Ferguson and the False Promise of Revolution

Written on November 28th, 2014 in politics Comments Off

Published on Activist Post, by Tony Cartalucci, November 26, 2014.

When faced on the battlefield with a numerically superior enemy, one must attempt to divide his enemy into smaller, more easily dispatched opponents – or even more ideally, divide them against one another, and have them defeat each other without ever drawing your sword. For Wall Street’s 0.1%, divide and conquer is a way of life … //

… Divide and Conquer: … //
… Ferguson – Playing America Like a Fiddle: … //

… Get Off the Hamster Wheel:

One cannot accomplish anything by burning down one’s own community, killing one another, or complaining and protesting endlessly. Real revolution is not taking to the streets and destroying a political order, it is creating a new order that displaces the old.

The American Revolution, for instance, occurred after the colonies established their own economic system, as well as their own militias, political networks, and infrastructure. The violence broke out only after the British tried to reassert themselves amid the steady process of being displaced. By the time shots were being fired, the real revolution had already occurred – the subsequent war was to defend its success.

Today, the establishment constitutes unchecked, unwarranted power and influence held by the corporate-financier elite – an establishment we are in fact paying into daily every time we patronize their businesses, use their services, associate with their institutions, and pay in attention and time to their propaganda and political agenda we ourselves should be setting and executing. Ironically many of both the police and protesters clashing in Ferguson on opposite sides of the “conflict” have homes full of Wall Street’s goods, and subscriptions to many of their services.

Indeed, Walmart ends up filling our homes with most of the consumer products we depend on in America. A handful of agricultural giants feed us. A handful of pharmaceutical giants medicate us. A handful of energy monopolies light our homes and fuel our vehicles. You could fill a single sheet of paper with the names of corporate-financier interests that rule over nearly every aspect of our lives.

Such monopolies exist because they have extinguished competitors. Ensuring that competition remains extinguished means creating a society that is incapable of producing individuals or paradigms capable of challenging their established order. This includes sabotaging the education system, creating a socioeconomic system that encourages unsustainable dependence rather than self-sufficiency and independence, and rigging rules, regulations, and laws against any potential upstarts.

The notion of Ferguson protesters demanding justice from a system created of injustice, upon injustice, is as absurd as trying to squeeze apple juice from a lemon. It is the definition of fantastical futility.

Instead of demanding justice, jobs, education, healthcare, food, and other necessities and desires from a system with no intention of ever empowering the people – a system that in order to continue perpetuating itself must by necessity never truly empower the people – we must begin working together locally to empower ourselves.

Power stems from infrastructure and institutions … //

… (full text).

(Tony Cartalucci’s articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at Land Destroyer Report, Alternative Thai News Network and LocalOrg).

Links:

Yanis Varoufakis: Was Maastricht Another Versailles for the German Nation? A Reply to Klaus Kastner, on naked capitalism, by Lambert Strether, Nov 27, 2014;

The New York Times Thinks Jailing Banksters Would Cause a “Bind” (provoquer une impasse) – Bill Black, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, Nov 26, 2014;

The case for structural reforms of welfare in Southern Europe [CHART], on RWER Blog, by merijnknibbe, Nov 27, 2014;

History: 150 years since Sherman’s March to the Sea, on WSWS, by Tom Mackaman, Nove 27, 2014;

Conspicuously consume this, on RWER Blog, by David Ruccio, Nov 26, 2014:
(See also: Theory of the Leisure Class, on American Studies at the Univ. of Virginia;
Conspicuous Consumption? Yes, but It’s Not Crazy, by Robert H. Frank, on The Upshot, Nov 22, 2014);

Death of 15-year-old exposes growing use of child labour by Canadian employers, on Axis of Logic (first on WSWS), by Ashley Tseng, Nov 26, 2014;

The Radical Pragmatist: Donald Tusk Provides Strong Voice for Eastern Europe, on Spiegel Online International, by Jan Puhl, Nov 26, 2014 (Photo Gallery): With the appointment of Donald Tusk as president of the powerful EU Council, a politician from Eastern Europe will be placed in one of Brussels’ most important positions for the first time. The former Polish leader could become a key voice in the crisis with Russia;

OCAP members occupy city building, demand safe space for women and trans people, on rabble.ca, by John Bonnar, Nov 26, 2014;
(See also: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty OCAP);

A Truce In The Holy Oil War? on naked capitalicm, by Yves Smith, Nov 26, 2014;

Working in a good way, Rethinking Indigenous solidarity, on rabble.ca, by Samantha Nock, Nov 26, 2014;

Swing Sets and Death in Syria, a Visit to an Aleppo Playground, on Spiegel Online International, by Christoph Reuter in Aleppo, Syria, Nov 26, 2014 (Photo Gallery): Every day, children from the Salaheddin district of Aleppo meet at the local playground. They play war as the real one rages just a few meters away. But the graves are slowly encroaching;

Who gets the $$ for food in the North, big business or hungry people? on rabble.ca, by Karl Nerenberg, Nov 25, 2014;

ISIS is not Blowback from Western Foreign Policy – They ARE Western Foreign Policy, on emprie strikes black, Sept 24, 2014;

More war will not defeat ISIS and terrorism, on political affairs pa, Sept 12, 2014;

… and this:

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