En Masse Democratic Revolt:
Earlier this month Caitlin Johnstone wrote an article titled Our Entire Civilization Is Structured Around Keeping Us From Realizing We Can Do This. Using the uprising in Sri Lanka, she points out how those in power must fear such an en masse citizen response. She also discusses what those in power do to suppress any mass unified action.
- Our entire civilization is structured around preventing scenes like the one we're seeing in Sri Lanka today. Our education systems, our political systems, our media, our online information. Religions that have been around for thousands of years because the powerful endorsed and promulgated them are full of passages extolling the virtues of obedience, poverty, meekness, and rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's. From the moment we are born our heads are filled with stories about why it's good and right to consent to the status quo and why it would be wrong to take back what has been stolen from us by a predatory ruling class.
- This is why we're always inundated with messaging about the importance of civility and politeness any time people realize that they can simply confront corrupt officials in restaurants or at their homes to push for what they want. The managers of the oligarchic empire that rules over us are terrified that we will one day notice that there are a whole lot more of us than there are of them, and that there's really nothing they could do to stop us if we decided to replace them with a system that benefits ordinary people instead of an elite few.
- Things will keep getting worse until we find a way to cut through the propaganda brain fog and rise like lions.
En Masse Democratic Vote:
There is another democratic tool that the powerful authoritarians equally fear. These authoritarian rulers use the same tools to suppress either en masse democratic revolt or en masse democratic vote. Authoritarian rulers fear both.
- Yes, those few with excessive wealth and power also own the media and use it to distract and manipulate citizens. They keep us from unifying to stop their abusive greed by blaming our fellow, not-like-us, citizens for the abuse by the greedy. Some powerful authoritarians suppress our votes or define voting districts so they can stay in power. Some of these authoritarians use their wealth and media to manipulate primary voting so those candidates acceptable to them are on the ballot. Many voters experience the attacks on their voting rights and many others are successfully discouraged from voting by the media. Either way, the vote suppressors are delighted.
- This suggests to me, the excessively wealthy and powerful also fear en masse, unified, voting - not just mob revolt.
- What we need is more democratic participation. Democracy is not a spectator sport. In 2020, there were over 80.6 million registered voters, 33.7%, who didn't vote.
- Whether it's storming the presidential palace, the Bastille, the Capitol Building, or the Ballot Box, the People need to act en masse. The people must finally recognize their real abusers. Then they must ignore the propaganda and act en masse either peacefully or violently.
Revolt or Vote to End Authoritarian Rule?
Question is which en masse people's action against the powerful can the powerful most easily take advantage of and control the outcome? Remember, the Russian people's democratic revolution of 1917 for ending rule by an authoritarian royalty was eventually co-opted by another powerful group and subverted into an abusive totalitarian state. In Chile, the powerful are working hard to prevent the ratification of a new democratically written constitution.
What becomes critical to the success for either democratic people's action is the quick disempowerment of the powerful. Voting en masse is more likely to enable that necessary disempowerment. The voters can "cut through the propaganda brain fog and rise like lions."
They can initiate this disempowerment by selecting and electing those those who best represent unity against the powerful. These unity candidates would quickly pass laws to equally protect and empower all citizens, including voting rights. They would also pass laws to disable damaging authoritarian systems and replace them with democratic ones. This includes transforming our ancient authoritarian economic system which has been key to enriching the powerful so they can buy our democracy.
