The Death of Revolution in America
Dear Inhabitants of WaccoBB-Land,
At Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement, Mario Savio spoke of a "post-industrial society." That was the revolution that terrified the FBI, the CIA, and the Regents of the University of California and the system of Business Enterprise they represented. At the time it meant to us that the productive capacity of society would be converted to enriching lives, allowing citizens to explore personal self expression. It had little to do with economic production.
Daniel Bell corrupted the concept in 1974 and converted it to meaning that the productive means of society would be exceeded by the consumptive needs. Bell made the term economic. For us 60's radicals, the phrase was about finding meaning. We knew then that industrial society and financial society were devoid of meaning. Accumulation of money and things does not satisfy the Soul. Unfortunately, the forces of repression won. The Berkeley Police shot James Rector off a roof on the corner of Telegraph and Dwight Avenue, and the National Guard massacred four students at Kent State. Those murders demonstrated what the cost of revolution would be for citizens. The murders of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King demonstrated what the cost of leading in a progressive direction would be. Now America is reduced to subservience and malaise and depression, and the revolutionary spirit is lobotomized with Xanax and marijuana.
Star Man
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Tom Dispatch / By Lewis Lapham
How America's Spirit for Revolution Was Crushed
Today's 'revolutions' are aimed not at liberating, but at controlling us all.
Downloaded March 17, 2014 from https://www.alternet.org/visions/how...age=1#bookmark
I strongly recommend this article to all WaccoBB-landers. I have provided the link. We had a vision in Berkeley in 1960. That vision was antithetical to the forces of business enterprise that have won the battle. Business enterprise had no problem militarily repressing the forces of personal self-exploration. Today we live in a nation and a time when every activity is commodified and all behavior is surveilled to discover any whiff of revolutionary thought or action. We cannot defeat Business Enterprise. We are in the position of AA in the late 1930s. AA knew it could not defeat alcoholism, but it discovered it could heal one alcoholic at a time. That is our only hope. We can heal one Soul at a time. Be wary and reject any offering of personal self-exploration or expression that is commodified, i.e., that charges money. Money contaminates and contaminates absolutely.
Star Man
Here is the first paragraph of the article:
"For the last several years, the word “revolution” has been hanging around backstage on the national television talk-show circuit waiting for somebody, anybody -- visionary poet, unemployed automobile worker, late-night comedian -- to cue its appearance on camera. I picture the word sitting alone in the green room with the bottled water and a banana, armed with press clippings of its once-upon-a-time star turns in America’s political theater (tie-dyed and brassiere-less on the barricades of the 1960s countercultural insurrection, short-haired and seersucker smug behind the desks of the 1980s ReaganRisorgimento), asking itself why it’s not being brought into the segment between the German and the Japanese car commercials."
Re: The Death of Revolution in America
Good, revolution must die
kill the R
let Evolution take its place
exonerate the word so that over half the population of the planet can no longer use it as a blind argument and prop to maintain their tunnel vision.
At the same time exonerate the word human so it is no longer used as a reference of corruption such as
" it was my human nature that made me do that nasty thing."
The idea that there is an evil force that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree, is a root doctrine in over half the planets population, is and should be the prime concern to address.
Or as Don Quixote, off battling his windmills, thinking them machines of war, missing the enemy which creeps by daily underfoot.
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Star Man:
Dear Inhabitants of WaccoBB-Land,
"For the last several years, the word “revolution” has been hanging around backstage on the national television talk-show circuit waiting for somebody, anybody -- visionary poet, unemployed automobile worker, late-night comedian -- to cue its appearance on camera. I picture the word sitting alone in the green room with the bottled water and a banana, armed with press clippings of its once-upon-a-time star turns in America’s political theater (tie-dyed and brassiere-less on the barricades of the 1960s countercultural insurrection, short-haired and seersucker smug behind the desks of the 1980s ReaganRisorgimento), asking itself why it’s not being brought into the segment between the German and the Japanese car commercials."
Re: The Death of Revolution in America
Though it is uncharacteristic of me, I'm responding to offer a few positive thoughts and a bit of hope ...
I was a little too young to fully understand the 60s ... I knew that we were in a war and that a hell of a lot of people were growing their hair and getting out to protest that fact ... I watched as one hero after another died and fear and teenage self-interest kept me from getting involved ... and then it all died down and life became "normal" again ... find a mate, get a job, etc. etc. ... Only recently have I become political and even that wasn't a matter of choice ... I was literally thrown into the deep end of the pool of injustice and that is a reality which I cannot ignore ...
So I started to do research and struggled to wake up .... I found out about Cointelpro, and Project Paperclip, and MKUltra, etc. etc. and the secret hand behind everything that we perceive as life ... honestly, I wanted to throw up ... but a magical thing happened on my journey of discovery ... as I looked around me I noticed that many other people were on the same path ... it's as if a veil was being lifted and the "real story" was becoming more apparent every day ... and millions of other people were noticing the same thing and sharing this information ...
So don't give up ... revolutions ( and evolutions ) take different forms ... they bought up mainstream media and alternative media blossomed ... never before have so many known so much ... the attack on Syria was compromised by public opinion ... Monsanto is in trouble in many countries ... bankers have been arrested and defeated in several locations ... there are some positive signs ...
Here are a few signs of this awakening ... keep the faith, OK?
https://activism.thenation.com/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=13438&tag=email438&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=master&utm_campaign=Activism-%20Church%20Committee&utm_content=A
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/time-new-church-committee
https://www.oneworldofnations.com/2014/01/bankers-arrested-in-iceland-ireland-uk.html
https://www.thenation.com/blog/17686...os-why-wont-us
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