We are changing more than a government, more than a system. We are rebuilding our civilization from the root. We are replacing our foundational culture and values. This may seem daunting but it creates many opportunities for individuals to make the world significantly better.
The mindset should be this: What can I do to fully live and enjoy this day? How can I help the people around me? How can I improve my community and, by extension, the world?
Change The Narrative
We live in a society where kidnapping people off the street and sending them to prison camps for torture has been normalized. Denying people food and healthcare is acceptable. Cruelty is the basis of power and enough people support an evil regime (for now) to sustain it.
The Overton Window—the idea of what is possible and acceptable—has shifted over the years to the point where now what was absolutely unthinkable appears to be unavoidable.
It is essential for We The People to shift the Overton Window, and not just a bit. We need to maximize the shift, to make proper values of love and caring and kindness not only credible but essential. Living in our civilization should demand the best of people.
We can do this. We can do this in word and deed. Our impact as individuals matters. We should be stubborn loudmouths for positive values and our worldview.
What can YOU do? Everyone has their own style, but here's a few sugestions.
Replace the Current Views
Without referencing or repeating the rationalizations for today's cruelty, forcefully state positive views directly as facts. Repeating rationalizations for cruelty—even to criticize them—reinforces them. NOT repeating them is essential. Just say, "we need to build caring, compassionate neighborhoods—that's the basis for a better world." If and when you do refer to cruelty, be dismissive, terse and avoid details.
Push the Envelope to the Extreme
We don't just want a better world; we want an extremely better world. To get it, we must visualize it, express it, and promote it as the way forward. We don't want jobs. We don't want a restoration of ACA funding. We don't want a new law to take money out of politics. We don't want gun control.
We want to live together in peace. We want to run our lives, with our neighbors. We don't accept orders from governments. We don't want or need to be servants to corporations. We don't even need money or markets.
We already produce everything people need to live—and much more. We want to produce only what's needed. Everybody is entitled to enougn food to live, to healthcare, to shelter. Everyone is entitle to live fully as a human beings. Nobody should be a mere "human resource."
We want NO guns. We want NO war. We will not make guns. We will not fight wars. We will produce and share what people need. We will take no orders from elites. We don't recognize any elites. We will be aware that producing anything more than is needed costs us—in our time, our energy and our lives. Extra production damages the Earth unnecessarily. We will chose more life and time over more stuff—except when that stuff is SO desirable that we are willing to live less for it.
In particular, I see us producing nonessential things that are useful for the arts—what we need to write, to paint, to produce plays. And most of this would be analog—pens and pencils, not word processors. Paint, not tablets and styluses. But people can make those decisions for themselves. In any case, there will be no business, and no employees, so we'd only produce what people will produce vountarily.
Never Compromise
We The People produce everything. Elites everywhere produce nothing and have no power without us. Indeed, they probably can't live without us. So, we should NEVER take their demands or "advice" into consideration. We should ignore them. This is our world. We do everything and we make the decisions.
Their weapons can stop us—sometimes. But WE operate those weapons. We produce those weapons, that ammuniation. We are their armed enforcers. They become weaker as we shrink cooperation. We tell our loved ones, relatives, friends and neighbors to side with us and not with the cruel elities. The regime is losing. As their desperation and brutality grows, the regime drives more people into our camp.
Never compromise. Always demand the maximum. If it isn't unthinkable in today's society, you aren't demanding enough.
Build Community
Be a revolutionary pillar of your community.
Look for the good in people and in the world and share it. Admire a neighbor's dog. Buy a cup of coffee for the person in front of you in line. Carry groceries and chat with an elderly neighbor. Be actively kind as often as possible.
It should be more than a habit. It should be like breathing, something you do without thinking. Keep at it until that's your instinct.
Take on—alone or with others—challenges in your neighborhood. Think about helping homeless people, poor and lonely shutins, immigrants worried about ICE. Try doing something on a small scale, perhaps alone at first, and later with others. This is the beginning to transforming your neighborhood. Some of your successes will be replicable, and serve as models for other neighborhoods.
Our goal is to make kind, self-supporting communities a viral trend. We are building our better civilization in the shadow of this cruel one.
