The Diet Occupation

This is actually my first commentary on the Occupation in LA. I've taken quite some time to gather my thoughts, take in the various vibes, events and stories. End result: It's a diet occupation.

How fitting for LA to have a light, sugar free, decaf version of a political movement. Mind you, I don't want to completely discount it. There are some people that are working very hard to get things done, and to move forward. But...it's not moving forward. It's actually not really moving - it's a quite stationary movement.

Occupy LA is disorganized, discombobulated and too varied to make an impact. And that really sucks.

I live downtown and I've been down to the "campsite" several times. As you walk towards it, a myriad of signs and messages blast you. And they are all different. The Ron Paul fanatics have their chem trails signs searing blue against the dirty, grimy tents. You have the greenies hoisting tibetan prayer flags and imploring people to love their mother earth and recycle. You've got anarchists, socialists, communists and an arbitrary drum circle all clouding the political stage outside city hall that's already rank with compost, weed and B.O.

I spoke to three different tents regarding a presentation on corporate control and personhood that I wanted to give. It was like being on the phone with, ironically, a corporate help center. You need to talk to this person - oh, no not me, talk to this person - you know, whatever's cool, we're open to ideas, but talk to this person...AHHHHH!

I don't care how equal and PC you wanna be, but movements have to have a centralized leadership. The General Assembly that they hold every night at 7 is more like a come and air out your issues support group. No one is taking responsibility for this movement. No one is in charge. And in that same vein, this movement has no central focus.

Now, everyone has an issue that is the most important to them, that they feel trumps all others. That's fine. But understand the source of your issues. And no, I don't mean mommy and daddy. I mean corporate America. All issues: environment, education, health care, foreign policy, infrastructure, economy can all be traced to the corporate control of our government. Sound too simple and a little too conspiracy theorist? I don't want you to believe me. I want you to find out for yourself. Don't trust me - you don't even know me.

Ask Google. Ask Noam Chomsky. Ask Naomi Klein. Ask Amy Goodman. Ask former politicians, bankers, economists. Ask people that have more experience, more knowledge. I'm always searching for more information - always questioning the "facts." Read up and dig in. It's our country and that's our duty - to know what's going on with it.

And again, if on your way you find an issue that speaks deeper than others. Awesome. But know where it comes from, know the source.

Don't put a band-aid on cancer by screaming at politicians over troops in the Middle East. Understand that this thinly veiled democratic corporate crusade began on September 11, 1973 in Chile and has been ongoing ever since. Similar patterns arise in all the aforementioned issues.

This source connect, this common goal, is starkly missing from the Occupy movement. If leadership does not step up and claim a straight direction, this movement will fester and die in the muddy grass outside of City Hall.

And that would be a damn shame. Bringing people together is a feat, but mobilizing and effecting change is another battle that needs to be waged. And it needs to be waged now, before fleeting momentum crumples and the drone of nay-sayers and dark chuckle of corporate kings drowns out the intentions and passions of we, the people.

London calling

The Washington Post calls 2011 the "year of rebellion by the dispossessed." I wonder if they catch the irony in that statement for the dispossessed Americans...moving along...
The riots have quieted in England but needless to say the reverberations are echoing off broken shop windows and major media outlets across the globe.
The shocking disbelief has waned and now explanations flood in, by everyone from sociologists to teenage kids. There appears to be a primary focus in the aftermath: rich vs. the poor. One teenage girl, when asked the reason behind the riots replied, "to show the rich that we can do whatever we want."
Sorry sweetheart, I don't think the rich give a shit that you're destroying mom and pop stores in North London - they're probably stoked in fact - more little guys out of the way! I doubt very many MP's or lords have convenient stores in Tottenham...

The problem with mindless violence is that it is just mindless violence. What point were you trying to prove? Oh fuck, I don't know, but you look like a bunch of uneducated, coked up, violent dumb-asses to me. Any sympathy, any hope of solidarity and a push forward becomes quickly covered by the dirtied soot of your dick stick fires. Moves forward are done by those that can think forward, beyond the sense of power at robbing an innocent person, beyond the ego trip of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a police car - it comes from those that can understand the issues and present hope and ideas for how to solve them. It comes from a people united, not in violence, but in peace and knowledge.

