Manifesto for 2012
We are a free people. Our rights are inalienable. The source of laws is greater than any individual, any legislative body, any society. All humans by virtue of their existence as sentient beings are entitled to a life with dignity; a life free from oppression and exploitation.
Throughout history, the powerful few have dominated the weaker masses. In the time of cavemen, might made right. As primitive societies developed, the most powerful members of a tribe would subjugate others. Empires grew and fell; feudalism begot monarchy. Wars were fought over territory, resources and slaves. Marxism and fascism are the dictatorship of the ideological architects over the masses. Capitalism and democracy, as they exist in America today, have merely become the dictatorship of the extremely wealthy over everyone else. Our political system is completely beholden to those who control the economic levers. Most politicians are mere pawns that will do anything for their small piece of corruption and power. With few exceptions, they are more interested in corporate campaign contributions and staying in office than doing what is right for the country. They do not represent us. They do not represent the 99%.
America skips happily down the slippery slope towards a police state. Jack-booted thugs pour pepper spray down the throats of peaceful protesters exercising their most fundamental rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Tents are burned and belongings smashed and the courts say protests are not protected speech--even as we scream "I reject this social compact, I am taking back my country!" Meanwhile, corporations can make unlimited donations to political campaigns and that is protected as free speech. The coercive power of the state, the monopoly of force, has been built up and concentrated. The police protect and serve—but who do they protect? Who do they obey? The overwhelming power of the state is being wielded to subjugate the population it ostensibly serves.
The methods and tools have changed throughout history, but the overall structure remains the same. A very few at the top have outrageously concentrated power and use it to their own constant benefit while everyone else suffers. This kind of "power" being exerted by the oligarchs to oppress and exploit the 99% is nothing short of psychopathy. It is a pathological disregard for the well-being of fellow-man, a greed that borders on insanity, an abhorrent refusal to recognize and end the suffering that is created by the lust for power and money.
What are the consequences of this pathological greed exhibited by the 1%? The costs are high and widely dispersed across society. A few get ever richer and more powerful. Everyone else pays. When the financial system collapses due to reckless risk-taking, the criminals who caused the mess get bailouts while the average American loses first a job, then a home. When pollution contaminates our water and poisons our air, ordinary people suffer while polluters reap record profits. When wars are fought over oil and American families lose their military sons and daughters, oil executives run away with eight-figure paychecks. Everywhere one looks, the public goods of society are given away for nothing to the already rich, looting the equity built up by past generations as social programs are cut, real wages decline and the poor and jobless become ever more desperate.
Some have accused us of being vague. Does this sound vague? Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe it's just enormous. Maybe it is because we are taking on the whole corrupt system. This is a call for revolution. Not a violent one, but a democratic one. One that takes power back from the few and puts it in the hands of the many. This is a call for true representation of the people. This is a call for an end to milksop politicians and their corporate masters, an end to corporate campaign contributions, corruption and lobbyists writing the laws. This is not right wing or left—we reject your labels. This is a cry to the people of the world to wake up and demand our rights, to demand a return to our values: democracy, freedom, plurality, the sanctity of life and respect for others. To demand that these ideals are the motivating forces of our society—not money, not power, not greed.
This is our planet. We are occupying it. We are many. They are few. We will overcome. We will succeed. We will take back our world.
