Crimes Against Humanity in Tibet, Crimes Against Reason in the USA and the EU; The Road Ends Just Up Ahead, Beyond It is A Yawning Chasm

White House Ruins, Canyon de Chelly. The Anasazi lived in the canyons for nearly a thousand years, but vanished in the mid 1200s.

Crimes Against Humanity in Tibet, Crimes Against Reason in the USA and the EU; The Road Ends Just Up Ahead, Beyond It is A Yawning Chasm

By Richard Power

Here are four more notes, scrawled at recent hash marks along the timeline; to sustain the context and continuity of the narrative.

At the Roof of the World

Although, in recent months, I have not written at length about China's program of cultural extermination and spiritual rape against the Tibetans, it is has been heavy on my heart and much on my mind.

China has detained large numbers of Tibetans for political re-education after they returned from a visit to India to listen to religious teachings, a leading rights group said. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) quoted multiple sources as saying that since February 6, many recently-returned Tibetans had been detained in ad hoc centres in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, and other areas. Agence France Press, China detains Tibetans back from India, 2-17-12

By the time you read this post, Tibetan New Year 2012 will have come and gone. But instead of a time of celebration, February 22, 2012 was a time for profound inquiry into that crux of awareness, at which practice becomes prayer and prayer becomes practice.

Tibet's exiled government has called on Tibetans not to celebrate their new year - or Losar - which begins on Wednesday, and instead observe traditional and spiritual rituals for those who have died. “Tibetans would now be getting ready for parties, family get-togethers, lots of food and drink,” said Kate Saunders, spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), which has exile sources with contacts on the ground. “But this year... Tibetans have decided not to celebrate but to honour those who have died, particularly through self-immolations, by offering prayers and paying solemn respect to the traditions of their culture.” At least 22 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in China over the past year in protest against perceived repressive Chinese rule. Marianne Barriaux, Less celebrations as Tibetans mark new year, Independent Online, 2-2-12

Emperors die, like all other mortals, and in the Bardo they meet all the good and ill they visited upon others. None of us escapes this reckoning; it is not superstition, it is physics.

Empires fall in the short span of centuries or millennia. But the truth has shone from before the first of the multi-myriad millions of stars, and will shine long after the last of those stars is extinguished.

And how will you know? You are that truth, and when there is nothing else left you will know.

The Birth Place of Western Civilization

Another story I have not said much about is the EU's fiscal crisis, and the predicament of Greece in particular.

Here are two enlightened perspectives, one from a global financier and the other from an Irish novelist; one espouses economic common sense, the other espouses economic justice.

You will hear neither of these enlightened perspectives amplified in the U.S. mainstream news media.

Soros: I admire Chancellor Merkel for her leadership qualities, but she is leading Europe in the wrong direction. To solve the euro crisis, I advocate a two-phase policy -- which is first austerity and structural reforms as Germany implemented them in 2005, but then also a stimulus program. If you do not provide more stimulus in Europe, you will push many European countries into a deflationary debt spiral. And that would be extremely dangerous.
Spiegel: Are the new austerity guidelines for countries like Spain, Italy or Greece too tough?
Soros: They create a vicious circle ... Markets do not correct their own excesses ... This is what the economist John Maynard Keynes explained to the world, except that he is not listened to by some people in Germany. SPIEGEL Interview with George Soros:'Merkel Is Leading Europe in the Wrong Direction', 2-13-12

"The behaviour of the EU states towards Greece is inexplicable in the terms in which the EU defines itself. It is, first and foremost, a failure of solidarity ... In essence, this crisis is a failure of the EU states to show solidarity in the face of an onslaught from the financial markets ... This is the triumph of capitalism, that it has persuaded the world that capitalism is the world. It has led to the undoing of 200 years of struggle between ordinary people and the super-rich ... Now we see capitalism at its most triumphant. Greek police beat Greek people in order to impose the will of the banks and hedge funds. The EU member states, including Ireland, are the middleman, the quislings of capital. "William Wall, The Greek People Have Been Sacrificed to the Capitalist Gods of Speculation, Critical Legal Thinking (Ireland), 2-16-12

From Sea to Shining Sea

Meanwhile. here in the U.S.A., decades of relentless corporatist mind war has taken its toll on the psychological health and cognitive abilities of the electorate.

Extremists from Reagan to Ron Paul want you to forget two simple but important truths:

First, governments create markets, and that it is, indeed, government regulation that preserves the relative freedom of those markets. When governments abdicate responsibility for regulating those markets, they cease to be markets, and descend into a feast of predators feeding on the weak, until it all devolves into auto-cannibalism.

Second, in an advanced (i.e., industrialized and post-industrialized) economies organized, around the division of labor and capital (i.e., cities, industries, wage-workers, etc.), healthcare, education, unemployment insurance and retirement are fundamental human rights. Indeed, healthcare, education, unemployment insurance and retirement are what "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and "promoting the General Welfare" look like in an advanced economy.

It is quite common now to hear people say "Well, we just can't afford it." That is a lie; and it is no less a lie if you are lying to yourself.

If we acknowledged the true cost of fossil fuels, and moved beyond them into renewable green energies, if we acknowledged the profound danger of human overpopulation, and confronted it with global awareness, meaningful incentives and free reproductive services, if we were willing to move beyond the "cross of iron" President Eisenhower warned us of so eloquently, SIXTY YEARS ago, to re-think our approach to "security" and re-tool our means of achieving it, we could afford to deliver on these promises, and we would be living in a very different country, and leading humanity to a very different future.

But even without such bold, evolutionary strokes, we could deliver on these promises, and be living in a very different country, and leading the world to a very different future; simply by re-asserting economic principles based on the government's real obligations to not only protect the populace from physical attack, but also to regulate markets, tax wealth fairly, invest in infrastructure, provide stimulus as needed, and extend a social safety net.

The End of the Road

This road ends just up ahead, and beyond It is a yawning chasm.

Celebrated scientists and development thinkers today warn that civilisation is faced with a perfect storm of ecological and social problems driven by overpopulation, overconsumption and environmentally malign technologies.
In the face of an "absolutely unprecedented emergency", say the 18 past winners of the Blue Planet prize – the unofficial Nobel for the environment – society has "no choice but to take dramatic action to avert a collapse of civilisation. Either we will change our ways and build an entirely new kind of global society, or they will be changed for us". John Vidal, Civilisation faces 'perfect storm of ecological and social problems', Guardian, 2-20-12

We are living in a time of tremendous challenges and extraordinary opportunities; best to find that crux of awareness, at which practice is prayer, and prayer is practice.

Humanity is putting its foot on the accelerator even though the world’s top scientists and governments have repeatedly explained we are headed over a cliff. The people who will suffer the most are people who have not contributed to this impending catastrophe — future generations and the poorest among us. This is such a colossally immoral and unethical act — collectively and in many cases individually — that most people, including the overwhelming majority of the so-called intelligentsia, simply choose to ignore it on a daily basis. That won’t save a livable climate, however, nor it will stop future generations from cursing our names. Joseph Romm, Crossing the Line as Civilization Implodes: Heartland Institute, Peter Gleick and Andrew Revkin, Nation of Change, 2-22-12

Briton Rivière - Persepolis (1878)

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of seven books, including Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. He writes and speaks on security, risk, human rights and sustainability, and has delivered executive briefings and led training in over 40 countries. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com

2012 Election Notes: Fear & Loathing at the End of the Mayan Calendar

Stone version of the Maya 260 calendar at the Smithsonian. (Credit: Matthew Bisanz, August 2009)

2012 Election Notes: Fear & Loathing at the End of the Mayan Calendar

By Richard Power

I would rather be writing to you about Darfur or Tibet, but there is little we can do about either if we succumb, so here is my first post from the 2012 campaign trail.