So, interestingly enough - although the riots are a stupid, juvenile way of trying to make a point, the aftermath may be just the thing to sweeten the sour taste of violence and mayhem. Thousands of Londoners have taken a page from the Arab Spring and organized online meet ups to clean up after the riots and bring a peaceful solidarity to the streets of London. Activists have been marching and cleaning, waving brooms instead of guns, condemning the violence and giving some insight into the unrest they say fanned the flames of the rioters fires.
One man, walking in front of a "Stop the Cuts" banner said it's about government, and the economy. It's about how they continue to cut spending for social services and continue to spend money in wars - Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya. Another woman said that although she certainly doesn't condone the riots, she said it was only a matter of time before the people got pissed off enough to do something drastic. Unfortunately, they didn't' start with the peaceful marching.

This brings new meaning to the phrase, "two countries separated by a common language." It appears that we have far more in common with our old colonizers than we thought. It's interesting to sit and watch as facebook is flooded with group upon group, all above the 10,000 fan mark, discussing, organizing, planning and moving...forward.
I must admit, I'm jealous.
I use this blog, my band and most of my time trying to engage and educate, to think and move forward. I am happy to see the aftermath of the riots is leading towards a social understanding, a social engagement that we here in the US don't even think to dream of. As I say at the end of all of my video blogs, we have to Think. React. Do Something.
As the woman said, it is only a matter of time. However, it's not that rosy - we can not just sit around and wait for that time to come. We must create that time. In a country for the people, of the people and by the people, a step forward in our name won't be made until we demand it.
Go out there and demand it.
Do Something.

**we can start by coming together online - facebook.com/rooftoprevolutionaries and of course, here. Educate yourselves - find the information they don't even bother hiding - create change by being change.

Crimethink

You may have noticed, I'm kinda into politics. You may also have noticed that I dig writing, words and all the wonderful eccentricities and pitfalls of our mother tongue.

Last night, a new friend gave me her book - a book of photography. It's a beautifully presented book: a black canvas wrapped hard cover. Against the black background sits a map of the United States. A hologram image consisting of the blue and red map of the 2000 elections. Guess which state changes as you move the image? Ah - Florida, yes...memories...

As you flip through the book, words blitz your brain - big, bold, blurred, superimposed, digitally broken, faded, tiled and tilted. Words that have come to signify our time, our country, our legacy. Although it is short, one feels as having read an entire manuscript of information by the time the last page flips over. It is an artistic avalanche of information - a unique way of representing not only our past but how the media serves it up and how we devour it. The book is entitled Newspeak.

For all you out there who haven't read George Orwell's 1984, first of all, go get it - the parallels and eerily prophetic musings make this book a top priority in any literary canon. Secondly, newspeak, in the book, refers to a dumbed down language promoted by the state. It is based on English but consists of an entirely impoverished vocabulary, with the intention of demonizing any thinking outside the box..."crimethink." Any words supporting the ideals of freedom, rebellion or independence are systematically pulled ; an ever dwindling language, destroyed at the hands of a centrally controlled corporate-like dictatorship. The ultimate goal is to reduce all language to one word that will encompass all emotions and thoughts deemed suitable by the state, for the un-thinking masses.

Now, this book was first published in 1949. It takes place, obviously, in 1984. While the full scope of this dystopian society wasn't realized by 1984, nor even now, the wheels of a "Big Brother" styled society were set in motion long before teased hair and neon barrettes.

When corporations first came into being, they maintained a strict civic and business role. Damned if they were allowed any place in elections or political policy. They were also contractually only allowed to exist for a certain period of time, unless a charter was renewed. Basically, they would fill a charter and that charter would have to deliver some sort of social service. Once that was fulfilled, the corporation would be dissolved. At that point, the shareholders would take their portion of the assets. By law, corporations were only allowed to exist within the rigid confines of their charter, and charters were not handed out willy-nilly. It was in fact, pretty damn difficult to create and operate a corporation.

