Wake Up and Smell the Noise

by **AnnaLivia** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 1:41 pm

Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Next up in the center ring we present a death-defying act, back by popular demand! Behold one and all in amazement as the lovely and daring AnnaLivia attempts yet again to…(drum roll)… LIGHT A FIRE UNDER AMERICAN'S BUTTS! <a href="http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/327640.shtml">portland.indymedia.org/en...7640.shtml</a> (there’s a photo of Jello (I presume it’s him) at the site where I got this, and the whole article is plenty worthy reading and most exquisitely timely for Fitzmas, though written in 199<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"> Wake up and Smell the Noise author: jello biafra in retrospect circa 1998 from "If evolution is outlawed, only outlaws evolve" The corporate lords, their loyal opposition, and that vast majority known as "the rest of us" all agree on one thing: America has gone to hell. The whole world seems damn near ruined. We might have been a great country once, but we sure as hell ain't anymore. Everyone knows it. Everyone feels it. Everyone asks, "What for?" Hospitals close cause there ain't no money. Playgrounds close cause there ain't no money. Schools can't teach cause there ain't no money. Roads and bridges fall apart cause there ain't no money. People sleeping in the street cause there ain't no money. And every time it's the same old story, "gotta make due without 'cause there ain't no money." There ain't no money 'cause we've run out of money. Where did that money go? The money ain't gone, it's just been stolen. By the kind of people who already have so much money, they can't think of anything better to do than plot and scheme ways to make even more money. If that means screwing everyone else, so much the better. Snip The brave new world is a cyber plantation where, thanks to so-called free trade, under the NAFTA and GATT treaties and the upcoming MAI, it is now officially sealed in writing that global corporations can act as their own sovereign nations. Laws don't apply to them anymore, and every human being on every country on earth must now compete against each other for who will work for the lowest wage. snip Sometimes when you look at this, it's very revealing to trace back who's been mentally networking with whom. As usual, the real conflict is not what they say it is. It's not the left versus the right, but the top versus the bottom, a class war marketed as a race war. That we are being manipulated and programmed to fight, to keep us all from turning our most potent weapons -- our time, our energy and our souls -- against the real enemy and taking back what is rightfully ours. We are living in the new dark ages. Only if we let ourselves. I repeat, there's no way this can last. It never does. That's the best, and most dangerous, part. Throughout history, seemingly invincible dictatorial death regimes in Germany, Russia, South Africa, Czechoslovakia, Nicaragua, Chile all had one thing in common. They all failed. They all collapsed. They all destroyed themselves. The question isn't will there be an uprising, but, what form will it take? Will it be violent? Will it be peaceful? Will it be humane enough to work? Will people fight long and intelligently enough to make it work? Wake up and smell the noise. Out of nowhere, when we least expect it, the piñata is finally smashed to bits and out of its guts sprays all that power that's held us down for so long. What happens when that door does open? Will we all be too scared to go in? Will we all sit on our butts and wait for somebody else to do the work for us, until something more horrible than what we've got now beats us to it? Snip Most important of all is after the fall. That's when we must be ready. Who would have guessed that the white apartheid regime in South Africa would go as relatively peacefully as they did, and all hell didn't break loose right afterwards? Someone was ready. Who would have guessed that a playwright, best known for being thrown in jail for his beliefs, would wind up becoming president of Czechoslovakia? A brutal communist dictatorship replaced by an elected Parliament with rock musicians in it. And filmmakers, actors, and long-time front line anti-government activists. Someone was ready. Like any government, the Czech Republic turned out far from perfect, but what's now called the Velvet Revolution is still, to me, inspiring. It took a painfully long time, but in the long run, all the Russian tanks in Prague couldn't stop the will of the people, so fed up with being screwed, they brought 'em down by word of mouth. Ever thought about what you would do if that went down here? Really thought about what would I do if I suddenly found myself in the position to start taking the bull by the horns and fixing what was wrong? What would I do if I found myself in charge cause the pigs in charge weren't there anymore? Where would I wanna be? What would I wanna do first? What would I wanna do second if I was in charge? Would I just wanna kick butt? It's easy to stop and complain about what's wrong, but how would you make it right? We go on and on about the big takeover. What will you do if you do take over? Is my American-size ego run amok yet again, when I ask myself, from time to time, what I would do if I was in the President's shoes right now? Not necessarily. Today's mind expansion can be tomorrow's key to survival, if not salvation. To think for yourself, what would I do if I was mayor of this town right now? What would I do if I had the power to clean up a violent, corrupt police department? What would I do if I was in the place of the boss I hate so much at work? Or school board? School teacher? Doctor, lawyer, union representative, machinist, farmer, mother, father, idea man in some situation I hear about right now. If I put myself in their place what would I do? What am I good at? What can I do best? What would I most wanna do that's different from the rest? What hole can I fill with what I know how to do? It's an ongoing thing that takes years of bouncing stuff like this around in your head when you feel like it, putting it back on the shelf when you don't, just so long as you use it. Develop it. Keep getting better at it. Cause like in any contact sport, in crisis-mode brain wrestling, practice makes perfect. snip Wake up and smell the noise. The unified, wealthy, powerful few are only as strong as their weakest link. A well thought-out surgical strike is all it can take to cut off the tail that's wagging the dog. Then it will be our turn to deal with the dog. Or, should I say, porcupine. If we each grab a quill, we'll be strong enough to drive. No more lifetimes preparing for death. No more "give me lithium or give me meth". No more "can't fix nothing cause everything's ruined already. Why try?" No more being a spectator in our own lives. Even thinking about this stuff can't help but make you smarter, help break out of "no I can't" to "yes I can" to "now I must." We're not equal til we're equal. We're not free until we're free. I'd rather work for something I want and not get it than work or vote for something I don't want and get it. And what we got now, I repeat, there's no way this can last. Wake up and smell the noise. Corporate dictatorship is headed for a train wreck. And that train wreck will happen in our lifetime. Not right away, but in our lifetime, and if we aren't ready to cut the crap, and know how to work with each other, to zero in and focus on what's really important, and have an idea of what we each have got to do to be ready to do it right, we will get fooled again.

