I keep a can of spray paint in my car for this very reason. Every time I see a discarded mattress on the side of the road (you'd be surprised at how often you see these when you become aware) I spray paint a message on them. During the 2008 Global Financial Crime Spree the message was "Make Wall Street Pay." Now, the message is "Free Assange."
Not sure how much this helps, but it sure makes me feel like I've got my message out just for a little while before the garbage is taken away.
There is a great film called "Alone in Berlin." The film is based on true events, in which a German couple decides to embark on an anti-Nazi campaign using notes just scattered randomly across their city. It is a great "to-do" on what we can do as citizens to stop corporations and our government. Please watch for some ideas of what you can do in your city.
No; its cancelling is usually far more subtle. They use arranged suicides and accidents, and framed criminal charges, rather than Blutgerichte. I wouldn't be surprised were they to outlaw shortwave radios and private browsers, however. (Helmuth got started with a SW radio smuggled in from occupied France.)
Meh, nearly everything that applies to Black Americans and Latin Americans in "The New Jim Crow" (edit: Michelle Alexander) applies to poor whites too, nearly everything. Entry into the system is already a form of assisted suicide, it's just the death is long and horrible.
What you described as things to do would be natural acts in a truly free society. That you had to label them "small acts of sedition" speaks volumes about the current Western world.
As always, you put into words so much of what I am sensing whether it is on the spiritual side of things or, like this, the everyday human experience:
"You talk to your loved ones about what you're seeing and they just get uncomfortable or look at you like you're crazy."
This happened to me this morning with my husband; on Monday with a dear friend; and last week with someone I've known for years. I want so badly to talk about and make sense of what I am seeing and no one is interested or comfortable humoring me. It's as if I am giving off a bad smell wherever I go.
Thank you for articulating this. Thank you for crystalizing what is in the ether.
There is one great point here that Caitlyn is missing. It's actually the most important point of all. Even as our world crumbles and sanity seems to have left the building, we still have control over our intent, which allows us to choose how to feel, how to react, and how to live in this corrupt-ass culture.
Nurture yourself, be kind to your body, notice birds, patterns of health and love that remain even in this tormented world. Our intent is powering our experience of Life. Never forget this. Never forget this Life we share, and the opportunity to spend this moment in Love.
As we hold this truth of Life Now, where we are necessarily All Here Together, we will quite naturally make the tiny slices into the corrupt old system that will eventually bring it down. It may actually fall rather quickly as new sprouts of love emerge...
I'm all about throwing sand in the gears of the Machine.
My low socioeconomic status prevents me from producing any serious impact, but I do continue to share unapproved information which conflicts with Establishment propaganda.
I continue in spite of officially promoted threats of prosecution or disappearance by the Man for flouting their anti-propaganda rules. I've got too long of a record being mouthy about government malfeasance to stop now that it's gotten more important to contradict the 1984 tactics.
The left has no one to blame but itself, they sold their principles for coins and a seat at the political power table. Where is the anti-war left, when was the last march that was about stopping a war and not about pride in your personal life choices ?
The perfect example in my mind happened in 2013 when the SCOTUS decided that same sex marriage was protected by the constitution. The nation celebrated, everyone was so excited by the idea that even gay couples can now be enslaved under the states onerous marriage and family court system. While that party was happening and all the stories were about the pride parties nationwide the power club was reversing the insider trading rules in the STOCK act in a very low key signing ceremony in Obamas office. The left ignored power corrupting the nations laws for its own profit in exchange for a pride parade. I'm not saying that gay marriage or pride parades are a bad thing, they certainly are a lot of fun but governance and ethical pursuit of society is rarely if ever fun.
The "left" was very much in action across the U.S. and the globe really during Obama's disasterous years. Occupy Wall Street was participating in occupying city centers from coast-to-coast. So, please remember this when saying the left sold their principles, esp during the Obama years.
IMHO, the left went off the rails when Trump took office. TDS was so high, the Democrats were able to corral the left into these wild Trump "Russia" lies. This is when the left really took a knee, so to speak.
I subscribe to the digital editions of the NY Times and Globe & Mail. They don't censor reader comments much. Discussions are fairly civilized. It's a good way to nudge the blind a bit.
The Guardian, once the bastion of proper free speech, ruthlessly cuts comments which even hint of a political or cultural opinion they don't like.
They are the exemplars of the professional progressive class who have shoved the working classes over to the right and co opted the left side of the divide as their worthy cause. They have become the moral arbiters and the new authoritarians. I have lost many friends because some my opinions don't match their echo chamber.
I'm surprised the NYT allows freeish reign on comments. They are on a par with the Guardian as disseminators of misinformation I would have thought.
The comments sections are the only place where moments of truth happen in the NYTime. I am surprised when even half of my responses go through. Hard to get a word in edgewise right now when the whole rag is a Harris promo.
"And that -- that brings me to the second mode of civil disobedience. There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!