It is 2012 after all, and although the true Mayan elders tell us not to be afraid, and real science reminds us that pole shifts (and yes, we are in the midst of one), however disturbing, do not turn the tectonic plates upside down, I suggest you keep a close eye on what is happening in the U.S. body politic. Because doomsday, or something close to it, might sneak up on us - in November, at the ballot box.

Farscape

I have been calling for MASSIVE, NON-VIOLENT EVOLUTION for some time now. What do I mean by "massive, non-violent evolution"? I say "non-violent," of course, because violence is a double-edged sword that wounds both the victor and the vanquished. I say "evolution" rather than "revolution" because there is a difference between awakening and stridency. "You can't take pliers and peel open a rose bud," a wise man once told me, "you have to let it bloom."

"Evolution" rather than "revolution" because each of our great revolutions (e.g., Haitian, U.S., French, Russian) carried within them both evolutionary content (which changed the collective psyche forever and for the good), but also the seeds of their own distress and potential demise. Am I saying that "revolution" is somehow wrong and "evolution" is right? No, just that there are circumstances that call for an evolutionary leap, and our current global dilemma is one of them. Within this "massive, non-violent evolution," there may be many revolutions (some tragically violent) flowing like rivers into the sea.

"Evolution" rather than "revolution" because throngs meditating are just as vital as throngs marching. (Preferably, throngs meditating as they march.) "Evolution" rather than "revolution" because anyone working in education, healing, the arts and sciences, and especially designing and delivering green energy is actively engaged in this "massive, non-violent evolution" IF they are doing so with a consciously altruistic attitude.

My vision of "massive, non-violent evolution" rests on two premises, one historical, the other spiritual: the historical premise is that both sides lost the Cold War, i.e., both economic models have failed humanity, and the spiritual premise is that all life is a oneness, i.e., whatever you do to another human being or to the web of life, you do to yourself.

In the algebra of this "massive, non-violent evolution," we are simply looking for the equivalent of the Hundredth Monkey. Impossible? Perhaps. But from Homer to Tolkein, our greatest sagas are organized around impossible quests. And even if this vision proves impossible, those who embrace it, and live it, will have transformed themselves in the process.

Nearscape

Meanwhile ...

Just as we are the only one of the great industrialized democracies that doesn't provide universal healthcare, we are also the only one that equates money with speech. We are in dire straits.

Voter suppression laws targeting the elderly, the young and the poor are being passed by Zombie state legislators and signed into law by Zombie governors. Furthermore, these Zombie state legislators and governors have also instituted union-breaking right to work for less laws in almost half of the states in this DISunion.

If there weren't a genuine progressive movement, and it hadn't saved the future before, and didn't threaten to do so again, why would there by such an organized death-eater effort to disembowel it?

That's why I tell you that partisan is a beautiful word, and encourage you to embrace it.

You can blow bubbles if you want to, and curl up inside of one those bubbles and float away in a pipe dream, but sooner or later that bubble will burst. Reality calls you to something higher, something deeper, i.e., clarity, courage and compassion engaged in the great struggle of THIS age. What we have in the U.S.A is not a petty battle between competing political ideologies, what we have here is a burgeoning human rights crisis.

Consider this headline:

More than 68% of New European Electricity Capacity Came From Wind and Solar in 2011 (Climate Progress, 2-12-12)

Yes, in the feast of ignorance that is the U.S. body politic, the Europeans are mocked, and progressive politicians are smeared as wanting to make us more like the Europeans. If only ...

Ah yes, "American Exceptionalism." Who would want universal health care, or to already be producing 68% of our electricity capacity from wind and solar? No, instead let's drag them into the grave we have dug for ourselves. Let's fetishize over a Thatcher doll (that looks and sounds like Meryl Streep) just as we have fetishized over our Reagan doll. Yes, worship the golden calf of the "free market." Except, of course, it isn't free, it's monopolistic and auto-cannibalistic, and it isn't made of gold, it's made of dwindling fossil fuels and worthless derivatives.

Dire Consequences

Yes, elections have consequences. Dire consequences.

Consider this story:

A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity — not changes in solar activity — are the primary force driving global warming. The study offers an updated calculation of the Earth’s energy imbalance, the difference between the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth’s surface and the amount returned to space as heat. The researchers’ calculations show that, despite unusually low solar activity between 2005 and 2010, the planet continued to absorb more energy than it returned to space. Joe Romm, Climate Progress, 2-5-12

This recently released study would NOT have seen the light of day if the Zombie Cult formerly known as the Republican Party had control of the White House. If you don't vote against their madness, you are voting against not only against science but against the planet itself.

Elections have consequences. Dire consequences.

What’s an anti-science politician to do when even a Koch-funded researcher says that human activity is causing global warming? Well, you could just stop all scientific endeavors in the field all together. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference yesterday, Colorado Republican Congressman Cory Gardner explained to attendees that was just what his party was determined to do. When a questioner asked how Republicans can stop taxpayer dollars going to climate research and other programs to reduce carbon emissions, the panelists chuckled. Then Rep. Gardner answered the question, explaining that many GOP leaders are committed to “get that money out that’s been feeding the industry.” Stephen Lacy, Congressman Says Defunding Climate Science is a Priority for GOP, Climate Progress, 2-10-12

Elections have consequences. Dire consequences. At every level of government.

If you don't against this madness, you are voting for it.

There are six bills aimed at undermining the teaching of evolution before state legislatures this year: two each in New Hampshire and Missouri, one each in Indiana and Oklahoma. And it's only February.

Elections have consequences. Dire consequences. And these dire consequences will impact much that you take for granted.

When the Clean Water Act was enacted, the Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it literally caught fire, the majestic Hudson River’s fishery was gone and Lake Erie was declared all but dead. This bold legislation put forward by visionaries in Congress returned control of our nation’s waterways to the citizens of the United States as part of the public trust. However, today the concept of the public trust, the commons, is being quickly eroded by corporate polluters and their cronies in Congress who are determined to return to the era of using out nation’s waterways as open sewers, toxic dumps and landfills. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Clean Water Safeguards Headed Down the Drain?, EcoWatch, 1-23-12

Elections have consequences. Dire consequences.

As we celebrate the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman's constitutional right to legal abortion, we can't forget how many times women's lives have been put at risk in the past year. Legislators in 24 states passed 92 anti-abortion provisions in 2011, shattering the previous record of 34 adopted in 2005, according to the Guttmacher Institute ... Reproductive health care is not for some women; it is a fundamental right of all women. We will not let anti-choice groups destroy what we worked so hard for. On this anniversary, and with 289 days left until Election Day 2012, NOW pledges to work tirelessly to elect officials who will support women's access to the full range of reproductive health care services, and defeat those who don't. Terry O'Neill, President of National Organization of Women, NO.W., 1-22-12

The Zombie Cult is anti-reason, anti-nature, anti-science and anti-women; one leads into the other in a heavy chain of horrific ignorance. They don't use brains, they eat them.

John Wayne Gacy, the Hollow Men, & A Handmaid's Tale

If you are tempted to dismiss Gingrich as a clown; just remember that John Wayne Gacy too was a clown. If you are tempted to dismiss Romney as one of T.S. Eliot's Hollow Men (I confess I hear it whispered between the lines whenever I hear him speak), and as someone who could not possibly be elected president, just remember that many of histories most ghastly episodes were presided over by similarly hollow men. And Santorum? Well, it is as if he escaped from the pages of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale. Former Senator Santorum often speaks of irresponsible behavior in his jihad against women's reproductive rights. (Mic check! Mic check! Having seven children, having seven children, in overpopulated world, in an overpopulated world, and denying the reality, and denying the reality, of Climate Change, of Climate Change, THAT, THAT, is irresponsible behavior, is irresponsible behavior, former Sen. Santorum, former Sen. Santorum.)

If you are tempted to think that there is no difference between Obama and any of these would-be Zombie nominees, remember that the shell of a man formerly known as Ralph Nader told you there was no difference between Bush and Gore in 2000. It was a lie then, and it is a lie now. And it is no less of a lie if you are lying to yourself.