by **marykmusic** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 5:56 pm

Thanks, AnnaLivia. There's always room for Jello. --MaryK

by **eric144** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:45 pm

For me, this is complete fantasy. Nothing changes in this world without the hand of the Anglo American empire behind it. There have been no successful revolutions I know of in history without outside (government) aid apart from possibly Iran and that was steered back into dictatorship by the usual suspects. Ghandi made it easier for a left wing British government to give India independence but it would almost certainly have happened anyway.

by **AnnaLivia** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:56 pm

the man who says it can't be done, should get out of the way of the man doing it old chinese proverb congress always notices when the dog doesn't bark. dunno who said that the mahatma showed the british that he could mobilize millions of people with a few words they noticed read the REAL history of this country by Howard Zinn

by **AnnaLivia** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 8:00 pm

with our hands all tied to the blades of their design we are armed and ready to commit this crime we love that game but we'll never play 'cause we will lose and we want to stay the way we are the way we've been for far too long -Motion City Soundtrack

by **eric144** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 8:59 pm

"read the REAL history of this country" You mean like Dangerous Delusions "Those upper classes, to rule, needed to make concessions to the middle class, without damage to their own wealth or power, at the expense of slaves, Indians, and poor whites. This bought loyalty. And to bind that loyalty with something more powerful than material advantage, the ruling group found, in the 1760s and 1770s a wonderfully useful device. That device was the language of liberty and equality, which could unite just enough whites to fight a Revolution against England, without ending either slavery or inequality." Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States and "The Founding Fathers did lead the war for independence from Britain. But they did not do it for the equal right of all to life, liberty, and equality. Their intention was to set up a new government that would protect the property of slave owners, land speculators, merchants, and bondholders. Independence from England had already been secured in parts of the country by grassroots rebellion a year before the battles at Lexington and Concord that initiated hostilities with Britain. . . . It is one of the phenomena of modern times that revolutions are not favored unless they are led by people who are not revolutionaries at heart." Howard Zinn. "The Greatest Generation," The Progressive, October 2001 and "However, the 1763 Treaty of Paris removed the French from North America; and might have opened the West for the American colonists, had not George III prevented them from expanding by preserving the trans-Appalachian West for the native Americans. This made the colonists angry at the British this time. As the colonial quarrel grew in the late 1760s and 1770s, French authorities were keen observers out of geopolitical rivalry with Great Britain in the region, and in general. Here was an opportunity to get back at Britain by contributing to the break-up of its empire. Such was French anticipation upon their official involvement in the conflict. " <a href="http://xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/ros6-2e.htm">xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/ros6-2e.htm</a> and The French Contribution to the American War of Independence <a href="http://people.csail.mit.edu/sfelshin/saintonge/frhist.html">people.csail.mit.edu/sfel...rhist.html</a> and The Regiment of Louisana and the Spanish Army in the American Revolution <a href="http://www.magweb.com/sample/amr/ed82loui.htm">www.magweb.com/sample/amr/ed82loui.htm</a> and "Friday, June 7, 1776. The delegates from Virginia moved, in obedience to instructions from their constituents, that the Congress should declare that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; that measures should be immediately taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a confederation be formed to bind the colonies more closely together." <a href="http://www.search.eb.com/elections/pri/Q00059.html">www.search.eb.com/electio...00059.html</a> Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=eric144>eric144</A> at: 10/29/05 7:04 pm