His predecessor, Mr. Thoreau: "On The Duty of Civil Disobedience"
"If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth--certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn."
Topical and well-said as usual, Caitlin, thank you. Aaron Swartz and Barrett Brown come to mind, they helped kickstart the small grains of sand that are slowly grinding the uni-polar Imperial Core to a halt now. At the end of the day I have to remind myself all leaders are contradictory self-relating negativities (per Zizek, Lacan, and Miller psychoanalysis), and only bi-polar leaders resist the beautiful multi-polar Spirit of humanity.
I have known many men who spent time in Japanese prison camp. For them pissing in a fuel tank, mixing concrete wrong, stealing and hiding shell casings, these were daily activities that brought them together and gave them a sense of purpose. We can do that.
Thanks, Caitlin. I feel exactly the same way and sometimes I just want to curl up on my couch and watch Netflix forever...but then I'm pulled back into the fray by blogs like yours and many others on substack who have been battling the empire and have been forced to get the word out on censor-free platforms. I do share as many of the "controversial" stories and reports I read as much as possible, so I guess I'm doing my part...even though it seems inconsequential. I do admire you and the truth sayers who refuse to give up, and I hope you all will keep doing what you're doing even though it produces only small rewards. There are many of us who love your work and admire your determination to "fight the beast."
as the capitalists own the technology and constantly tighten the machine for control, we the people have to think and act strategically and tactically too.
solidarity among groups and "movements" that don't subscribe to the exact same philosophy and vision is necessary. always with a clear agenda in mind.
boycott/divest/sanction plus more direct "sand-throwing" can be done at the individual level in everyday decisions. even for "wrong" reasons. the 99% boat is being pushed by 1% in the same direction. number is everything, until the day after the status quo is no more.
Cultivate a habit of small acts of sedition... Yes! A snowball of truth can build as it rolls down the mountain and start an avalanche of change.
We've been committing seditious acts weekly for the last seven years at The Revolution Continues. (Now available here on Substack at https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com )
Caring while operating under the influence of a false assumption is bound to produce spotty results. We have been conditioned for centuries to believe that the spiritual and the physical are fundamentally different. What if the spiritual and the physical are in fact, the same thing? If so, (and it became a common realization), our conditioning, mentality and expressions of consciousness might take a more healthy turn
I keep a can of spray paint in my car for this very reason. Every time I see a discarded mattress on the side of the road (you'd be surprised at how often you see these when you become aware) I spray paint a message on them. During the 2008 Global Financial Crime Spree the message was "Make Wall Street Pay." Now, the message is "Free Assange."
Not sure how much this helps, but it sure makes me feel like I've got my message out just for a little while before the garbage is taken away.
There is a great film called "Alone in Berlin." The film is based on true events, in which a German couple decides to embark on an anti-Nazi campaign using notes just scattered randomly across their city. It is a great "to-do" on what we can do as citizens to stop corporations and our government. Please watch for some ideas of what you can do in your city.
Just don't get Helmuth Hübenered.
Because our U.S. government is now equivalent to the Nazi regime regarding dissidents?
No; its cancelling is usually far more subtle. They use arranged suicides and accidents, and framed criminal charges, rather than Blutgerichte. I wouldn't be surprised were they to outlaw shortwave radios and private browsers, however. (Helmuth got started with a SW radio smuggled in from occupied France.)
Meh, nearly everything that applies to Black Americans and Latin Americans in "The New Jim Crow" (edit: Michelle Alexander) applies to poor whites too, nearly everything. Entry into the system is already a form of assisted suicide, it's just the death is long and horrible.
I keep a sharpie in my purse.
What you described as things to do would be natural acts in a truly free society. That you had to label them "small acts of sedition" speaks volumes about the current Western world.
As always, you put into words so much of what I am sensing whether it is on the spiritual side of things or, like this, the everyday human experience:
"You talk to your loved ones about what you're seeing and they just get uncomfortable or look at you like you're crazy."
This happened to me this morning with my husband; on Monday with a dear friend; and last week with someone I've known for years. I want so badly to talk about and make sense of what I am seeing and no one is interested or comfortable humoring me. It's as if I am giving off a bad smell wherever I go.
Thank you for articulating this. Thank you for crystalizing what is in the ether.
There is one great point here that Caitlyn is missing. It's actually the most important point of all. Even as our world crumbles and sanity seems to have left the building, we still have control over our intent, which allows us to choose how to feel, how to react, and how to live in this corrupt-ass culture.
Nurture yourself, be kind to your body, notice birds, patterns of health and love that remain even in this tormented world. Our intent is powering our experience of Life. Never forget this. Never forget this Life we share, and the opportunity to spend this moment in Love.
As we hold this truth of Life Now, where we are necessarily All Here Together, we will quite naturally make the tiny slices into the corrupt old system that will eventually bring it down. It may actually fall rather quickly as new sprouts of love emerge...
https:world5.org
Only Love makes us happy
I'm all about throwing sand in the gears of the Machine.
