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Transforming our Society, a slow and sometimes agonizing process... By David VanThournout 12-26-04 Occasionally someone says something that nags at me, gets under my skin a little. Perhaps requiring an answer from me because of my own personal involvement with the destruction of everything we as humans hold sacred here on earth. so in response to the following post on our message board (see: Not One Damn Dime Day) "pooh ping" had said; (one of the cleverly named rascals who likes to post anonomously) "how about not one f ing red cent year. everytime we spend any of ceasars dollars we enable their genocide, we give them crediblity and are complicit in their aggresions and abuse. burn everything and then we can have the necessary rebirth." To which I reply: ....I am working my way to a life of consuming only what I grow and make and living on native plants etc. I figure that shouldn't be too hard since over 75% of the worlds food come from plants introduced to us by Native Americans. I am not buying anything for anyone this Christmas. I bought only one item last year in a gift exchange my family has adopted. And that item was made for me by a friend I know that makes pottery. So.... I am personally doing much more than just Not One Damn Dime Day. I am working on a not one penny more the rest of my life. There is nothing to tear down that isn't already ours. The perception that we can hurt the rich by destroying things is an illusion. Our goal rather is to build a community that creates a space where we grow our own food and do not depend upon fossil fuels. We will build each others "in earth" alternative art homes and use renewable energy such as wind, solar, and bio fuels. Living this way, the way nature intended, close to the land, I will be able to reduce my income to $12,000.00 per year. This will ensure that my money is not spent on war by my government, the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. The only problem I see with the overzealous pursuit of the death of this society is that in such turmoil the only ones that benefit from it are the rich and we end up going feudal, ultimately only exchanging one ruling elite for another. This guarantees more exploitation, more social unrest and more war. There are 18 nuclear reactors that we know of within the Mississippi Valley watershed. It is important that we, rather than have a crashing and burning of our society and it's errant ways, have a gradual and healthy transformation allowing us to safely make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. There are many reasons why energy independence is important. The most important reason is that in the future more and more wars will be fought over dwindling resources due to global warming. see; Pentagon says Global Warming is the single largest threat facing America today This is the most important political battle before progressives, democrats, and liberals. Energy independence solves more and more problems as it becomes a domino effect. This is what we call a strategic initiative, and once started will become a slippery slope of progressive reform. Energy independence will positively impact the environment by reducing the gases that cause global warming. It will improve America's political environment by diffusing power into the hands of many instead of the few oil barons of America. Energy independence will help to reduce and eventually remove the motivation for the industrialized nations of the world to seize the developing world�s resources by force or by manipulative laissez faire capitalism. Energy independence will create more jobs. Energy Independence is freedom from the tyranny of oil and the death it�s running out will cause. Furthermore, we will probably not actually run out of oil. It will just become too costly to extract. It doesn�t have to run out. In the next twenty years we will watch the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources. The sooner we do this the better. The sooner we do this the less likely the ruling elite will be able to simply have a quick, society destabilizing upheaval, that will benefit only the rich. This transformation has already begun. We are forming that community that I speak of already. The transformation of our society into one that actually embraces real democracy instead of the failing and archaic form of democracy we have now will not happen overnight, beware promises of that sort. Violence will not solve our problems and will only play into the hands of those forwarding fascism in our midst.
Peace now
related sites: Also see; www.sudval.org and also; Vernal Education Project Support your organic growers! We are forming an organic food coop right now. Our intention is to avoid yuppie pricing of organic food. Check out Ecovilla Coop for contact info.
Below on the right you'll see the values that conservatives have been touting for the last 30 years... On the left you'll see the values that we as progressives embrace. These are the simplest most descriptive terms we can use to describe our particular worldview as suggested by Linguistics professor George Lakoff.
