I thought the following comment I made to an anarchist by the name of Larry Gambone on the socialist blog Renegade Eye constituted what amounts to a pretty good sermon, and if I do say so myself, is worthy of reprinting here as a part of this day's Imbolc festivities-such as they are.
The message here is simple and timely. If people want to change the world, they have to start with themselves. In our Western society, our own decadence and profligate spending has been our undoing. The main point to this can be boiled down as-if you don't like it, don't buy it. If it tastes bad, don't eat it. If it smells, don't fuck with it.
The beauty of the capitalist system, at it's best, is that people already have the power, if they would but exercise it. Many of my comments will seem inexplicable, because they are in the context of earlier conversations. Still, the gist of it is there. A new age might well be dawning, and it might well be more difficult than anything most of us have ever transitioned. However, we can not only adapt, we can adopt and make it our own.
We do have the power to grow a brave new and young world the way we want our world to be, out of what might well turn into the ashes of the old. Nor do we have to adopt something radical to do so. We just have to go back to the basics, as I explain in the following reproduced comments-
I don't mean to be coming off like an apologist for big business, because I am not that at all. I think they should be reined in to a very great extent more than what they are. But you have to be careful with how you go about doing that, with what laws you use and how you implement them, because you are setting a very serious precedent.
If you use government power to break up large corporations, then you had better make sure you are on solid ground. We have anti-trust laws, and we have notable exceptions to those laws (major league baseball is one example of of this). Aside from those anti-trust laws, which should be rigidly enforced, what can you do?
I've already told you, people have to change their habits, their lifestyles, in fact they have to change their hearts. This rampant consumerism is what is driving this. Nobody is holding a gun to people's heads and forcing them to spend money that in a good many cases they don't even have to spend. The government isn't doing that, nor is business, though they go out of their way to promote and encourage it.
Get with the program, Gambone, I thought you and Ren were all about giving power to the people. What do you think you are going to accomplish taking a few people out on the streets shouting with bullhorns.
Reason it out in your head. How many people have changed their minds about having an abortion because some right-wing fanatic shoves a picture of a chopped up fetus in their face.
I'm not saying that you do anything anywhere near that disgusting or reprehensible (though I can somehow see you throwing a pie with horse semen marangue in Donald Trump's face), I'm just saying that these kinds of things have limited value at best-and that's usually limited to entertainment value.
If you want to do something constructive to change the system, start a movement to discourage people from profligate spending and dependence on credit cards. If people were more frugal with their money some of these behemoth corporations would collapse from the weight of their own debt. What ones survived would have to adopt to a more viable business model that was more human and community friendly.
I know it might not quite have the dramatic appeal of burning flags and blocking street traffic, but the difference is, my way might actually accomplish something.
You're addicted to politics still and are still hooked on the notion of political solutions by way of organized party activities. Me, I believe in people power.
As Madison told Jefferson once "your people, sir, are a great beast".
He was never more right than when he uttered those words, and it's time to rouse that beast. Screw the government, and screw political parties-all of them.
So there you have it. In our society, consumers have the power to bring down the government and the huge corporations on which they are dependent, and can do so without firing a shot. You merely ceases and desist from spending more than you have to spend. You can make allowances from time to time, of course, but as a general rule, exercise your power judiciously while you still have a modicum of it to wield.
The real beauty of this idea is, you can do this legally. If everyone would refuse to buy into the consumer culture to the extent that luxuries become seen as near-necessities, the nonsense would stop. As I said, businesses would adapt or die.
Moreover, what can anybody do about it? A person who tries to overthrow the government through force or rebellion, or even by supporting an alternate party, will accomplish little to nothing. In the worse case scenario, they can be tried for treason or sedition, and in the best of circumstances, their party of choice, if victorious, eventually becomes a part of the same establishment, and thus a part of the problem, at least sooner or later (or they substitute an even bigger set of problems in some cases).
No one can be prosecuted or tried for failing to take out a credit card or for buying things they don't really need, or for making do with less (especially since what they usually purchase in many cases is well beyond their needs). You can do this merrily and cheerfully, and change society.
The best thing about it is it doesn't require scrapping the constitution or adopting communism or fascism, far from it. In fact, it might be the very thing that could save our system and make it once more function in the way it was originally meant to function-a nation where the people rule and the government is their servant, not as the enforcers of a corporate or any other kind of special interest elite.
Obama, McCain, Palin, etc.-none of them can save us. We have to save ourselves.