As difficult as it was, Corruption and the American corporation became fast friends. More and more frequently, corporations overstepped the bounds of their charters - using their corporate power to control labor, resources, elections and rights. Huge factory systems and company towns were born. Money and power were never meant to be steadfast bedfellows of the body politic. But the turbulent romance flourished as the industrial age surged ahead, creating an exodus from the rural "mom n' pop" to the urban big leagues. The influx of former farmers looking for city work created an ideal platform for corporate power to breed on. Blacklists of workers rights organizations and unions became commonplace. When the smell of rebellion wafted through the stale factory air, corporations hired private armies, bought newspapers, and legislators to disinfect the activist auras.

The days of the Charter were gone - although legislation still exists outlining the purpose and duties of a corporation, the people to stand up for it are missing.

Words on their own are just words. Just like the book I was gifted, just like 1984, just like our prized Constitution - all just words. Unless there is someone who attributes meaning to them, unless there is someone who sees it, thinks and reacts, they are dormant ideas.

Interestingly enough for Orwell, the 80s saw the largest increase in corporate trusts, conglomerates, privatization and transnational dealings. And here we are, 2011.

Our government, supporting corporate deregulation, personal rights - giving praise to the very entities holding a match while the domestic and international hell fires burn.

I don't want to ruin the book for you, but it doesn't have a happy ending. It takes more than one "crimethinker" to fight against Big Brother - it takes more than one mind uncovering meaning and hope in words and ideas to effect change...how many of us are there?

The greatest threat to a dictatorial regime is a thinking populous. It may sound extreme to liken our situation to a dictatorship, but think of our issues - economy, health care, education, infrastructure, terrorism, homeland security, foreign policy, wars - tell me one of those that isn't wrapped in a corporate contract.

The more you think, the more you dig, the more you research, the more you find, how much of your life is not your own, how many rights you don't have, how much of this country is not what it seems to be. And in effect, that's our fault. By doing nothing, we have allowed them to do so much.

It's about time, we all did more "crimethinking" - think critically - think of freedom, rebellion against a dictatorial regime built on power and greed.

Think, react - Do Something.

Worst of both worlds

The US on paper, is a republic. According to the dictionary, that means:

"a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of

citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives

chosen directly or indirectly by them."

Of course, as we know through historical trials, what things are on paper isn't always what they are in real life - take communism, for example. On paper, it sounds really nice - all working for the common good, no one is treated more special than their neighbour. However, in practice that can never work. Leaders will rise to the top, and in the appropriate conditions, fashion a dictatorial regime through the cruel and abrasive use of power.

As I've said before, we have dictators. The fact that we choose to ignore their existence doesn't make them any less real. Corporations have been dancing around the law and hoarding power since the late 1890s, and 20 years later had already grown to a point where Woodrow Wilson painted the bleak picture of "a very different America from the old...no longer a scene of individual enterprise...where comparatively small groups of men...wield a power and control over the wealth and business operations of the country...rivals of the government itself."

How prophetic of you Woodrow. But my, how times have changed.

Our government no longer rivals the corporate stronghold, but embraces it, getting paid finely for their allegiance. Now, that's progressive.

And as we marked the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirt Factory fire a few days ago, I feel it's an opportune time to mention unions.

While I tend to have a rosier outlook on unions than I do corporations, due to their reason for being (protecting the worker as opposed to protecting their bottom line), I do not find them to be without fault.

For example, as Stephen Goldsmith writes in The Wall Street Journal, "In New York City, seniority rules force us to base any layoff on when a public worker was hired, not on whether he or she does a good job." The same holds true for bad teachers that contribute to the dumbing down of our cities and so our country.

Then again, look at who else walks the streets of the Big Apple - the big businessmen on Wall Street who robbed the people of money, homes, jobs and rights.

So, here we stand in the middle of two extremes. On the one hand, you have unions, whose existence is important to the well-being of workers, but can stand in the way of its own aims at bettering public life, through ill planned bureaucracy and unwavering ideological stubbornness.

On the other, you have corporate America, whose existence is a travesty, and does fuck all to better society, using violence and governmental back door dealings to secure ever more blood money and rape ever more freedom and rights from all people.

End result: where we are today. While polls show that Americans are by-in-large moderate, the policies that blanket this country with debt, blood and shame, would suggest otherwise.

The extremes are the loudest. Neither extreme is acceptable.