Of course, whether or not it is enough of a difference for us to overcome the challenges that we confront is another question. And frankly, no, based on Obama's performance in office, it is not enough of a difference, but it is enough difference to allow for another opportunity to change direction before the utter end of it all.

If the Zombie cult formerly known as the Republican Party succeeds in winning control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, we will ALL choke on YOUR self-delusion that there is no difference between the two major political parties, and there will be no opportunity to change direction.

POTUS Looks Best Defined by Who His Enemies Are

If you know me or my writings than you know I am profoundly at odds with POTUS on major economic, environmental and geopolitical issues; nevertheless, as we approach 2012, I urge you to remember that one VERY important element that goes into defining a man is the make-up of those who seek to destroy him. Consider POTUS' enemies. Arrayed as they are against him, in all their ugliness, they add a different dimension to the decision before us.

In a surprising move over the weekend, thousands of Catholic parishioners were read letters that condemn the Obama administration and its recent decision to make birth control available to women through virtually all private health insurance plans. The letters were written by Catholic Bishops in the U.S. and read aloud at hundreds of Catholic churches on Sunday. Raw Story, 1-30-12

So let me get this straight, a very powerful, very wealthy, very secretive, very patriarchal organization, which cannot seem to protect its school children from the pedophiles in its ranks, and yet seems to hide away the pedophiles instead of turning them over to law enforcement; this very powerful, very wealthy, very secretive, very patriarchal organization wants to meddle in the reproductive rights of women?

Yes, POTUS appears to have outmaneuvered them in this particular test of wills, but the exercise should serve as a warning.

Remember, "Partisan" is a beautiful word, a powerful word; reclaim it, embrace it, own it.

Self-deprecating, too liberal for their own good, today's progressives stand back and watch, hands over their mouths, as the social vivisectionists of the right slice up a living society to see if its component parts can survive in isolation. Tied up in knots of reticence and self-doubt, they will not shout stop ... we have been too polite to mention the Canadian study published last month in the journal Psychological Science, which revealed that people with conservative beliefs are likely to be of low intelligence. Paradoxically it was the Daily Mail that brought it to the attention of British readers last week. It feels crude, illiberal to point out that the other side is, on average, more stupid than our own. But this, the study suggests, is not unfounded generalization but empirical fact. George Monbiot, The Right's Stupidity Spreads, Enabled by a Too-Polite Left, Guardian, 2-7-12

It's Probably Only Going to Get Worse for Awhile

Meanwhile, it is likely that the looming dangers are going to intensify. Consider two more of the elephants crammed into this room.

If Israel really attacks Iran this year, it – and the Americans – will be more dotty than their enemies think. True, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a crackpot, but then so is Avigdor Lieberman, who is apparently the Israeli Foreign Minister ... Robert Fisk, An attack on Tehran would be madness. So don't rule it out, Independent, 2-4-11

If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. As yet -- as we shall see -- it’s unfortunately largely invisible to us ... Bill McKibben, The Great Carbon Bubble: Why the Fossil Fuel Industry Fights So Hard, Tom Dispatch, 2-7-12

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of seven books, including Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. He writes and speaks on security, risk, human rights and sustainability, and has delivered executive briefings and led training in over 40 countries. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com

Yes, Your Leaders Went to Davos, 3 Bare-Breasted Ukrainian Women; & Why You Will Soon Miss the Words, "I'm from the Government & I'm Here to Help You"

More than 1 million children in the Sahel are at risk of severe malnutrition and urgent action is needed to avert starvation akin to that in Somalia, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday. Reuters, 1-27-11

More intense heat waves due to global warming could diminish wheat crop yields around the world through premature ageing, according to a study published Sunday in Nature Climate Change. Current projections based on computer models underestimate the extent to which hotter weather in the future will accelerate this process, the researchers warned. Marlowe Hood, Climate-driven heat peaks may shrink wheat crops, Physorg.com, 1-29-11

“We love peace and we hope for peace,” the monk said, adding that mandatory “re-education” classes, often dominated by political and patriotic indoctrination, have been forced on his monastery. The government has said two Tibetans were killed in clashes in the towns of Seda and Luhuo ... Another Tibeten protester was shot dead in Rangtang county, rights groups said ... Agence France Press, 1-29-12

Yes, Your Leaders Went to Davos, Three Bare-Breasted Ukrainian Women; & Why You Will Soon Miss the Words, "I'm from the Government & I'm Here to Help You"

By Richard Power

The women of Femen are serious, and brave.

And if you doubt either, you do not understand the vital role of women in the massive, global non-violent evolution that must come; nor do you understand how profoundly exploited women are in the grips of predatory capitalism, particularly in Eastern European and the former Soviet Union.

Three topless Ukrainian protesters were detained Saturday while trying to break into an invitation-only gathering of international CEOs and political leaders to call attention to the needs of the world's poor ... After a complicated journey to reach the heavily guarded Swiss resort town of Davos, the Ukrainians arrived at the entrance to the complex where the World Economic Forum takes place every year. With temperatures around freezing in the snow-filled town, they took off their tops and tried to climb a fence before being detained. "Crisis! Made in Davos," read one message painted across a protester's torso, while others held banners that said "Poor, because of you" and "Gangsters party in Davos." Women of FEMEN Crash "Gangsters Party in Davos" Common Dreams, 1-28-12

(Videos embedded below.)

Imagine where we would be if we hadn't allowed Bush to gut the surplus with his tax cuts for the wealthiest (or simply not extended them when they were due to expire). Imagine where we would be if we hadn't spent the three trillion plus squandered on Iraq and Afghanistan, and instead, poured it into high-speed rail cross-crossing the country, and a new, smarter grid fed with solar power from the Southwest and wind power from the Midwest.

Oh yes, BTW, have you ever added up the externalities of fossil fuels? Oil, gas and coal are not cheap energy sources; and they haven't been for a long time, assuming you add in the real costs in terms of the destruction of the environment and the negative impact on public health (not to mention decade after decade of those tax-payer funded subsidies). And now they are threatening to cost us our world itself, i.e., civilization as we know it, and the global climate balance it has been predicated on for millennia. And yet the Chamber of Horrors and its Renfields in both major political parties just want more, and more, at whatever the cost; and so, instead of a Marshall Plan to turn our own economy green, we pursue mountain top removal, fracking and the tar sands pipeline. Madness.

Governments’ failure to regulate business effectively is having a devastating impact on the rights of society’s most vulnerable people, Amnesty International warned today, ahead of this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos. “The economic crisis, and how governments have chosen to address it, poses a clear and unambiguous risk to the rights of people in many countries,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty. “Davos cannot afford to be a congratulatory club for the rich and powerful. We must use this opportunity to challenge the orthodoxy of the policies being pursued and ensure governments meet their responsibilities.” Davos: World Leaders Protecting Business Over Rights in Economic Crisis, Amnesty International, 7-24-12

Do you remember how we fell into these circumstances? Do you understand? Here is all the history you need.

Despite Newt Gingrich's claim that "supply-side" economic theories have "worked," the truth is that America's three-decade experiment with low tax rates on the rich, lax regulation of corporations and "free trade" has been a catastrophic failure, creating massive federal debt, devastating the middle class and off-shoring millions of American jobs. It has "worked" almost exclusively for the very rich, yet the former House speaker and the three other Republican presidential hopefuls are urging the country to double-down on this losing gamble, often to the cheers of their audiences — like one Florida woman who said she had lost her job and medical insurance but still applauded the idea of more "free-market" solutions. Robert Parry, Selling the 'Supply-Side' Myth, 1-28-12

Flawed and conflicted as it was, ours WAS "a government of the people, for the people, by the people," otherwise they would not have been so desperate to demonize and destroy it from within. We will all have reason to rue the day, and many will not live much longer than that, as the Sixth Great Extinction overtakes the planet.