by **eric144** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:11 pm

It isn't in the interests of those in even moderately high places (the ones who could change things) to see any kind of revolution. Ordinary people are too stupid and brutal to achieve anything positive. The most obvious examples being Russia, China and Cambodia where previously everyday citizens gained (a little) power.

by **banned** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:46 pm

...if people are too stupid to throw off the yoke of oppression, then they are also presumably too stupid to govern themselves. This is the elephant in the living room of the movement to "spread democracy" abroad or "save democracy" here. Let's face it, if people aren't bright enough bulbs to realize they outnumber the government AND the military together with sheer numbers AND that many members of both of those institutions would jump sides in a New York minute if there was a viable movement to displace the Rich Fucks (sorry to use such technical political science terminology), then if they DID somehow get granted self rule, say by fed-up Universe Overlords who decided to step in, would they not just screw up and the Rich Fucks would take over again? It's like a kid who can't stand up for himself, Dad goes out and tells the bully to scram and so the bully just lies in wait the next day till the kid gets out of sight of his house and then wipes up the sidewalk with him again. Even if neo-conservativism wasn't a big fat conjob, even if "Enlightened" people want to give people in some Bumfuckistan the power to run their own lives, it's a rare Bumfuckistan that can pull it off. The "oppressors" turn tail and run, often leaving behind the masses who have no clue what to do next, so they are taken over by a kleptocracy held in power by an elite. Actually that's what happened in the Yoo Ess Ay. I have a friend who claims the beginning of the end was the end of the party caucus system. Others think it was television. I'm inclined to vote for the New Math. Whatever...we ended up with BushCo, a kleptocracy if ever there was one. If people can't get their shit in one sea bag to rule themselves, they are GOING to be ruled. If they're lucky, by a paternalistic system that treats them like the kids on the short bus; if they're not, by a rapacious tyranny that uses them up and spits them out. I said, oh, 35 years ago that the only way to bring about a true revolution that would benefit the common man would be to expect it to take at least a couple of generations, to start by changing the nature of the educational system to teach the REAL history of the world (a la Zinn), critical thinking, problem solving, and conflict resolution, along with practical life skills (I sure wish the time I'd spent learning geometry had been spent learning to balance my checkbook and change my own oil.) Simultaneously, workers needed to be educated in economics, politics, and business, so that they really understood their role in society and what was being done to them while they were looking the other way. (At the doctor's today I was reading the TIME issue on the way companies have broken their promise to workers on retirement. I predicted this again 35 years ago, which is why I never wasted my time as a corporate slave just to get the 'security' which I knew was bait and switch and would be whipped out from under me.) That's really the only way, and it is time consuming, a way of life rather than revolutionary rhetoric or posturing. To develop over time a populace that has the tools to understand the real world and to change it in their own interests rather than being manipulated by the aforesaid Rich Fucks who DO know how the world really works and how to leverage it to get what they want. Of course, it wasn't done that way, and maybe now it's too late. We had a window and, as with energy/dependence on oil, squandered it. In the end I suspect a revolution WILL take place but as usually is so, it will just substitute one in crowd for another and create a different out crowd, it will not transform the lives of the mass of humanity that has too little of the necessities of life while some have more than anyone could possibly need.

