate global hunger, and build a renewable-powered, interconnected world. The future is now, so it’s about time we get our collective act together.
The Occupy movement, along with the similarly-themed uprisings around the world, brought into the mainstream consciousness the idea of wealth disparity, and how a tiny fraction of the population control a vastly disproportionate amount of wealth and power. While these movements have lost some steam, the idea of income inequality can be better discussed in the mainstream forums.
What we need to see now is a social movement which impacts the entire world – bringing an anti-war concept into the mainstream consciousness, spreading and growing for months and years, ultimately culminating in hundred of millions of people all speaking out in unison to say that we are all ready for war to be over.
Wow! That sound’s awesome. Better get busy and make sure it comes to fruition.
Maher pleaded with the American people to do some well needed self-reflection on their own warmongering. After two centuries of perpetual war, it’s time Americans realized “We’re the gun country. Come on, we’re the war people.”
After breaking down the history and concluding the problem lies with America itself, Maher went on to say “America needs to start defining peace as strength. Do you know who the role model for every president should be? Jimmy Carter. He was the one out of all of them who figured out how to sit in office for four years and never fire a shot. And every president’s negative example,” he concluded, “should be Dick Cheney, who even shot his friends in the face.”
I cannot express how thrilled I was to hear these words on an influential US show. When a population of 313 million people – most of whom are surrounded by strife and a crumbling infrastructure – look to their sputtering economy, more and more people need to actively point out the giant elephant in the room.
Right now, America’s military industrial complex devours half of its government’s spending. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see that drastic cuts in military spending would likely yield equally drastic improvements for American families across the land.
But, for the most part, politicians and mainstream media sources remain chillingly silent. This is, as you may well know, due to the entrenched talons of the Military Industrial Complex itself. With billions of dollars to throw around, the war machine can buy both political parties and align all the major news channels, effectively keeping enough anti-war rhetoric from the ears (and off the lips) of the American public.
So, as with all great movements, the struggle to rid our world of war falls on the shoulders of those outside the established seats of power. While it’s great when the Bill Maher’s and John Stewart’s of the world finally vocalize some anti-war sentiments, until there are millions and millions of us doing this every single day, the war machine will keep on rolling.
Fortunately, uniting against war is exactly what we are doing. All it will take is the right spark, the right catalyst, and a Occupy-esque movement can rise against the Military Industrial Complex, and the struggle towards peace will become the latest trendy battle for the masses, maybe even earning the privilege of being trivialized by the mainstream media.
CEOs from a handful of the world’s largest corporations have been meeting in secret, penning blueprints intended to tighten their stranglehold over our planet and further conform our species into complacent consumers.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) – once ratified in under three DAYS TIME!!! – will give global businesses the means to supersede domestic law, imposing pro-corporate legislation on all complicit countries.
If you already know about the World Trade Organization and how they often bully smaller nations into accepting detrimental financial regulations desired by stronger nations, then you’ll recognize the TPP as a further extension of that same mechanism.
This corporate pact – the latest in an unending quest to privatize the world – ultimately seeks to strip regular people of power. Less ways to hold businesses accountable. Fewer means to challenge the authority of big money. All this, plus a fundamental erosion of democratic processes by global forces overpowering sovereign will.
So if you care about your freedom, if you want choice to be more than just an illusion, if you think that people should take priority over profits, then you need to take action. Do something, anything. Even if it’s just signing a petition.
The sooner enough of us stand up to our burgeoning oppressors, the sooner we can reclaim our destiny from the hands of the selfish few.
Democracy is more than just voting for one figurehead or another every couple of years. It’s more than simply slapping some bumper sticker on your car or sticking some sign in your lawn. There’s more to democracy than what happens on election day and at the ballot box.
Real democracy is about taking issue with what’s most important to you. It’s about starting or joining a movement. It’s about getting people involved, out in the streets and on the interwebs, in big enough numbers to force change on to the political system itself.
The Arab Spring. The Occupy Movement. Even the Tea Party. All of these are fine examples of democracy in action where hundreds of thousands – even millions – of engaged individuals worked diligently towards a shared goal. And the best part is that they’ve all made a lasting impact on the world’s political system.
Now this very essence of democracy – this coordinated will to power by the masses – has sprouted up on the streets of China. Outraged at the prospect of a giant sewer running through their backyards, angry citizens clashed with police and rioted in the streets, offering a rare glimpse into China’s ripening revolution.
Here’s hoping for more protests in the days and years to come. Not just in China, but everywhere on earth as our world’s people comes together and rises up against the forces of injustice and inequality that have persisted for far too long.
Imagine winning a 20 million dollar lottery. Pretty sweet, right? Enough cash to live in the lap of luxury for generations.
Now times that by a thousand. This is what the world’s billionaires contend with – a net worth thousands of times bigger than what most humans would consider a fortune.
Unbelievable, isn’t it? Despite being the richest humans on the planet, they still want more for themselves. Billions of dollars just isn’t enough. It’s like they have the same fear we all share, and all the money in the world won’t get rid of it.
Still, as nice as it would be to temper the growing gap between the super-rich and the rest of us, it seems there aren’t enough elites, like Buffet and Gates, willing to fetter their own expanding wallets for the sake of the planet.
This puts the onus on the rest of us – those of us who aren’t the 1% of the 1% – to stand up and say NO! This economic model simply will not suffice! We want a more just world for everybody, and if you aren’t going to make it happen we will do it ourselves!
When free markets and democracy get skewed by the power and influence of large business, we get the bastardized version of capitalism called corporatism. And when corporatism is allowed to run amok, the top 1% of 1% of the people consistently get richer and more powerful while everyone else systematically grows poorer.
Given that the corporate stranglehold over their government is set to tighten, they have little hope to reform their state using existing political channels. Any politician that rises to power will already be part of the corrupt game, and any real revolutionary figure would be weeded out well before taking a seat in office.
This leaves few options. One thing the people of Hong Kong could do is unite. By taking the streets, coordinating and mobilizing online, they could forge an entirely new democratic mechanism and channel the warranted angst from the vast majority of the people into tangible political clout. Only then will their voice be heard, and only then will they get the reform they desire.
What the Hong Kong people are going through serves as a microcosm for what the bulk of humanity is experiencing. Right now, powerful forces are subtley yet steadily stripping power away from the entire human race in order to widen their already mind-numbingly fat coffers.
For years now, every single one of us has been under threat of an impending corporatist plutocracy. Only with unity and solidarity will we have any hope to overthrow our billionaire overlords and their minions.
Fortunately, this is already happening. The world’s people are waking up. Slowly but surely, our global eyes are opening, allowing us to see ourselves for the first time. And one thing we will quickly learn is just how powerful we can be when we work together. After that, it’s just a matter of steering our species towards a more just civilization for all.
With more and more activists finding themselves detained or arrested by democracy-crushing law enforcement, it’s worth spending a few minutes with fast-talking and highly entertaining former Defense Attorney and current Law Professor James Duane, offering us some fine advice on surviving interrogations with police personnel.
In short, Duane’s words of wisdom are:
Never, ever talk to police. No matter what. It will never help you.
Wow! Did you see the footage coming out of Montreal this week? Hundreds of thousands of protesters came out against proposed tuition hikes, flooding the streets and bringing the city to a standstill.
Amazing. Apparently Canadians can be mobilized to march. All it takes is the right catalyst, like a tax hike or a Tim Hortons coffee shortage.
I’m truly inspired to know that a whole new generation are experiencing firsthand how to exercise their political voice, and just how incredible it feels to do so.