In the face of an unraveling climate system, there is no way that private enterprise alone will meet the threat. And though small “d” democracy and “community” may be key parts of a strong, functional, and fair society, volunteerism and “self-organization” alone will prove as incapable as private enterprise in responding to the massive challenges now beginning to unfold. To adapt to climate change will mean coming together on a large scale and mobilizing society’s full range of resources. In other words, Big Storms require Big Government. Who else will save stranded climate refugees, or protect and rebuild infrastructure, or coordinate rescue efforts and plan out the flow and allocation of resources? It will be government that does these tasks or they will not be done at all. Christian Parenti, Why Climate Change Will Make You Love Big Government; A Secret History of Free Enterprise and the Government That Made It Possible, Tom Dispatch, 2-26-12

But remember, this great duel was fought and WON not so long ago, in the land that the wood for the U.N. General Assembly came from (isn't it good, Norwegian wood?"), and the land that Lisbeth Salander and the Nobel Peace Prize came from too ...

While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different. George Lakey, How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’ Waging Non-Violence, 1-26-12

We need MASSIVE, GLOBAL NON-VIOLENT EVOLUTION now.

Our first step in the USA is to declare that CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE, AND MONEY IS NOT SPEECH, and to rid ourselves of this abomination. Go to Move to Amend for more information.

Historic Effort to Recall Wisconsin Gov. Walker Reveals "People Power" After 1 Million Sign Petition


Three Very Short Videos (All Less than One Minute) of Femen at Davis

Stop Davis 1

Stop Davos! 2 from FEMEN Video on Vimeo.

Stop Davis 2

Stop Davos! 1 from FEMEN Video on Vimeo.

Stop Davis 3

Stop Davos! 3 from FEMEN Video on Vimeo.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of seven books, including Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. He writes and speaks on security, risk, human rights and sustainability, and has delivered executive briefings and led training in over 40 countries. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com

In This Fractured Society, Lashed Together in Deep Denial, the Day After the Day After MLK Day is More Important

Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964 (Dick DeMarsico, World Telegram Staff Photographer, Library of Congress. New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection)


“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” - Martin Luther King, Jr., Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence, April 4, 1967

In This Fractured Society, Lashed Together in Deep Denial, the Day After the Day After MLK Day is More Important

By Richard Power

MLK came from the future, and brought with him a message so powerful that its delivery cost the messenger his life.

No monument could ever contain the greatness he conjured, but your radiant mind can mirror it, and your overflowing heart can pour it forth. Choose to live this truth. Choose to live from the future into the now. Choose indomitable compassion and dauntless courage.

"I agree with Dante, that the hottest place in hell is reserved for those who at a time of moral crisis maintain their neutrality ..." -Martin Luther King, Jr., Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam, April 30, 1967

The goddesses of love and justice call to you from the within your psyche.

‎"And of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with resignation of power, and power with the denial of love ... Now we have got to get this thing right. What is needed is the realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on." - Martin Luther King, Where Do We Go From Here?, August 16, 1967

The journey is just beginning.

Remember that the visionary power of MLK's dream did not spring from some naive idealism, but from a profound grasp of reality and an extraordinary willingness to embrace any and all consequences of living a truthful live. Yes, and like him, each of us must approach tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, as if it were our "Last Battle on Earth" ...

"So I am happy tonight, I am not worried about anything, i am not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory ..." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 3, 1968

If MLK were alive today, he would have stood at the threshold of the corridors of power, and declared that corporations are not people, and money is not speech. No more efficacious cause could be rallied around on the day after MLK Day 2012, or the day after the day after, or the day after that ...

The Constitution of this country has served us well, but when the Supreme Court says that attempts by the federal government and states to impose reasonable restrictions on campaign ads are unconstitutional, our democracy is in grave danger. That is why I have introduced a resolution in the Senate calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Saving Our Democracy, Huffington Post, 12-8-12

Unlike the mainstream media, the political establishment, and the corporatist overlords that both serve, MLK would not have avoided the grave dangers of the Climate Crisis. Unlike the most of the progressive movement, he would not have allowed the Climate Crisis to be just one among numerous causes. Yes, my friend, accept it, the Climate Crisis is of another magnitude than Don't Ask, Don't Tell, or Iraq and Afghanistan, or just about anything else you could imagine. Food shortages, water scarcity and massive population displacements, that's what the Climate Crisis threatens us with.

MLK would have clearly understood both the challenges and the opportunities of the Climate Crisis - in the their proper context, i.e. economic and moral, and he would have seen Climate Action as a banner under which to unite yellow, brown, red, black and white, he would have recognized it as the penultimate moment, the crescendo of every battle for human rights and environmental protection from the dawn of civilization, and he would not have let this penultimate moment pass without seizing it.

Instead, from Kyoto to Copenhagen to Durbin, we have seen the greatest failure of governance in human history.

Naomi Klein: Personally, I think the greatest possibility lies in bringing together the ecological crisis and the economic crisis. I see climate change as the ultimate expression of the violence of capitalism: this economic model that fetishizes greed above all else is not just making lives miserable in the short term, it is on the road to making the planet uninhabitable in the medium term ... I think climate change is the strongest argument we’ve ever had against corporate capitalism, as well as the strongest argument we’ve ever had for the need for alternatives to it. And the science puts us on a deadline: we need to have begun to radically reduce our emissions by the end of the decade ...Naomi Klein and Yotam Marom, Occupy Wall Street: Why Now? What's Next?, The Nation, 1-10-12

Oh yes, and although he would have marveled at Occupy Wall Street, and all that it has already accomplished in terms of awakening the national psyche, MLK would be relentlessly reminding its participants that this economic injustice did not start with a war on the middle class and its children, no, it started with the war on the poor that replaced the war on poverty.

AMY GOODMAN: ... you have talked about how there are more African Americans percentage-wise imprisoned in the United States, more black people, than were at the height of apartheid South Africa.
MICHELLE ALEXANDER: ... we’ve become blind in this country to the ways in which we’ve managed to reinvent a caste-like system here in the United States, one that functions in a manner that is as oppressive, in many respects, as the one that existed in South Africa under apartheid and that existed under Jim Crow here in the United States ... Through the war on drugs and the "get tough" movement, millions of poor people, overwhelmingly poor people of color, have been swept into our nation’s prisons and jails, branded criminals and felons, primarily for nonviolent and drug-related crimes ... and then are ushered into a permanent second-class status, where they’re stripped of the many rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement ... On Eve of MLK Day, Michelle Alexander & Randall Robinson on the Mass Incarceration of Black America, Democracy Now, 1-13-12

In the decades since his martyrdom, *they* allowed for the establishment of a national holiday in his name, the erection of a monument to him on the mall, and even the ascendancy of an African American to the Oval Office (albeit an Impossible Presidency) and yet, all the while *they* were dismantling everything that truly mattered, brick by brick and tear by tear.

MLK would have seen through it all. But he is long gone.

And you and I are standing here alone, and it is the day after the day after ...

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

I Am A Man: Dr. King & the Memphis Sanitation Strike


MLK's Last Speech


On Eve of MLK Day, Michelle Alexander & Randall Robinson on the Mass Incarceration of Black America (Democracy Now)


The Revolutionary MLK


See Also

Welcome to the Anthropocene Age; A Monument to MLK Now Stands on the Mall, Like Kubrick's Obelisk, Mysterious & Otherworldly

MLK Day 2007 -- A Call to Conscience in the Corridors of State and Media Power

Richard Power is the author of seven books, including Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. He writes and speaks on security, risk, human rights and sustainability, and has delivered executive briefings and led training in over 40 countries. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com

Ron Paul Serves the 1%, & In His Thralldom to Them He Throws Some Juicy Scraps to the Ugliest Anti-Social Elements Among Us

Salvador Dali - Leda Atomica (1949)

Ron Paul Serves the 1%, & In His Thralldom to Them He Throws Some Juicy Scraps to the Ugliest Anti-Social Elements Among Us - Ron Paul Would Have Protected Jim Crow, Wants to Free You from "Slavery" to Social Security & Medicare, & Of Course Revoke a Woman's Right to Choose

By Richard Power

If Ron Paul runs as a third-party candidate, it will not be to defeat the one-percenter Mitt Romney, it will be to ensure Romney's victory in a few critical battleground states by shaving off a few thousand votes from POTUS (or perhaps by offering cover for the shaving off of those votes by other more nefarious means).

