Revolution
It was very nice to see millions of people out on the streets causing the French government to change it's policy. The students and teachers achieved quite a success over being pushed around by their government. The protest was by large a peaceful one and the French have a history of this. I wonder if America could stand up on this scale and demand that we stop corporations from pushing us around or stop the government from attacking Iran or for the Bush administration to stand up and accept responsibility for the problem in Iraq and to deal with it without bombs?
posted by kpnil at 1:22 PM
13 Comments:
I think everyone is too happy in America. Looking back to the Civil rights movement, it was clear that there was no alternative but to fight. But let's face it, the war has not affected our way of life enough.
And it's funny how people talk about corporations like we don't work for them....
12:15 PM
That happy bubble is going to burst one day and I wonder what will replace happiness? Gasoline is already $3 a gallon here in the states. I don't think it matters whether you work for a corporation or not, they must be held accountable for their actions. Whether it be deforestation of the Amazon by the fast food corporations or the monopolization of drugs by big pharmaceutical corporations. Don't get me started on the war profiteers. And you are right anonymous, it might just take that happy bubble bursting before Americans stand up in the streets.
1:04 PM
A corporation is just a legal document. We are the ones that are subscribing to the corporations. Giving our time and money to people we don't know. everytime we buy cheap crappy plastic crap or chemicals that we don't need, or go to work to build plastic crap or chemicals that we don't need. That's why the French can riot. because they know that the material stuff they destroy just isn't that important. On the other hand, The US will not make that realisation before it runs out of the oil that makes all the crap we use today. gasoline is the least of our problems. Petrochemicals, on the other hand...
3:33 PM
Anonymous said...
Hey, none of that nudge, nudge, wink, wink "THEY" stuff. If by "THEY" you not only mean Time Magazine but all the _________ out there that are _________ up the planet with their __________ all the while playing Die Walküre (Act III, Scene 1)
4:59 PM
Do Not be so quick to confuse happiness with blissfull ignorance.
What this world needs, and may be its only saving grace, is happiness. A lot more happiness. Peace, joy and happiness are intertwined in ways we will never understand. Thier full force has yet to unleashed on the forces of evil and corruption that currently feel as if they run this planet. Positive (happy) energy is perhaps the most valuable tool in the fight for peace. Do not discount the average human's abilities to convey happiness and joy in the face of all this overwhelming dispair and destruction.
5:50 AM
Apologies. I meant "Happy "in the Caribbean understanding of the word. My parents are from the West Indies where they say "you too happy" , meaning " you're blissfully ignorant". They have another saying in the West Indies: "your free paper soon burn" ...
peace, joy and happiness are cultivated in smaller communities. In my opinion, the 8 billion inhabitants of this planet will never choose to achieve a singular consciousness. I think we might be able to manage two billion ( at which stage we might realise that CHOOSING to limit the population can contribute greatly to peace, joy and happiness.
Duh Duh Duh Duhhhh Duhhhh Duh Duh DUh Duhhhhh Duhhhhh Duh Duh DUh Duhhhh Duhhhh Duh Duh DUh Duhhhh
3:23 PM
You might want to look at www.optimumpopulation.org or www.npg.org (Negative Population Growth)
or http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4584572.stm
for a BBC article.
There are various theses about how many people the earth can sustain. I have read that it is about the number of people who were here in 1800. Others say between 2 and 3 billion. There were less than a billion in 1800 and 3/5 billion in 1950 (when I was in highschool--the fabulous fifties and life was much simpler then, for some. In particular the lucky middle class Americans, tht fast disappearing breed).
1:33 PM
Another interesting theory about the subject is the Gaya Hypothesis, a.k.a. Earth System Science, in which the Planet is treated as a single self-regulated organism or "a class of scientific models of the geo-biosphere in which life as a whole fosters and maintains suitable conditions for itself by helping to create an environment on Earth suitable for its continuity". In this context, the natural catasthrophes are explained as a simple measure of adaptation of the organism Earth.
But can we just leave all the "dirty work" under nature's responsability? By the way, when is the next hurricane season?
Some interesting reading:
http://erg.ucd.ie/arupa/references/gaia.html
1:53 PM
..going back to the topic of the original post, I think that America is in the throes of revolution. Typically revolutions, are'nt public. You wake up one day and then - whoosh! what the f**k happened? The change is overnight. But the preparation is normally a long time in the making
defined thus:
Black Waters
Run deep
Rivers rage
Surface sleeps
Revolution.
NOT the promises of mass acquisition
NOT the propaganda of the new religion
Simply self-observance of the cycle of transition
As one degree becomes another
Understand this movement as a whole,
A cycle; progression of events
You are powerless to control
You can’t resist this flow
You’re already in its throes – didn’t you know?
Perhaps the stillness of the surface tricked you
Maybe you misjudged the tide
But ignorance will be washed away
And rabid denial cannot hide
No one part of water
Has greater purpose than any other
My brother, we all flow from the same source
To the same end
And when the winding stream of our collective dreams
Evaporates, eviscerates,
Sent skyward for a rainy day
Black clouds form to herald the storm
And with a peal of thunder heaven sends our aspirations back down,
Down,
Down.
Down.
Into the earth.
To feed the seeds of another.
This, my brother, is the real revolution
5:30 AM
Where is that piece from?
5:48 AM
It reminds me of Trotsky's permanent revolution.
6:49 AM
It is interesting to talk about the current issue of immigrants rights under the heading "Revolution". Immigrants are the backbone of this country and they have been since its conception, just ask the Native Americans. Spain is attributing its current economic growth to the vast number of immigrants stimulating the economy and it seems it has come to be a positive model for Spain and the rest of Europe excluding, France of course. France is an interesting case in that they seem to ignore and push the immigrant population to the fringe of its social strata with catastrophic consequences. I wonder which road we will go down.
11:12 AM
Hey Patricia,
We need an article about that very topiic. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Email me if you are interested.
Kurt
1:36 PM
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