On the Turning Away

[LewBrown]

Why a Boycott?

On January 27 2007, 500,000 people marched on Washington D.C. to call for an end to the war and the impeachment of the president and vice-president. Those calls were ignored. This comes on the heels of millions of letters and phone calls, dozens of books, scores of speakers and action after action after action since the first charges were levied against the administration. In April 2007 millions of people around the world participated in an extraordinary series of action that though well attended-were utterly ignored.

President Clinton faced impeachment on the grounds of lying about having sex with an intern. The only voices raised in outrage were the voices of the neo-conservatives and their allies. Within short order, millions of dollars were wasted and the American public was treated to sordid details of behind the scenes sexual misconduct. Yet, none of the pressure so far has been enough to even spark a word of indignation against this administration from the Democratic leadership.

Therefore, if the speeches do not count enough, the marches do not count enough, the votes do not count enough and the voice of the people is not loud enough to get the attention of the Democrats then we must do something else. We must show our strength not only in political terms but also in economic terms. This boycott is an action that, if enough people participate, provides us with a means of actually touching the lives of these politicians and the economic interests that back them. Taking our support away from the “system” for any period of time will demonstrate that the American people are not as fragmented as the politicians believe and that we can shut the system down if we need to see that justice is done.

On the Turning Away

As many of us look at the world around us, so beset by inequities and injustice engineered into the very fabric of our social lives, we can sometimes confront a sense of hopelessness and despair. To confront those who have gained their power through treachery and deceit and who wield their power with an awful lack of compassion and for only their own selfish ends, is a dangerous proposition. Men of power command the allegiance of what Thoreau called “wooden men”, people who have lived their lives in fear of any feeling other than hatred, anger or disgust. Men who, though they would imagine themselves to be fearless, live in fear of being weak, of feeling sorrow or expressing joy. Men whose emotional life is as bereft of depth and meaning as a desert is bereft of precious water. Their emotional disability coupled with an uncritical acceptance of authority makes them truly dangerous to a free society. Under the guise of authority, they wield deadly force and cruel torture with abandon. To confront people of that character is to face the true face of evil in human affairs, the long slow drip of evil that corrodes a system from within and wastes the liberty and lives of its people.

The Bush Administration is a poisonous collection of ideologues whose sole aim appears to be the very destruction of every facet of social life within the nation. The good men and women who have been purged from the ranks of the Justice Department, military and intelligence communities have left behind a vacuum being filled with petty tyrants, machiavellian political animals and narcissistic power mongers who take delight in the torment of those weaker than them. To face men such as this on a field of battle would be both vastly destructive and at the same time gratifying in the simplicity of having such clear boundaries between us and them. That is but a fantasy.

The endemic evil that has worked it’s way into every industry, every department of the government even into the schools and hospitals has its roots in a profoundly selfish and shortsighted set of ethical assumptions passed down from generation to generation within the highest circles of society and finally packaged and sold en masse to the public through the media over the last few decades. The sickness has spread far and wide and the individuals who profit from this sickness do so by leeching in a parasitic fashion from every industry you can imagine. The banking and insurance industry is no less guilty than General Electric, with it’s weapons of death and despair, in seeking nothing more than profit at the expense of everyone and everything for the benefit of their boards of directors and major shareholders. It is in the greed and selfishness of the powerful that the timbre of our times is sounded. Now we watch in horror as that dismal tone vibrates around the world, picking up it’s harmonies in nations far and wide, finding it’s counterpoint in the uncompromising and extraordinary violence that is leaving vast swaths of the world in rubble and death.

To face violence with violence, force with force is to engage the enemy. However, this is a parasitic enemy, one that through control of the very codification of our way of life has been able to warp the benefits of government to them. Poverty, pain and misery work for those who glide above the rest of us in trust funded, stock-optioned majority shareholder heaven. What they call “work” bears very little resemblance to the real work of the fireman, ironworker, nurse and teacher. What problems they face in life, usually as a result of greed and selfishness, envy and spite, bears only a faint resemblance to the troubles of the schizophrenic on the streets, dying lonely and sick because funding a civilized health care system doesn’t make profits for the few at the expense of the many. Likewise in the rubric of the “ownership” society even the very fundamentals of human life are up for control and profit taking by the backwards and greed filled minions of the elite. Poison the water and you save money by not having to build plants that are clean, use your lawyers to buy enough time so that the victims die off in the community and you don’t have to worry about paying out huge settlements, get your people to head up the regulatory agencies and be assured that any punishment will be symbolic. In the end you can then sell the people their own water, at a hefty mark up of course and if they do not like the price they can take their chances with the groundwater that you poisoned in the first place. But rest assured that this kind of “business practice” is in each and every industry and has found it’s way even into the heart of our government. Everything is for a profit, even war.