Make no mistake about it, Ron Paul serves the 1%, and in his thralldom to them he throws juicy scraps of hate to some the ugliest anti-social elements among us.

If you are flirting with support for Ron Paul, as some kind of powerful statement on the threat to civil liberties, you are profoundly deluded.

Ron Paul has stated unequivocally that he believes the state should be able to dictate what a woman can or cannot do with her own body.

Ron Paul
You say you want to repeal Roe v Wade.
What makes you think the state has the right to control a woman's reproductive decisions?
You say you want every child to have a chance to live. How will those children eat when you eliminate essential programs like WIC and food assistance?
Where will those children live when you eliminate subsidized housing?
How will those children receive healthcare when you eliminate Medicaid?
How will those children get an education when you eliminate student aid?
Mr. Paul, you do not care about the children of the 99 percent. You do not care about the rights of women. You are a servant of the Patriarchy. You are a servant of the 1 percent. Ron Paul Event Interrupted in Iowa, Huffington Post, 12-28-11

Paul has also stated unequivocally that the state should not be able to forbid a business from refusing service to a someone based solely on their race or ethnicity.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked the Texas congressman, “The ‘64 civil rights bill, do you think an employer, a guy who runs his shop down in Texas or anywhere has a right to say, ‘If you’re black, you don’t come in my store’?” And with that, Paul explained he would have opposed the Civil Rights Act, adding, “I wouldn’t vote against getting rid of the Jim Crow laws.” Steve Benen, Washington Monthly, 5-14-11

So you are a progressive, and you insist that Ron Paul has some moral high ground? Tell me, how does it feel to lie in bed with the denizens of Stromfront?

You are also seriously deluded if you are flirting with support for Ron Paul, as some kind of powerful statement of protest in regard to our foolish military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ron Paul's anti-war views are not grounded in altruism or even common sense; they are grounded in a crude, unthinking isolationism. Indeed, it is not far-fetched to surmise that the tale of Anne Frank's diary would have likely fallen on deaf ears in Ron Paul's house. Can't you hear him saying, "It's none of our business." (Think I am taking a cheap shot? Really? Some Republicans of the 1930s were not just isolationists, they were Nazi-sympathizers.)

After all, in Ron Paul’s warped mind, caring for strangers is just a way to enslave them.

Earlier this year, in an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Paul declared both Social Security and Medicare to be unconstitutional, essentially saying they should be abolished for the great evil that they are -- just like slavery. Adele Stan, 5 Reasons Progressives Should Treat Ron Paul with Extreme Caution -- 'Cuddly' Libertarian Has Some Very Dark Politics, AlterNet, 8-26-11

But perhaps the most damning evidence of all is that Ron Paul named his son after the sociopathic cult leader, Ayn Rand.

Ayn Rand’s “philosophy” is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society....To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.— Gore Vidal, 1961 Bruce E. Levine, How Ayn Rand Seduced Generations of Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation, Reuters AlterNet, 12-15-11

His adoration of Ayn Rand, BTW, is something he shares with Alan Greenspan. (Yes, the former Chairman of the Fed.)

Ron Paul is either a profoundly confused individual, or an utter hypocrite. So where does that leave you if you are considering supporting him?

Megan Carpentier and Joe Conason provide some context

In fact, many of Ron Paul's newest supporters on the left look strikingly like the majority of the ones on the right who have been following him for years: the kinds of people whose lives won't be directly affected by all those pesky social conservative policies Paul would seek to enact as president, either due to their race, class, gender or sexual orientation. Megan Carpentier, Guardian, 1-6-12

The Nader supporters of 2000, a fraction of the liberal electorate, didn’t get the policies they so urgently desired, of course. They didn’t even get a viable Green Party or a lasting movement for change. Instead, they helped to inflict a political disaster from which America has scarcely begun to emerge. In the new year, we may discover whether they wish to revive that nightmare. Joe Conason, Could Ron Paul Be the Next Ralph Nader? Truthdig, 1-1-12

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of seven books, including Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. He writes and speaks on security, risk, human rights and sustainability, and has delivered executive briefings and led training in over 40 countries. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com

Not a Political Crisis, Not an Economic Crisis, Not an Environmental Crisis; No, a Mental Health Crisis

Edward Curtis, Apache Girl (1906)

Ayn Rand’s “philosophy” is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society....To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.— Gore Vidal, 1961 Bruce E. Levine, How Ayn Rand Seduced Generations of Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation, Reuters AlterNet, 12-15-11

Not a Political Crisis, Not an Economic Crisis, Not an Environmental Crisis; No, a Mental Health Crisis

By Richard Power

A week has now passed since the greatest failure of governance in human history reached its culmination at the Durbin climate summit. And no, I am not indulging in hyperbole.

The UN climate talks in Durban were a failure and take the world a significant step back by further undermining an already flawed, inadequate multilateral system that is supposed to address the climate crisis ... Friends of the Earth, Disastrous "Durban Package" Accelerates Onset of Climate Catastrophe, 12-31-11

"Delaying real action till 2020 is a crime of global proportions. "This means the world is on track to a 4C temperature rise, a death sentence for Africa ... The richest 1% of the world have decided that it is acceptable to sacrifice the 99%."John Vidal and Fiona Harvey, Durban Climate Deal Struck after Tense All-Night Session, Guardian, 12-12-11

They bailed out the banks in days. But even deciding to bail out the planet is taking decades. George Monbiot, Why is it so easy to save the banks – but so hard to save the biosphere? Independent, 12- 16-11

Yes, a week has now passed since the greatest failure of governance in human history reached its culmination at the Durbin climate summit, and there has been almost no debate about it in the US body politic or even mention of it on US air waves. (Instead, chillingly, the national discussion this week has been an utterly delusional one about whether "we achieved our goals" in Iraq, and whether or not "it is the right time" to leave.)

Meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street has brilliantly framed our current predicament as the co-opting of US economic and political power by 1% at the expense of the 99%. Of course, if the contrast were not so stark between the current circumstances and trajectories of the 99% versus the 1%, the framing would not seem so brilliant.

The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and everyone in between in slipping downward toward the abyss into which the poor are already falling.

The banks and the rating agencies have become the dictators of the West. Like the Mubaraks and Ben Alis, the banks believed – and still believe – they are owners of their countries. The elections which give them power have – through the gutlessness and collusion of governments – become as false as the polls to which the Arabs were forced to troop decade after decade to anoint their own national property owners. Robert Fisk, Bankers are the Dictators of the West, Independent, 12-11-11

Yes, we are at a moment in history when the reality of our economic and environmental challenges have become inescapable. And yet, there is nothing much more than escapism being proffered from either our political establishment or mainstream news media; both are unabashedly propping up false memes of a 1% world-view.

Have we ever been so badly served by the press? We face multiple crises – economic, environmental, democratic – but most newspapers represent them neither clearly nor fairly. The industry that should reveal and expose instead tries to contain and baffle, to foil questions and shut down dissent. The men who own the corporate press are fighting a class war, seeking, even now, to defend the 1% to which they belong against its challengers. But because they control much of the conversation, we seldom see it in these terms. Our press re-frames major issues so effectively, it often recruits its readers to mobilise against their own interests. George Monbiot, Britain's press are fighting a class war, defending the elite they belong to, Guardian, 12-12-11

We do not have a political crisis, or an economic crisis, or an environmental crisis, as much as we have a mental health crisis, a moral crisis, and a spiritual crisis.