I believe America is at it's strongest when we deal honestly and openly with diplomacy as a member of the world community. We are all of the human family, one strand in the web of life. Military might does not make right. Broad prosperity rather than free markets which are a myth. Proper regulation has always been important in preserving the commons. Without them corporations would rule every aspect of our lives.... Taxes are the dues we pay as Americans for a wonderful society and fantastic standard of living (however degraded this may be due to recent terrible decisions made in the Whitehouse). It is a myth that you or I could more wisely spend our money as individuals. We cannot protect the commons or send people to space or build the internet, or the interstate highway system or even think about the future possibility of free education or universal healthcare as individuals. Effective government rather than smaller government. strict father morality, pursuing your own self interest in a dangerous world. Loyal only to family and aligning oneself only with others that reflect your worldview. Domestication which becomes auto domestication (they call it self discipline) On the other hand you have mutual responsibility. We each share a responsibility to future generations. Our society is as good as we ourselves make it. We have a responsibility to help build community. When free markets cross the line from competition to exploitation all of our communities suffer. A strong America will be a leader in democratic values. a country which values democracy will act multi-laterally building an honest and open international consensus. This will allow us to promote our values by living up to them and respecting the rights and the diversity of the human community. A safe America will be an America that respects other Nations and international law. If we build strong community relationships we will have fewer enemies and our enemies fewer recruits. If we want our society to act democratically, we need to educate our children that way (see; www.sudval.org ), we need our workplace to be democratic, then we might be able to expect our foreign policy to be democratic as well. Many of us blindly accept the direction this country is taking. Meanwhile a significant portion are actively pursuing a course toward totalitarian theocracy. Strict father thinking (fear activates the strict father programming) and the politics that this narrow worldview perpetuates, through manipulation of our basest fears. Trivializing our dissent and manufacturing a "consensus" around the never ending "war on terror". The proper re-humanizing re-framing would be to fight terrorists by fighting poverty and by eliminating the root causes of terrorism which are hopelessness, desperation, exploitation and lack of meaningful dialogue. You cannot argue for your own freedom without simultaneously arguing for universal freedom for all of life not just narrowly for Americans or even just humans. At an environmental level we depend entirely upon the diversity of life for our future stability. Diversity is stability. Nurturance = Democracy, strong sense of community, fair markets, fairness, honesty, communication, diplomacy, prosperity, peace... Strict Father Morality = Authoritorianism, weak, overly propagandized, groupthink community, corporatism, totalitarianism, classism, militarism, rationing, war. If you think that we are not rationing right now, where is the money we need for healthcare, education, environmental protection, housing and jobs? Peace now (scroll down for more news) Our Answer??? deeeeeproooooograaaaaaammmmmm......
UC Berkeley linguistics professor George
Lakoff talks about how transforming the language of politics
can help win the good fight. and: Linguistics professor George Lakoff dissects the "war on terror" and other conservative catchphrases Professor Lakoff filed daily
dispatches about the language used in the major speeches of the
Republican National Convention. Video 'tax relief' |Video 'TBA'| Video 3 Order George Lakoff's Powerful new video How Democrats and Progressives can Win! If you buy only one book this year, make it this one.Don't think of an Elephant is quickly becoming the bible of progressive politics. Professor Lakoff has found the solution to the takeover of America by the "Daddy" party of the Republicans. We need to, rather than attack their frame, make our own. He points out that when Nixon said the words; "I am not a crook" he doomed himself. The moment he said the word crook we thought of him as a crook. Just like when you tell a child not to do something... they only hear the something you told them not to do rather than the "not to"...
See also; www.solutionsociety.org
"Pick up this book, shake your head in disbelief and
disgust as you read it, and then...go raise some hell!"
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The editors at the Deprogrammer apologize for any offense that may have be taken because of the stories, the views and opinions you read, and the links you may follow from the deprogrammer. These opinions are entirely the responsibility of the person who has expressed them. They are in no way meant to be interpreted as opinions that members of Quad Cities People for Peace embrace as a group, or that we necessarily embrace here at The Deprogrammer. Everyone has an opinion. Our goal is to give you as much un-spun truth as possible so that you may form your own opinions through constant questioning of controversial subjects. To that end, we will endeavor to present as many sides of a story as possible while at the same time bringing to your attention our countries most critical minds and their opinions on the most important (and controversial) issues we as a society are facing today.
David "Crow" VanThournout Editor, www.thedeprogrammer.com
Revised: December 26, 2004 . Fair Use Notice
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"Don't Think of an Elephant!"
