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Building A
Constituency For World Peace
By Casey Butler
11/12/07 "ICH"
-- -- We are America, the City on the
Hill: An enlightened land that hosts an enlightened and educated
generation. The year is 2007. We have world history at our
fingertips - the successes and failures of the entire human race
are open to our view. No generation before us has had so much
historical and scientific information available to it.
The overwhelming evidence
provided through the history of humanity on planet Earth tells
us that World Peace is not in the interest of any human
government, no matter what it is called, nor is World Peace in
the interest of any known organized religion condoned and
supported by any human government, no matter what that religion
is called.
Recent events testify against
the intentions of our own government and the organized religions
practiced under it's tax umbrella. In the current conflict
scenario known as "The War On Terror", the duly elected United
States Government has shown no interest in exempting itself from
the harsh judgment of human history. Having rejected the tenets
of international law in favor of unilateral gunslinging,
history's judgement of the USA will be the same as other outlaw
states and empires that have preceded us. Historical comparisons
with previous failed governments abound.
Ours is a system of government
founded upon the highest of evolved human ideals of justice,
liberty, reason, and global human equality. They are ideals
compiled and instituted by our founders, ideas evolved through
millinea of suffering around the world.
However, since its founding,
ours is also a system which we, the people, have evolved our
way.
Over the last 231 years, through
hard times and prosperity, the last 60 years as a nuclear
superpower, we the people have "democratically" re-designed and
modified our system to be a government dedicated to the
efficient and ruthless advancement of our own interests by
threat of force. These interests at which we have become so
adept in advancing are best summarized as the interests of
acquiring and protecting wealth of embarrassingly disgusting
proportions when viewed in the face of the global poverty and
suffering that surrounds us.
We, the American People, every
single one of us who participates in American society, are
responsible for the actions of our government today.
The unvarnished truth is that we
have only begun to suffer the consequences of those
actions.
In our arrogant determination to
protect, sustain, and yet further inflate our acquired wealth,
in our paranoia of losing our vaunted "life-style" of unlimited
consumerism, we are rapidly descending into a new dark age of
self-legislated totalitarianism. On the international "front",
to sustain American economic power we have implemented a
'diplomacy' marked by international corporate blackmail backed
by economic and military threat. To sustain our craving for
non-renewable resources we now justify aggressive and brutal
imperialistic hegemony and illegal occupation of third-world
nations.
The strategy of the Empire of
the United States is the strategy of subjugation, to keep
third-world nations in the third world, to oppress free thought
there, to limit education and the development of scientific
knowledge there.
But we are not that way, you may
say. America doesn't support oppression. America doesn't use its
power to blackmail. America doesn't attack first. American
troops don't kick down doors behind which cower women and
children. We are not the bullies we convince ourselves we are
blessed to save others from.
But we are that way.
Since the morning of September
11, 2001, we the people of the United States have been on our
knees, literally cowering behind the brutality of American
military and nuclear power, because we can't face the truth of
what we've become over the last 6 decades. The truth is that on
the 11th of September some 19 fellow human beings sacrificed
their lives and three thousand of "our" lives in an attempt to
open our eyes to ourselves.
The truth is that they
succeeded.
As a result of these sacrifices
and their effect upon the American Spirit, what was
America is fast devolving into a house of cards, a house
divided, a house built on the sand - politically, economically,
and environmentally. More and more of us understand this each
day.
The American Spirit we all share
is a powerful force. It is the sum of all human Spirit, the sum
of all the joy and sacrifice since history began.
It cannot lie to itself for
long. Through report after report of killing done in our name,
of torture performed in our name, of the suppression of human
rights done in our name, of lying and cover-ups performed "for
our own good", etc... Our American Spirit has been searing us
within, crying out for justice and truth as we live our
"lifestyle" - as we play the game of normal-every-day
capitalism. So far, other than a few token gestures, some
"protests", and many words, we've been "good Americans".
Under direct orders of our
designer government we've continued shopping.
History will record our excuses
too: "We were just following orders. It was really Bush, Cheney,
the Neocons, the Christian Zionists, the Fascists..."
We have an endless list of
scapegoats for our own apathy and neglect of humanity.
When does the American Spirit
manifest itself? Do we continue pointing fingers while more
people die every day? When yet another war of aggression is in
the offing? Are we really going to await the next "election"
before we stop ourselves? Are we going to watch more blood
spilled pointlessly while the "wheels of democracy" turn? And
then what? Await still another election, if by chance there are
any more elections?
Most of us who understand the
nature of this war also know deep within our American Spirit
what has to be done.
Yet we continue to
procrastinate, many waiting for some Great Leader to arise. We
think, "If only we had a Thomas Jefferson...", "If only we had a
Gandhi...", "If only we had a Martin Luther King, Jr..."
But we do have Jefferson.
We do have Gandhi. We do have Martin Luther King,
Jr. We have the words and lives of ALL who have
participated in the human struggle for World Peace against the
oppression and tyranny of government and the religions that
suborn government.
Through these great leaders and
many others, the evolution of successful revolution for change
is laid out before us on history's stage. We are fortunate to be
the beneficiaries of the efforts of Gandhi and Martin Luther
King, Jr., whose actions made the traditional revolutionary's
sword and musket, then machine guns and grenades, obsolete.