The red tape that protects unworthy employees should trot over to corporate America and tie it down. There needs to be accountability on both sides. There has to be regulation, for both sides. While I do not advocate a dictatorial government telling people when to do what, I do advocate a government that regulates business and organizations that directly affect the rights and freedoms of the people of this country. That's why we have a government. Of the people, for the people and by the people - to protect our interests and to make decisions based on our needs, not on the needs of organizations and corporations.

If unions are out of control - the people must speak up.

If corporations are out of control - the people must speak up.

Cricket, cricket...

...

Do Something.

Look first...then read below...

The parallels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjVR-Ja5cwU

Before the world ends...

...I have a question...
Has anyone even fucking noticed?
You know in those "end of the world" movies where an overpaid actor trudges through the snow looking like he just walked out of a spa, complaining of frostbite and the ignorance of the few who could have done something?
I feel for him right now...not the actor, the actual character. Although I'm sitting in sunny California, my scope is turned towards the literal and figurative rumblings across the globe.
I am not at all superstitious. I do not subscribe to the bat shit crazy wailings of extremists and loony tunes; that we'll all be judged and 2012 is it so get your shit in order.
I think that is just another example of the psychotic projections of our shortcomings onto the past and/or a higher being.
For example, all the hullabaloo surrounding next year. Many historians claim that the ancient peoples of South America who we credit with this prophetic observation, just got tired of fucking counting so high, and figured they'd continue later. There is actually no hard evidence to suggest that they thought it was going to be the end of the world.
I stopped writing in birth control reminders once I got to December 2011 in my calendar. That does not mean that I expect to wake up pregnant on December 1st. It just means I can fill that in later. However, this is not how we, the people, think.
There is no need to take care of our ills and sins now, because the world will simply end whenever it wants to ; God will simply pull the plug when he feels like it ; mother nature will shrug us off when we get too obese and dirty to carry, etc, etc. The problem with these ideas isn't necessarily the fact that people believe them, it is that they feel it relieves them of any sort of responsibility in crises, from the local level to the global level.
If I had a dime for every time I heard some religious nut say "It's not in our hands," I could probably single-handedly bring this country out of debt.
And while I enjoy picking on religious extremists, it's not just them. Even people who are not extremist (either secular or non), find it easier and more convenient to rest on the assumption that their actions will make no difference in the impending doom of our species and our world.
So, we sit and watch with detached apathy, thinly veiled with a facade of care, as the world takes a swan dive.
New Zealand experiences two major quakes in less than half a year...oh, shame.
Libyan civilians are fired upon from helicopters by their own people...oh, bummer.
Our own government is ready to literally just fucking shut down because nobody can agree on a damn thing other than the fact that we're broke and in deep shit...oh, well, I'm fine.
From the Pyramids at Giza to the royal palace in Jordan - like dominoes along the Northernmost countries of Africa, civil unrest marks the end of an era in the mid-east and all Americans care about is whether Steven Tyler eye-fucked the next candidate for musical poser of the year.
We have had the most fucked up weather ever this year and all people do in response is crank the heat, keep the engines running and buy some more fur.
Why?
How?
Is our apathy a sign of devolution or of evolution? Is it a sign that our brains have progressed to the point that we are able to use it as a defense? Is it, like I said, a conscious projection? because somewhere we fear the truth - we fear the outside confines of our cuddly bubble? Or is it subconscious or not even? Is it more cynically the simple dumbing down of a nation? Is it just the continued idiotization of the great U S of A?
These questions aren't rhetorical. I would really LOVE a response.
Although, I don't expect anyone to really have the answer. Even if I knew exactly why, the question needs to be how can we fix it?
How do you get people to care about their own lives and world?
It seems an asinine question to ask. But that's where we're at.
My heart goes out to the people in New Zealand, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Afghanistan, the homeless man I passed today, the man I saw commit suicide last week. My heart goes out to the people who can not help their situation, who are born into mayhem or it is cataclysmically brought upon them.
I have no pity, however, for the people who do nothing, who pray for change. Who sit and wishfully think about a better future but don't DO anything. That's pathetic and ultimately, psychotic.
It is up to the people to change the fate of this world. It is not up to the Mayans. It is not up to God. It is not up to the Tooth Fairy or Santa or Obama or Palin. It is up to you. It is up to me.

Do Something.

March 6th @ 5pm - reminder

Something is very wrong, don't you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyTHxOUPF48