A Proposal

Let's talk about what we can do about the current situation in America.

The oligarchs are squeezing the working class out of everything we have. There's no stopping point. They seem to believe that they can continue to take and take forever, and we'll just keep taking it. They're sure that we'll accept that fate passively. They think of us as cattle, domesticated animals whose only purpose is to passively wait for them to slaughter us. They expect us to quietly disappear from human history like the Neanderthal.

I think they're wrong. I believe that when the suffering gets bad enough, the people will wake up - and the Revolution will begin.

Strangely enough, the election of Donald Trump is one strong indicator that I'm right. And it's actually a hopeful sign for us! In 2016 the people were cheated out of their real choice. We were offered a choice between the corrupt status quo - Hillary - and a supposed agent of change, Trump.

The people chose Trump. He wasn't what they hoped, but he was ELECTED as an agent of change. That's what he ran as. And that means that a huge number of Americans are getting fed up. They're suffering. They're angry. Which means that our nation is moving inevitably toward revolution. You can only screw the People for so long, after all.

We can't know when it will come. What the breaking point will be. But when it comes, it's going to come FAST. And we need to be ready. Which means that we need to start preparing now.

Both DemEnter and third parties have failed. For DemEnter, progressives have been trying that for decades; it has never worked. The Democratic Party is a private entity, and as such it can make, change, or break its rules as it wishes. They've made it clear that they can and will cheat as much as they like to keep progressives out of power. And the courts are apparently powerless to stop them. As for third parties, the two major parties have locked the system down completely against any success by a third party. Even if a third party became extremely popular, the duopoly control our black-box voting machines - and again, there is every reason to believe that they have already used that power ruthlessly to maintain their positions. They will again, if they need to.

We need a new approach. Since traditional political avenues for change are closed to us, we need to go outside the usual paths altogether.

Recent history indicates that what the oligarchs seem to fear the most is direct personal interaction among the people. The Occupy movement terrified them, enough that they were willing to let the mask slip and show the iron fist beneath the velvet glove. They crushed Occupy all across the country in coordinated strikes, all within a week or two. At the same time that movement was, for a while, very effective. Ordinary Americans were beginning to get involved, which is exactly what the oligarchs dread.

We also need to consider the current social and economic environment. People are under enormous pressure, more than most of them have ever experienced before. At the same time, more and more people are living lives of terrible isolation. We evolved as social animals, spending much of the time interacting with family and neighbors on a daily basis - but our end-stage capitalistic society has replaced that human interaction with digital media, easier to monetize, monitor, and control. We spend our time staring at pixels on a screen (like you're doing right now). That's simply not an adequate replacement for the real, living, human interaction that we are emotionally and biologically evolved to require.

People are scared, broke, lonely, and angry. That's what the oligarchs want; it keeps us distracted and weak. And that offers US a huge window of opportunity.

Here's the situation:

The major political parties have sold out, heart and soul, to the oligarchs. They are in direct opposition to the concept of democracy and the common good. As such they are obstacles which must be brought down, not avenues for reform.

The media is likewise almost entirely owned by the oligarchy, and is effectively in thrall. Again, this is a matter of enormous amounts of money - money that we can't match.

The internet is not yet completely locked down. The oligarchs and politicians (their servants) are doing what they can to control the net, but the net was designed to survive nuclear attack - so the process is taking longer than they'd like. We have some time, I hope. But the net is still vulnerable to monitoring and control, particularly on social media sites. I would also argue that any effective movement cannot depend primarily on the internet, as it is insecure, monitored, and under the ultimate control of the oligarchy. If it comes down to a matter of their survival, they'll pull the plug - if they can.

On social media sites (particularly Facebook), progressives are also subject to near-constant harassment by trolls and the "useful idiots" who swim in their wake. There's a reason for that; the oligarchy recognizes that the web is a potential source of danger to them. They saw what happened when populations overseas suddenly woke up and overthrew tyrannical regimes. They're throwing millions into paying trolls to keep us helpless and disorganized. David Brock's ShareBlue, of course, is a prime beneficiary of those millions.

They're also frantically creating false "progressive" groups to divert, divide, and confuse us. Justice Democrats, Brand New Congress, Our Revolution...new ones appear all the time. You can recognize them by their sleek and pre-packaged quality (although I wouldn't be surprised to eventually see some deliberate "amateur" ones). And they're not neglecting older fronts, such as DailyKos, The Young Turks, and MoveOn! All of them have been bankrolled, subverted, or purchased by the oligarchs, and are in their service. They oppose the people.

The power of the oligarchs is money and corruption. They've leveraged that brilliantly. Every potential defender of the public interest has been bought out or corrupted: journalists, politicians, reform groups, identity groups, celebrities. They're all owned, now. Every branch of government has been purchased. We the people are being rendered for our fat, reduced to a state of learned helplessness, kept in chains of fear and debt. We are slated for the slaughterhouse by an elite that views us as nothing more than a resource.

Our power is numbers, although far too many of us fail to realize it. If a substantial percentage of the population wakes up, the oligarchs will face a reckoning. They know this. So keeping us asleep is their primary goal. And since online progressive groups have a relatively high number of "awake" members, they are subjected to near-constant attack by trolls. They're a potential nexus of danger to the elite.

Let's work to make their fears real.

I propose that we set up local face-to-face groups. This could be done via Meetup, local bulletin boards, fraternal organizations, informal groups of friends, houses of worship, clubs...there are all sorts of options, and there's no reason to limit ourselves to just one. The immediate purpose of these groups would be to help members to help each other by pooling knowledge, resources, and skills. They also need to be FUN. People these days are under pressure; they're scared and isolated. Our world has warped to the point that for many, interacting for more than a minute with other human beings (outside of immediate family) face-to-face is unusual. A basic human need is going unmet.

Clubs (call them what you will - Secret Parties, maybe?) that offer social interaction, mutual support, friendship, and fun could take off like wildfire. These organizations wouldn't be cookie-cutter or monolithic; each would be independent and self-run. But they would network. Potentially they could network across the world and be the seeds of a worldwide movement, because that's what we need.

These would not be overtly political groups. They would pool resources for various purposes, but they would not support any candidate or party (although individual members could choose to do so, of course). Rather, the underlying purpose of the groups would be to spread awareness, help more Americans to wake up, and to prepare.

In the meantime members can help each other in many ways:

• Parties
• Helping unemployed members find jobs
• Group outings to fun places and events
• Find ways to save money
• Sharing tips
• Research and sharing information
• Helping each other with transportation, babysitting, elder care
• Preparing for emergencies and times of instability to come
• Someone to talk to, a friendly ear
• Other? I'm sure there are many possibilities that I haven't considered!

We're social animals. The oligarchs took that away from us over the past forty years. These groups could help fulfill that basic human need...and help save the human race at the same time.

The oligarchs are continuing to turn the screws on the populace, relentlessly. They believe that there is no limit to the amount of suffering that the working class will endure. We're cattle, beaten, terrified, and propagandized into submission.

I think they're wrong. In fact, the insatiable greed of the elite is, paradoxically enough, our best chance.

If we were as hopeless as they believe, Hillary would have won. The election of Trump showed that people are suffering, and they aren't willing to accept the status quo - and as things continue to get worse, more and more will feel that way. There's a limit to how much people can suffer and lose. Eventually, the population flares into rage. They revolt. It has happened here before, and it can happen again. It happens all around the world.

We can't expect to control exactly when the people wake up. But we can prepare for that day, and pave the way for it. And when the time comes, we'll be there - to help, to try to guide, and to win freedom and equality for all of us. A better future. The one we've all been hoping for.

Thoughts?