Among Wolves

rEvolution

I've been at a loss for words lately, so here are a few more pictures. Sometimes less truly is more. There are so many people so eloquently writing about many topics dear to my heart that it seems silly to add another copycat. I'll let them keep on and find my own way of expressing myself into the world. Whether in pictures, poetry, prose or music.

Give them what they want.
Make them need,
You
over food
shelter
water
happiness (you are)
Rapturous masses
Caught up
Swept away
Washed (un)washed
Down
Down
Down
This toothy grin always looked better from the inside.

It should be obvious, but it's not.

The American Political Mantra

Who's at Fault? NOT US!
Who's to Blame? SOMEONE ELSE!

Forget For-Profit, let's talk about For-People

Imagine if the worlds largest corporate entities existed as non-profits. Capitalism doesn't need to die, but the modern corporation does. The modern corporation is our new God. We live in a consumer culture because our Gods are consumers. They consume wealth. Wealth in the form of people, land, products, ideas and power. If we can kill off the modern Consumer God and replace it with a Producer God, we can create a producer culture. If we make it not a legal, but a moral and ethical crime to consume wealth, we can direct all the powers and energies of our Gods to doing Good instead of Evil.

Imagine you have a company that builds washing machines.
In our consumer culture, this company MUST do all it can to be the top dog in its industry. It must consume its competitors, it must consume all innovation in its field, it must consume the wealth of its customers, (if the customers do not have the wealth to purchase the product, it will loan the wealth, and it will consume its customers) and it must never stop in its quest for more and more things to consume. It MUST reduce its costs to increase its profits. It lays off employees, cuts wages and benefits, evades taxes, exploits cheap labor markets, cuts corners in employee safety, in costumer safety and in environmental safety. It is a machine of destruction. And those profits, those profits get doled out to the stockholders, the CEOs the Boards of Directors. An incestuous bunch of rich sociopaths; the sycophants of the Consumer God.
In a producer culture, this company has one only one imperative. To produce. It MUST produce washing machines, it must produce an environment that can purchase its product, it must produce an environment of innovation, it must produce healthy competition with its competitors, and it must never stop. It has no need to reduce its costs by exploiting the environment, or the labor markets, or the health and safety of its employees and consumers. It has no need for profits. It has a need to produce a labor force capable of purchasing its products. A labor force with a high enough wage and a high enough standard of living that it can afford the luxury of a washing machine. A labor force that is not buried in debt, that has no worries about food, shelter or medical care. The more the Producer God invests in its community, the more its community is capable of investing in its Gods. Strong schools, vibrant communities, healthy infrastructure and healthy people will lead to a stronger company.

The Producer God has a symbiotic relationship with its populace, the Consumer God has a parasitic relationship. We can choose which Gods we worship and which ones we cast into the annals of History. Now more than ever, we must look within ourselves, we must imagine the world we want to live in, the world we want to raise our families in, and we must create that world. We cannot ask for it, it cannot be given to us, but we must provide it for ourselves. If we worship a Producer God, if we strive to cultivate our self, our community and our environment (themes I will visit upon in greater detail later) we may finally have a chance to create the type of society we will be proud to pass on to our descendants. But if we continue to worship at the alter of Consumption, than we are doomed to perish from the face of this Earth.

Leadership

True leadership is using everything in your power to enforce the will of the people, not to force your will on the people.

Trickle-Down

Trickle-down economics, trickle-down politics, two failed ideas, yet the two driving forces behind American domestic policies. The Federal Government is the top of the food chain, with money trickling down to the states and the people. But just as the wealthy hoard their money, so does the government hoard its power. When little or nothing is reaching the citizenry, we have to accept that the Federal Government no longer serves a purpose in our lives. We can longer expect it to be there for us, to lend a hand when needed, or to provide even the basic services our civilization demands. So what do we do?

I have been toying with the idea of a silent revolution. We do not need to take up arms, it is most likely impossible that we can reform anything from the top down, so we need to rebuild from the bottom up. For one moment, imagine the United States does not exist. Imagine the city, county and state you live in provide the only forms of governance in your life. Even then the state is pretty far removed from your daily life. So take your county, your city, your neighborhood. The people, places and things you interact with on a daily basis. Now imagine what life could be like if We the People focused on the small issues in front of our face, if we didn't rely on some Big Government to provide solutions and answers. If we want clean energy, health care, healthy food, etc. maybe it is time we provided it for ourselves. Maybe it is time we banded together in our neighborhoods and our cities and fought for our own common good.

Why should someone in Seattle have to suffer the decisions made in DC? Why should the vast majority of Americans suffer at the hands of a few. If our government is going to promote a system of vast inequality, then we can no longer believe in or rely on our government. We must take it back, piece by piece, step by step. Changing the faces at the top of the ladder and expecting prosperity to trickle-down to us, is a strategy of defeat. But taking governance in to our own hands, while risky, difficult and dangerous, may be our only path to victory.