by **AnnaLivia** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:47 pm

"Ordinary people are too stupid and brutal to achieve anything positive." you and i certainly absorbed different things from mr zinn. and from history.

by **eric144** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:52 pm

"Ordinary people are too stupid and brutal to achieve anything positive." "you and i certainly absorbed different things from mr zinn. and from history. " More from everyday life actually.

by **banned** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:58 pm

...that Fidel Castro has done exactly what I described above in Cuba, making it a far better place for the average Cuban than before, while others claim Cuba is a terrible tyranny and everyone will sigh with relief when Fidel smokes his last cigar. The former view is held by Leftists (doh) and the latter by those who are indeed nostalgic for the good old days under Batista. There are such immense axes to grind on both sides--as witnessed by the whole Elian Gonzales hoo hah--that I simply don't know which is true. Likewise I am skeptical of claims made by other communist regimes regarding education and worker "re-education." Seems to me the form is usually coercive propaganda to get people to accept the communist elite, not genuine liberal education and orientation to skills of self government. Of course, our educational system here is propaganda to get people to accept the capitalist elite. To date we haven't just taken nonformists outside and shot them, but that could be changing soon.

by **eric144** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:00 pm

Excellent commentary banned. I'm inclined to look at American revolution as a classic example of everyday people gaining a little knowledge and education only to be completely hoodwinked by a much smarter elite. There was no American revolution, it was a French led coup fronted by a bunch of crooks (and yes I mean Jefferson too). Insider Trading is the American Way: The Founding Scam <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/scaramella03302004.html">www.counterpunch.org/scar...02004.html</a> Three men <a href="http://cyberjournal.org/cj/authors/fresia/#c1">cyberjournal.org/cj/authors/fresia/#c1</a> I used to believe people were roughly equal until I started teaching, I don't think it's even biologically true and I wouldn't expect it to be with the advances in the field.

by **banned** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:20 pm

..."God made men, but Colonel Colt made them equal." <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)">

by **eric144** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:28 pm

I don't know about Cuba either. The Kennedy government along with its partners the Chicago mob made such a mess, it's hard to work out the truth. I suspect Cuba is kept going as an example of what happens if you cross the mafia (economic starvation).

by **Gouda** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 1:54 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Ordinary people are too stupid and brutal to achieve anything positive<hr></blockquote> The brilliant, tender Anglo-American elite have achieved exactly which rousing success? <blockquote>Quote:<hr>I used to believe people were roughly equal until I started teaching, I don't think it's even biologically true and I wouldn't expect it to be with the advances in the field.<hr></blockquote> Can you elaborate on this supposition? I would not want to prematurely conclude that your teaching had anything to do with any resulting apartheid. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=gouda@rigorousintuition>Gouda</A> at: 10/29/05 11:56 pm

Wake Up and Smell the Noise

Wake Up and Smell the Noise

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Lots of good points, eric. However....

Re: Wake Up and Smell the Noise

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PS, there are those who believe...

Re: Lots of good points, eric. However....

Thanks eric. Well, remember the old adage...

Re: Thanks eric. Well, remember the old adage...

Re: Lots of good points, eric. However....

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