Today we know that the most
efficient way to effect change in a Western society is
non-violent resistance, economic boycott, and the surrender of
the very lifestyle that requires the oppression and exploitation
of others to begin with.
These modern weapons of
revolution, applied without hypocrisy as they have been in the
past by Gandhi most effectively, will bring about the societal
paradigm change to Peace, if we truly want Peace.
We need to put our money where
our mouth is. We need to start a Peace Revolution. Not really
even a revolution, more of an exercise of our freedoms of choice
to live as a peaceful people. But it is a revolution still.
In order to stop the ongoing
bloodshed and oppression that WE THE PEOPLE continue to be
responsible for:
- We must initiate
non-violent civil disobedience now, most effectively
by refusing to pay any tax levied by our government, state
or federal. WE THE PEOPLE must withhold from our government
the means to finance war against any other people.
- We must stop buying and
selling now. From automobiles to gas to homes to fast
food and knick knacks, WE THE PEOPLE must stop contributing
to the corrupt corporate American economy that drives this
war.
- We must surrender our
lifestyle now, surrender our possessions now.
WE THE PEOPLE must become equal with those whom we have
oppressed. WE THE PEOPLE must become the servants, our
possessions theirs. WE THE PEOPLE must live as they live
until they live as we live. WE THE PEOPLE must eat as they
eat, until they eat as we eat. Those who cannot surrender
their lifestyle due to health conditions or other reasons
must financially support those who can. Our children and
grandchildren will not need our possessions or our wealth,
they will need World Peace.
- We must stop financing any
organized religion or any other non-profit organization that
is dependent upon tax-exempt status of any kind from the
government. All organizations that accept tax-exemption are
basically paid to keep silent. They are threatened with loss
of their non-profit status if they do not toe the government
line, which means convincing their membership to toe the
government line as well. WE THE PEOPLE must stop financing
all such organizations, religious or secular.
- We must show genuine
solidarity with oppressed people everywhere. To do so, WE
THE PEOPLE must overcome the false barriers erected between
humanity, past and present, regardless of race or
nationality, culture or religion, sex or any other
consideration, now. WE THE PEOPLE must embrace our
world and its history as they exist, both the good and the
bad. WE THE PEOPLE have created our own circumstances. WE
THE PEOPLE must stop pointing fingers, we must accept and
embrace who we are and where we are, we must accept and
embrace all who carried us here, and we must accept and
embrace all who are here with us today.
This is a revolution that will
necessarily be spontaneous on all our parts, an action of the
individual American Spirit we all share. Such a revolution has
been building for a long time, and it embraces all revolutions.
As you can see, there will be no
leadership available as yet for this revolution, except from
leaders of the past. Those currently running for office hoping
to effect change and bring an end to the war are not going to
succeed. Our wealth-driven democratic system is too far gone,
our "needs" to maintain our lifestyle, as it exists, are too
great to allow America to stop. Along the way even the most
well-intentioned politician will be forced to compromise through
flattery, bribery, and/or political threat.
For the time being if we need a
leader to inspire us, each of WE THE PEOPLE, through our
American Spirit, can resurrect a leader in our mind as required
to help us do our part.
For example, when I was in
fourth grade I set out to memorize the first and last paragraphs
of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, because the
words just rang so true to me, even at that age. They are
eternal words. The parts I managed to memorize read as follows:
"When, in the course of
human events, it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and
of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.
"We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness..."
"We, therefore, the
representatives of the United States of America, in General
Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name,
and by the authority of the good people of these colonies,
solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies
are, and of right ought to be free and independent states...
"And for the support of this
declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of
Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
The concepts here, especially
the concept that ALL people are created equal and endowed with
certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness, will sustain and inspire me through
this revolution. To me Jefferson still lives through all of his
words. I have resurrected him. He has taken his place as one of
my leaders through all the injustice, killing, oppression,
lying, and violence that WE THE PEOPLE are propagating today.
What about a living leader for
the revolution?
For a living and breathing great
leader to stand up and lead humanity to World Peace, he or she
first needs a constituency.
Great leaders do not arise from
a void. They arise to fill the void created by the will
of a leaderless constituency. Jefferson's constituency were the
people of the 13 colonies. Gandhi's constituency consisted of
the people of colonized India. Martin Luther King, Jr's
constituency were the oppressed African Americans of the United
States.
Though desperately needed, there
is no World Peace constituency around whose members walk the
walk described above today.
Let WE THE PEOPLE who want peace
resolve to create a living constituency for World Peace now. Let
us build a constituency whose ardent desire is World Peace,
whose self-evident truths include the rights of ALL PEOPLE ON
EARTH to equality, life, liberty, and to the pursuit of
happiness within the culture and traditions that best suit them.
Let us build a constituency
whose participants are ready to die to bring World Peace, a
constituency having surrendered its lifestyle, having stood
forth against the aggression and subsequent oppression wrought
by our own government to sustain that lifestyle, a constituency
having rejected violence and oppression of any kind against any
other human being.
Let us build a constituency for
that leader of the future who awaits such a constituency in
order to lead all of humanity into lasting World Peace.
If we, the American People, the
enlightened population of the City on the Hill, do not build a
constituency now that is wholly dedicated to Peace among
all of humanity, WE THE PEOPLE can read our future in the
history books of any failed society that has preceded us.
If we do build it...
Additional
Resources of Interest:
Casey Butler is
an American Spirit, now a Constituent for World Peace.
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