Withdraw Support
The cruel civilization is self-destructing. For centuries, elites have scoured the world, destroying everything in its path. That is the inevitable result of cruel, selfish, bullying systems and elites motivated by insatiable greed. Native peoples have been massacred. Great portions of the Earth have been stripped bare in a ruthless pursuit of more wealth. Billions have wasted their lives in servitude.
That is all going to end. It will end with the "success" of the elites when they complete their neutering of the biosphere and the planet become uninhabitable.
Or We The People take control, oust the villians, and fix the crisis. We plan to take control and fix things. The way to do this is to withdraw support.
Many people, who are justifiably angry, want to violently seize power from the elites. This has happened in the past and is not impossible. But we intend to do it nonviolently.
Why and how?
Violence and lies are the only power available to our adversaries. They have the advantage in those areas. Our strength is that we produce everything and we tell the truth. Sometimes, we can overwhelm them with force, but generally violence favors the well-armed government. Withdawal of support is literally twice as effective as violent revolution.
Our remedy of choice is nonviolent revolution.
Yes, it's good to challenge ICE directly as people in various cities have been doing. But we can also simply refuse to acknowledge or serve them. We can deny them sevice in our stores and restaurants. Tell them to get away from our homes and communities. Ignore their words and demands and walk away from them. We do not need to respect people who are not respectable. Federal terrorists, mercenaries we pay involuntarily with our tax dollars—we should shut them out. When they are our neighbors, relatives, or acquantiances, we should tell them to go away. They can return when and if they choose kindsness over cruelty.
Not before. And regardless, every crime they commit must be appropriately punished. The longer they commit these offenses, the greater the punishment. Quitting now is recommended.
Noncooperation will be spearheaded by the brave, but as major actions expand, more will join. For example, delaying paying taxes or paying less than "required" or not paying at all will be started by a brave few. As it spreads, millions will join. It will become less risky.
We will encourage defections by operational people—people who do actual work for the regime, especially those who do dirty evil work. Remember—the elites do NOTHING. They are stupid, incompetent and cruel. Their only ability is to make threats. But they need US to carry them out.
We will disempower the regime, bring every criminal to justice, but still retain a solid focus on community and on creating a beautiful civilization. We punish for justice—not revenge.
The real goal here is better lives for everyone, everywhere. Our species has great potential for evil and great potential for good. We are cultivating the good.
SEE: Why Will This Work?
Learning
We are a movement that learns, adapts, changes.
We began as The Saners, focused on the climate and the health of the Earth's biosphere. The itent was to be focused on the biggest most urgent problem. We hoped that, by limiting our scope (albeit "limited" to the entire planet!), we would at least ensure that our species (and those that share the Earth with us) would have a future.
We recognized from the beginning that the political and economic structure of our civilization would forcefully resist our efforts to stabilize the collapsing ecosystems, and to repair whatever damage could be repaired. As a novice to movements, I spent two years studying both the history and theories of what makes movements work—or fail.
Nonviolent noncooperation is the strategy that favors The People. Violence favors the well-armed establishment. The Saners selected nonviolence and, as Rems, remain committed to this approach. But it's not simplly nonviolence; it requires the skilfull and successful application of nonviolent strategy.
However, getting rid of the bad systems and leaders—as urgent as that is—remains a mere step along the way. Our objective is a positive one, and we must begin creating this new society while ending the destructive one that limits us.
The power of noncooperation is mistunderstood and, therefore, underestimated. It can be challenging to carry out and seems unlikely to succeed. But history shows that nonviolent movements succeed TWICE as frequently as violent ones.
Brutality and kiling favors despots. And the weakness of despots is that they depend on the active cooperation and obedience of The People. Dictators create nothing except lies and fear. Our advantage, as We The People is that we do and produce everything. Everything.
It's hard to withdraw cooperation. We must do it in stages, strategically, weakinging the regime steadily before ending it completely. If we could pull if off (and we should try!), a general strike would finish off the current regime quickly. But, the Rems are prepared to end it regardless.
We sometimes say we aren't attacking plutocracy or capitalism; we are ending it through neglect. We aren't at war with the establishment per se; we are doing something else, something better, something revolutionary and good.
Welcome to the Rems!