Scientific research is revealing that 21st century financial institutions with a high rate of turnover and expanding global power have become highly attractive to psychopathic individuals to enrich themselves at the expense of others, and the companies they work for. A peer-reviewed theoretical paper titled “The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis” details how highly placed psychopaths in the banking sector may have nearly brought down the world economy through their own inherent inability to care about the consequences of their actions ... Scientists believe about 1% of the general population is psychopathic ... There is emerging evidence that this frequency increases within the upper management of modern corporations." Mitchell Anderson, Weeding Out Corporate Psychopaths, Toronto Star, 11-24-11

As I have said since I started writing and speaking about these issues over a decade ago, our environmental and economic crises are inextricably bound up, and so are the solutions. Either our future is green, and altruistic, and grounded in declarations of human rights and Gaia's rights, or it will be a horrific one. The choice really is ours.

Remember, there are many mysteries about the pyramids, but the source of their strength is not one of them, the strength of all pyramids flows from the base, the broad bottom, and not from the pinnacle. That is a geometric truth.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights


Richard Power is the author of seven books, including Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. He writes and speaks on security, risk, human rights and sustainability, and has delivered executive briefings and led training in over 40 countries. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com

Mic Check Mic Check We Are We Are On Our Own On Our Own The Future The Future Is Being Abandoned Is Being Abandoned In Durbin In Durbin

John William Waterhouse, Mermaid, 1901

If the British chancellor won't take responsibility, most other political leaders in developed countries won't either ... Some say we need a miracle to save the eurozone and the banks. We need a far bigger one to save the planet. According to the World Bank's 2010 world development report, if all coal-fired plants scheduled to be built in the next 25 years come into operation, their lifetime CO2 emissions will equal those of all coal burning since the industrial revolution. Peter Wilby, Guardian, 12-2-11

Between 15,000 and 20,000 farmers, unionists, teachers, peasants, students, garbage pickers, transport workers and other indignant citizens gathered outside the U.N. consultation chambers in Durban on Saturday calling for "system change, not climate change". Many of these protestors marched to the U.S. embassy, demanding that the "world's biggest polluter" start supporting climate solutions that benefit the 99 percent. Kanya D'Almeida, US Inaction on Climate is "Criminal", Activists Say, IPS, 12-4-11

And this battle demands that the world see that, at some stage, as the water tables are dropping and the minerals that remain in the mountains are being taken out, we are going to confront a crisis from which we cannot return. The people who created the crisis in the first place will not be the ones that come up with a solution.Arundhati Roy, Guardian, 11-30-11

Mic Check Mic Check We Are We Are On Our Own On Our Own The Future The Future Is Being Abandoned Is Being Abandoned In Durbin In Durbin

By Richard Power

So POTUS finally delivered a powerful and long overdue Roosevelt-style speech about economic injustice; but, of course, true to his predilections, it was a Teddy Roosevelt speech not an F.D.R. speech. Because, after all, no matter what fellow community organizer Saul Alinsky meant to him in the past, or still means to him in the solitude of his own mind, POTUS is, practically speaking, the ideological equivalent of what was once known as a progressive Republican.

And on the same day as POTUS' Teddy Roosevelt speech, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also delivering a powerful speech; one in which she called on the governments of the world to cease discriminating against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Well, I would love to indulge in revelry, and I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news (again), but ...

The Obama administration's actions in Durbin this week and last cancel out the positive benefit of both laudable speeches.

The United States has become the major stumbling block to progress at the mid point of negotiations over a new international climate regime say civil society and many of the 193 nations attending the United Nations climate change conference here in Durban. "The U.S. position leads us to three or four degrees Celsius of warming, which will be devastating for the poor of the world," said Celine Charveriat of Oxfam International. "They are proposing a 10-year time out with no new targets to lower emissions until after 2020," Charveriat said. Stephen Leahy, IPS, 12-6-11

Don't you understand? Even if we were to succeed in establishing a new baseline of economic justice in the USA (POTUS flirted with it in his speech), while bringing gay marriage to bastions of homophobia like Uganda and Saudia Arabia (which would be the logical extension of the principled position Hillary Clinton outlined in hers), it would all likely be for naught.

If you live in the Southwest or just about anywhere in the American West, you or your children and grandchildren could soon enough be facing the Age of Thirst, which may also prove to be the greatest water crisis in the history of civilization. No kidding ... Just think of the coming Age of Thirst in the American Southwest and West as a three-act tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions. William deBuys, Coming to a Theater Near You: The Greatest Water Crisis in the History of Civilization, Tom Dispatch, 12-5-1

Severe drought has hit Europe's second largest river, the Danube, turning it into a navigation nightmare for shipping companies all the way from Germany to Bulgaria ... "There is just no water! The situation is critical not only here on the lower Danube but also upriver in Hungary, Austria, Germany," Ivan Ivanov, deputy chief of Bulgarian River Shipping (BRP), told AFP. Agence France Press, 12-4-11

Storms and droughts that have unleashed dangerous surges in food prices could be a “grim foretaste” of what lies ahead when climate change bites more deeply, Oxfam said ... “This will only get worse as climate change gathers pace and agriculture feels the heat,” said Oxfam’s Kelly Dent. Agence France Press, 11-28-11

The U.S.A. government has indeed led the world - into the greatest failure of governance in human history.

But it is not just our political leadership that is responsible for these dire circumstances.

The Climate talks in Durbin are well into the second week. And yet, the U.S. mainstream news media has spent the last few days and nights doting on the madness of Cain, Trump and Gingrich, and then, in turn, analyzing POTUS' new-found populism.

Sadly, so have progressive cable news sources, e.g., Maddow, Schultz, O'Donnell, even Olbermann (although K.O, to his credit has been in-depth and relentless on Occupy Wall Street). Likewise, progressive talk radio hosts have also been AWOL on the Climate Crisis this last week and last, first obsessing over Cain, Gingrich and Trump, and then fawning over POTUS' speech (only Thom Hartmann consistently deals with the Climate Crisis in any meaningful way).

None of these sources (as of this post) have provided coverage worthy of what is at stake in Durbin.

Only Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! have provided coverage worthy of what is at stake in Durbin. Day after day, this week and last, we have been reminded of how much Democracy Now! does with so little, as opposed to how little CNN does with so much. (See some examples in the embedded videos below.)

Yes, we know Durbin is a lost cause; but honestly that it is a lost cause (and why) is even a bigger story than if a meaningful agreement were to come out of it. Madness. Madness. Madness. We are on our own. But you knew that, didn't you? For thousands of years, human civilization has been hurtling toward the impossible situation in which you and I find ourselves. All that is blessed has been fused with all that is wicked. What will come of this singularity? Emergence or extinction?

Choose to meet this unprecedented moment with unconditional love, simple awareness and bold creativity. There is no other way forward. If you look ahead and see no one in front of you, well, that's because you are leading the way.