My low socioeconomic status prevents me from producing any serious impact, but I do continue to share unapproved information which conflicts with Establishment propaganda.
I continue in spite of officially promoted threats of prosecution or disappearance by the Man for flouting their anti-propaganda rules. I've got too long of a record being mouthy about government malfeasance to stop now that it's gotten more important to contradict the 1984 tactics.
The left has no one to blame but itself, they sold their principles for coins and a seat at the political power table. Where is the anti-war left, when was the last march that was about stopping a war and not about pride in your personal life choices ?
The perfect example in my mind happened in 2013 when the SCOTUS decided that same sex marriage was protected by the constitution. The nation celebrated, everyone was so excited by the idea that even gay couples can now be enslaved under the states onerous marriage and family court system. While that party was happening and all the stories were about the pride parties nationwide the power club was reversing the insider trading rules in the STOCK act in a very low key signing ceremony in Obamas office. The left ignored power corrupting the nations laws for its own profit in exchange for a pride parade. I'm not saying that gay marriage or pride parades are a bad thing, they certainly are a lot of fun but governance and ethical pursuit of society is rarely if ever fun.
The "left" was very much in action across the U.S. and the globe really during Obama's disasterous years. Occupy Wall Street was participating in occupying city centers from coast-to-coast. So, please remember this when saying the left sold their principles, esp during the Obama years.
IMHO, the left went off the rails when Trump took office. TDS was so high, the Democrats were able to corral the left into these wild Trump "Russia" lies. This is when the left really took a knee, so to speak.
I subscribe to the digital editions of the NY Times and Globe & Mail. They don't censor reader comments much. Discussions are fairly civilized. It's a good way to nudge the blind a bit.
At least half of my reader comments in NYT are censored. My CBC ones go right thru.
The Guardian, once the bastion of proper free speech, ruthlessly cuts comments which even hint of a political or cultural opinion they don't like.
They are the exemplars of the professional progressive class who have shoved the working classes over to the right and co opted the left side of the divide as their worthy cause. They have become the moral arbiters and the new authoritarians. I have lost many friends because some my opinions don't match their echo chamber.
I'm surprised the NYT allows freeish reign on comments. They are on a par with the Guardian as disseminators of misinformation I would have thought.
The comments sections are the only place where moments of truth happen in the NYTime. I am surprised when even half of my responses go through. Hard to get a word in edgewise right now when the whole rag is a Harris promo.
Words to live by - Mario Savio:
"And that -- that brings me to the second mode of civil disobedience. There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mariosaviosproulhallsitin.htm
His predecessor, Mr. Thoreau: "On The Duty of Civil Disobedience"
"If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth--certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn."
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/71/71-h/71-h.htm
Topical and well-said as usual, Caitlin, thank you. Aaron Swartz and Barrett Brown come to mind, they helped kickstart the small grains of sand that are slowly grinding the uni-polar Imperial Core to a halt now. At the end of the day I have to remind myself all leaders are contradictory self-relating negativities (per Zizek, Lacan, and Miller psychoanalysis), and only bi-polar leaders resist the beautiful multi-polar Spirit of humanity.
I have known many men who spent time in Japanese prison camp. For them pissing in a fuel tank, mixing concrete wrong, stealing and hiding shell casings, these were daily activities that brought them together and gave them a sense of purpose. We can do that.
Thanks, Caitlin. I feel exactly the same way and sometimes I just want to curl up on my couch and watch Netflix forever...but then I'm pulled back into the fray by blogs like yours and many others on substack who have been battling the empire and have been forced to get the word out on censor-free platforms. I do share as many of the "controversial" stories and reports I read as much as possible, so I guess I'm doing my part...even though it seems inconsequential. I do admire you and the truth sayers who refuse to give up, and I hope you all will keep doing what you're doing even though it produces only small rewards. There are many of us who love your work and admire your determination to "fight the beast."
as the capitalists own the technology and constantly tighten the machine for control, we the people have to think and act strategically and tactically too.
solidarity among groups and "movements" that don't subscribe to the exact same philosophy and vision is necessary. always with a clear agenda in mind.
boycott/divest/sanction plus more direct "sand-throwing" can be done at the individual level in everyday decisions. even for "wrong" reasons. the 99% boat is being pushed by 1% in the same direction. number is everything, until the day after the status quo is no more.
Cultivate a habit of small acts of sedition... Yes! A snowball of truth can build as it rolls down the mountain and start an avalanche of change.
We've been committing seditious acts weekly for the last seven years at The Revolution Continues. (Now available here on Substack at https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com )
✊🏻
Caring while operating under the influence of a false assumption is bound to produce spotty results. We have been conditioned for centuries to believe that the spiritual and the physical are fundamentally different. What if the spiritual and the physical are in fact, the same thing? If so, (and it became a common realization), our conditioning, mentality and expressions of consciousness might take a more healthy turn
I needed to hear this so badly, thank you Caitlin!