But don’t despair. Knowing the score is half of the battle; the other half is convincing yourself that you do not have to live by their rules anymore. You will have to accept, not a lower, but a different quality of life should you choose to act. But in the end, the turning away of millions will destroy them. Here is how it works in a deep sense. The corporate entities that have been usurping the peoples right to a fair and just government, that provides them with the services and goods necessary to a civilized nation, are well known. They have grown so bloated that their logo’s and propaganda are everywhere. They have transcended national borders and are even now wreaking havoc among the more non-industrialized nations of the world. Exploitation, greed and waste are their hallmarks and they are easy to find. Your job is to turn away from them.

If you own stock in any of the listed companies, sell it. If you have a mortgage or an account at any of the listed banks, move them. If you have a habit of drinking a particular brand of soda then change your habit. If you see an ad for one of these companies on TV or hear it on the radio, turn it off; know they are trying to manipulate you. In many instances, you simply cannot survive without relying on some corporate product, like oil and gas, but you can minimize your use of it and really get into the habit of carpooling. In the future electric cars will be available that will make gas engines seem archaic, there are three companies in California right now testing roadsters in the 60-130k range that do 0-60 in 4 seconds or less. You could try getting used to being a little hotter or colder than you like, you could try cutting back in any way you can imagine and transfer your money into local enterprises and small companies.

You could even quit your job. You could you know. Sure, it is a huge step and life is uncertain but if the company you work for is a part of this system that is destroying life as we know it, then how can you aid them and maintain your sanity? You might have to learn to get by on a lot less money, but the funny fact of it is that you will probably be happier. Remember all you need to be happy in life is good food, shelter, drink and companionship along with some work that has personal meaning for you. You do not have to have a 40 room estate on the island or a solid gold toilet, in fact those things would reveal a serious lack of imagination. Sell your stock, all of it. Take the hit if you have to, hell you were probably just going to turn around and give that money to the bank to pay off your mortgage anyhow, the rest would go for health insurance, a college fund perhaps and a few other odds and ends to make you feel more secure. You could always sell your house to a relative for pennies on the dollar, if enough people in a neighborhood did that real estate would start to look realistic again.

You get the idea. This is economic judo and while they have a lot of money and influence, we have far more if we can get on the same page and work in our own best interest.

Lew

[Sandra Lee Robbins]

Hi Lew,
I just finished reading On Turning Away and was very impressed. Long ago when I discovered this site, I phoned a Dem congress member in D.C. to let her office know what to expect, and asked her to let all of congress know of it. I haven't phoned since, because all I ever got for donations and efforts to get dems in the majority, were for nothing. I worked as an LPN while raising my son alone. He is waiting for trial on a fed drug charge. I was employed til 2005- have had lots of good paying jobs as well as pathetic paying ones. And you're so right about contributing to cruel practices in industries. I volunteered as a candy striper at a local hospital at age 15. I had to phone that private for profit hell hole and demand they care for my brother in their E.R. He works full time, has insurance and poor health. I threw a glass against my wall one morning in frustration and the cops came, transported me to that hospital where they proceeded to pull my pants down, put a drug in my arm, and then transferred me to another hospital. I was diagnosed with Bi Polar illness at age 25 and am now 51. How differently I was treated when I was a nurse as opposed to an unemployed mental health problem. I still have my wits about me, and know that drug slipped to me was an illegal act. But they have the power and control so I stay low key in my neighborhood and am friendly to others I meet. When I'm feeling low, I get out pictures of my son, read, play music, take out my puppy, call my brother or just light a candle. I enjoy the radio on this sight as well as the videos etc that help us get thru the day. Thanks for starting this site. I'm glad your daughters returned.