You think OWS is radical? You think 350.org was radical for helping organize mass civil disobedience in DC in August against the Keystone Pipeline? We’re not radical. Radicals work for oil companies. The CEO of Exxon gets up every morning and goes to work changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere. No one has ever done anything as radical as that, not in all of human history ... 2011 showed we could fight back. 2012 would be a good year to step up the pressure. Because this time next year the Global Carbon Project will release another number. And I’m betting it will be grim. Bill McKibben, The Most Important News Story of the Day/Millennium, Common Dreams, 12-5-11

Oh, and while I have your attention ... let us share some insights on what is really happening to the European Union:

Fundamentally, this is a struggle to take a crisis, caused by the business community and the governments they support, and make the mass of people pay for it. That’s what austerity means. And the test here is whether the mass of people will absorb it and accept it. And I think what’s happening is that they didn’t accept it in Greece, they’re not accepting it in Italy, and so they’re trying to make it a continental austerity program, led by the powerful countries. And I don’t think that’s going to work any better than what has been done in the individual countries. Richard Wolff: Eurozone Woes Result from Mating of Our "Dysfunctional" Political, Economic Systems, Democracy Now! 12-2-11

How did things go so wrong? The answer you hear all the time is that the euro crisis was caused by fiscal irresponsibility ... But the truth is nearly the opposite. Although Europe’s leaders continue to insist that the problem is too much spending in debtor nations, the real problem is too little spending in Europe as a whole. And their efforts to fix matters by demanding ever harsher austerity have played a major role in making the situation worse. Paul Krugman, Killing the Euro, NYT, 12-1-11

Greenpeace Director Kumi Naidoo, from Anti-Apartheid Activist to Leading Voice for Climate Justice

At Durban Summit, Leading African Activist Calls U.S. Emissions Stance "A Death Sentence for Africa"

Nobel-Winning IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri Urges Obama to "Listen to Science" on Global Warming

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights


Richard Power is the author of seven books, including Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. He writes and speaks on security, risk, human rights and sustainability, and has delivered executive briefings and led training in over 40 countries. He blogs athttp://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com

Massive Non-Violent Evolution Holds a Mirror Up to Plutocracy on the Streets and in the Corridors of Power

El Greco, Scourging the Moneychangers from the Temple, also known as Purification of the Temple (c. 1600)

Massive Non-Violent Evolution Holds a Mirror Up to Plutocracy on the Streets and in the Corridors of Power

By Richard Power

So let me get this straight, corporate money is political speech but citizen's tents and sleeping bags aren't? Yeah, right.

On the night NYPD moved into Occupy Wall Street encampment, the First Amendment (i.e., freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly to petition for the redress of grievances) was hauled to the land fill in a garbage truck by order of a billionaire who bought himself a third term as Mayor in defiance of a term limit law.

Meanwhile, Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky slept safe and snug in their own beds.

This is what plutocracy looks like.

Not only did the police, at the orders of billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg, abruptly move on the protesters, they are alleged to have deliberately kept the press away, which is clearly unconstitutional if true. The US constitution prohibits Congress from restricting the right of citizens to assemble peacefully and to petition for redress of grievances ... The government is also forbidden to interfere with the workings of the free press ... Juan Cole, Informed Comment, 11- 15-11

As police swooped on the park in the early hours of Tuesday, the city closed airspace in lower Manhattan to prevent news helicopters taking aerial shots of the scene. Vans were used to obscure views of the park and a police cordon effectively blocked accredited media from reaching the site. Some of those members of the press who were in the park or were able to get there say they were arrested, pepper sprayed or treated aggressively. Occupy Wall Street: NYPD attempt media blackout at Zuccotti Park, Guardian, 11-15-11

Massive, NON-VIOLENT Evolution holds a mirror up to the Plutocracy; the Plutocracy does not like what it sees, so it smashes the mirror.

Remember those thinkers, like Fukuyama, who declared that "history" had ended back in the 1990s? Ha, ha. No history is still spiraling out from the shadows of the human psyche. It is "time" that has ended (linear time, i.e. an orderly procession from past to future). It was finished with the Mayan Calendar sometime in what we know as October 2011. We are in a quantum universe. We always were, and the shaman have always known it, but all humanity is being made inescapably aware of it now.

That marvelous date 11/11/11 has come and gone. This is a moment of extraordinary opportunity. Choose unbearable beauty. Choose unspeakable truth. Choose invincible love. Choose indefatigable justice. Choose indomitable peace. Of course, this choice is not a choice, it is a choiceless recognition of the primal reality.

Massive, NON-VIOLENT Evolution is manifesting on a planetary level; and one vital aspect, although not the only one, is political struggle.

Here are some beacons in the night that the U.S.A. has lost itself in since the Reagan counter-revolution.

Eighty-four-year-old activist Dorli Rainey spoke to Countdown host Keith Olbermann on Wednesday night after being pepper sprayed by police the previous night during an “Occupy Seattle” protest ... She said a “wonderful” young Iraq veteran protected her during the scuffle with police, preventing her from falling on the ground. Rainey, who grew up in Nazi Germany, expressed her displeasure with the mainstream American media ... “It would be so easy to say, ‘Well I’m going to retire, I’m going to sit around, watch television or eat bonbons,’ but somebody’s got to keep ’em awake and let ’em know what is really going on in this world,” Rainey said. Raw Story, 11-16-11

A popular Hawaiian recording artist turned a top-security dinner of Pacific Rim leaders hosted by President Barack Obama into a subtle protest with a song in support of the “Occupy” movement ... in the midst of the dinner on the resort strip Waikiki Beach, he pulled open his jacket to reveal a T-shirt that read “Occupy with Aloha,” using the Hawaiian word whose various meanings include love and peace. He then sang a marathon version of his new song ... “We’ll occupy the streets, we’ll occupy the courts, we’ll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few.” Agence France Press, Hawaiian singer surprises Obama summit with ‘Occupy’ song, 11-13-11

Occupy Wall Street protesters disrupted a U.S. Chamber of Commerce luncheon featuring the President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield ... The Occupy demonstrators, using a call-and-repeat method of speaking, complained about Serota’s $2.5 million annual salary, and said that he “is an example of the 1 percent in the healthcare industry.” Common Dreams, 11-14-11

Former Bush political adviser Karl Rove seemed a bit flustered Tuesday night after his speech to Johns Hopkins University was interrupted by a group of about 15 protesters connected to “Occupy Baltimore” ... a woman shouted out, “Mic check?” A chorus of voices replied, “Mic check!” “Karl Rove! Is the architect!” they shouted. “The architect of Occupy Iraq! The architect of Occupy Afghanistan!”
Raw Story, 11-15-11

“I’ll be staying here tonight,” the former whistleblower [Daniel Ellsberg] told filmmaker John Hamilton. “I’ve never seen a group process like the general assembly tonight. They actually were voting here, thousands of people. It was an inspiring sight. I wouldn’t have thought it could happen.”
“This Occupy movement is an invention,” he continued. “Actually it came right from Egypt and from Tunisia. And actually, an inspiring thought to me is that the man who is accused of putting out the State Department cables to WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, who is sitting in Leavenworth right now, one of his cables was a major inspiration the uprising in Tunisia. So, one person speaking out can make a major difference.”
Ellsberg added: “Frankly, it’s been a while since I felt as much hope as I feel tonight. … The young people are recreating the youth movement of the 60s. And the youth movement changed the country.” Dave Edwards, Daniel Ellsberg joins protest at UC Berkeley, Raw Story, 11-17-11

Here are embedded videos for each of these compelling tales of resistance. Please view them, and share them with others.

Occupy Seattle: Octogenarian activist Dorli Rainey on being pepper-sprayed by Seattle police, importance of activism


Occupy Honolulu: Hawaiian Musician Makana Performs Protest Song to World Leaders at APEC Summit


Occupiers Interrupt Chamber of Commerce Speech by Health Insurance CEO


#occupybaltimore Mic Checks Karl Rove


Daniel Ellsberg Joins UC-Berkeley's "Occupy Cal" Encampment

from John Hamilton on Vimeo.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of seven books, including Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. He writes and speaks on security, risk, human rights and sustainability, and has delivered executive briefings and led training in over 40 countries. He blogs athttp://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com

This Time the Whole World Can't Just Be Watching, It Must Be In the Streets, & At the Ballot Box

Kay Sage - Tomorrow is Never (1955)

In May, I went to the site of the Tunisian protests; in July, I talked to Spain's indignados; from there, I went to meet the young Egyptian revolutionaries in Cairo's Tahrir Square; and, a few weeks ago, I talked with Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York. There is a common theme ... On one level, today's protesters are asking for little: a chance to use their skills, the right to decent work at decent pay, a fairer economy and society. Their hope is evolutionary, not revolutionary. But, on another level, they are asking for a great deal: a democracy where people, not dollars, matter, and a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do. The two are related ... Joseph Stiglitz, The Globalization of Protest, 11-7-11

This Time the Whole World Can't Just Be Watching, It Must Be In the Streets, & At the Ballot Box

By Richard Power

Not Yet Ten Days That Shook the World, But ...

No, it wasn't ten days that shook the world, but it may well prove to have been ten days that caused a few serious cracks and fissures in the edifice of greed and misanthropy.

First, in the wake of an Oakland police riot, during which Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen suffered a fractured skull, the Occupy phenomenon seized the narrative for several days. The outrage led to a day of General Strike and a temporary port shutdown. It also resulted in an extraordinary march on Wall Street by Olsen's fellow Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

In uniform and formation, scores of veterans joined Occupy Wall Street marchers Wednesday, proclaiming "We are veterans and we are the 99%." ... "My name is Joseph Carter. I am a two-time Iraq War vet, and this is the only occupation I believe in." Abby Zimet, Veterans Occupy: I Am Still Serving My Country, 11-3-11

Next, many thousands of engaged citizens surrounded the White House to deliver a powerful message to POTUS regarding what is perhaps the single most meaningful, unilateral action that he could take before November 2012.

Within 40 minutes a text had been sent out by the organizers saying, “We are completely circling the White House!” It ended up taking far less than 12,000 people to encircle the White House. One organizer said there were enough people that the lines around the White House were “four deep.” Bryan Farrell, Waging Nonviolence, 11-7-11

And finally, the electorate got a chance to return to the ballot box for the first time since November 2010, when it forfeited its responsibilities by staying home and allowing the Zombie Cult to gain even more power; this time, the electorate did not fail itself ...

The electorate successfully rolled back attacks on collective bargaining, and fighting for the jobs of teachers and fire fighters:

Advocates for labor, women’s and immigration rights are celebrating a number of key victories in Tuesday’s state elections. In Ohio, voters defeated Republican Gov. John Kasich’s controversial limits on the collective bargaining rights of state employees ... Election Day 2011: In State After State, "Remarkable Wins for Progressive Politics," Democracy Now! 11-9-11

The electorate successfully rolled back attacks on women's reproductive rights:

A constitutional amendment that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person failed on the ballot in Mississippi on Tuesday, dealing the so-called “personhood” movement another blow. Washington Post, 11-9-11

But do not underestimate our predicament. Our circumstances are grave, nationally and globally. Economic and environmental pressures are threatening the world with implosion.

Buddy, Can You Spare A Krugerrand?

By making Wall Street its symbolic target, and branding itself as a movement of the 99%, OWS has redirected public attention to the issue of extreme inequality, which it has recast as, essentially, a moral problem. Only a short time ago, the “morals” issue in politics meant the propriety of sexual preferences, reproductive behavior, or the personal behavior of presidents. Economic policy, including tax cuts for the rich, subsidies and government protection for insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and financial deregulation, was shrouded in clouds of propaganda or simply considered too complex for ordinary Americans to grasp. Francis Fox Pivens, Tim Dispatch, 11-7-11

Remember Martin Niemöller's legendary litany, "First they came for ..."? The Middle Class is screaming now, because it is being squeezed so hard. But since the 1970s, the Middle Class has lived in deep denial about the extent of hard-core poverty in the USA. It has simply looked the other way. The Middle Class didn't speak out when the banksters, the faux drug warriors and the prison industrialists came for the poor. (The War on Poverty was replaced by the self-deceit of "Welfare Reform.") The Middle Class didn't speak out when the oil, gas and coal men (yes, men) came for the climate. ("The spice must flow.") The Middle Class didn't speak out when the Fortune 500 came for our industrial base, and shipped it lock, stock and barrel to the corporatist's paradise that is the new China. (Quite the contrary, the Middle Class foolishly embraced the "free trade" nonsense of Thomas Friedman as if somehow he spoke for them too.) Well, who is left standing to speak up for the Middle Class now that the Reagan Counter-Revolution has finally arrived at the well-insulated walls of its fantasy castle?

As I follow the Occupy phenomenon (and exhort it on), I keep remembering the tragedies of the 1992 uprising in South Central, and also how the nation's inner cities burned in the 1960s; and I keep wondering how long it will be before something truly earth-shaking occurs here? How will the most egregiously wronged and long-suffering among us respond to this quickening confrontation between the reactionary forces and the evolutionary forces? After all, the marches, demonstrations and occupations that have sprung up in the U.S.A. this year are, to date, significantly smaller than similar protests in countries with significantly smaller populations, such as Chile, Spain, Israel and Egypt.

From 20,000 Years Down to 5 Years

Meanwhile ...

So begins the news release for a recent study, “Current global warming appears anomalous in relation to the climate of the last 20,000 years.” That study finds clear evidence recent human-caused global warming is unprecedented in the past 20 millennia. Climate Progress, 11-8-11

"If we do not have an international agreement whose effect is put in place by 2017, then the door will be closed forever," IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol warned today. Environmental News Service, 11-9-11

We have five years left. Five years.

The failure to act on the Climate Crisis is the greatest failure of governance in human history.

The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has jumped by a record amount, according to the US department of energy, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming. The figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago. Guardian, 11-3-11

What Happens Now May Not Be Up to Us But We Better Assume It Is

This is a time to get engaged and stay in engaged. Don't surrender the streets. Don't abandon the ballot boxes. As Thom Hartmann says, we need an inside game and an outside game.

If you think that meaningful change will occur without radical action as exemplified by Occupy and the Tar Sands Action, than you don't know where you are or how you got here or what is going to happen next.

Conversely, if you think that meaningful change will occur while abandoning the ballot box in November 2010, as many of you did in 2010, than you don't know where you are or how you got here or what is going to happen next.

Appendix - Noam Chomsky Traces the Arc of the Moral Universe

Here is an excerpt from a long talk by Chomsky, followed by a Q and A with the Occupiers. It is a vital document, both for its analysis of where we are, and its insights into what to do and how to be. I urge you to follow the link to the full transcription and read it in its entirety.

The 1970s set off a kind of a vicious cycle that led to a concentration of wealth increasingly in the hands of the financial sector, which doesn’t benefit the economy. Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power, which, in turn, arrives to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle. The physical policies such as tax changes, rules of corporate governance, deregulation were essentially bipartisan. Alongside of this began a very sharp rise in the costs of elections, which drives the political parties even deeper than before into the pockets of the corporate sector.
A couple years later started a different process. The parties dissolved, essentially. It used to be if you were a person in Congress and hoped for a position of committee chair or a position of responsibility, you got it mainly through seniority and service. Within a couple of years, you started to have to put money into the party coffers in order to get ahead. That just drove the whole system even deeper into the pockets of the corporate sector and increasingly the financial sector--a tremendous concentration of wealth, mainly in the literally top 1/10th of 1 percent of the population.
Meanwhile, for the general population it began an open period of pretty much stagnation, or decline for the majority. People got by through pretty artificial means -- like borrowing, so a lot of debt. Longer working hours for many. There was a period of stagnation and a higher concentration of wealth. The political system began to dissolve. There’s always been a gap between public policy and the public will, but it just grew kind of astronomically ... Noam Chomsky Speaks to Occupy, 11-1-11

Covering Occupy Wall Street, Current TV's Countdown with Keith Olbermann Interviews Joshua Shepherd Links Vets’ Issues With Larger Movement and Reads a Text from Scott Olsen


Democracy Now Interviews Bill McKibben: 10,000 Surround White House to Protest Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of seven books, including Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. He writes and speaks on security, risk, human rights and sustainability, and has delivered executive briefings and led training in over 40 countries. He blogs athttp://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com