I believe a revolution is necessary. However, I don't think that it necessarily has to be a violent uprising.
I think that what is needed first of all is a revolution of the mindset of the general public of North America (hell, Europe
too but I'll stick to our side of the ocean). Our democracy is not the problem, the fact that our democracy has sold its soul
to capitalism is the problem; transnational corporations have extreme amounts of control and their grip on earth and its people
is strengthening (If you get a chance to watch
THE CORPORATION then do so, it explains this all very well and why it is terrible).
The idea that capitalism has hijacked our democracy
is evident through the actions our governmental leaders take. Well first, when I say "capitalism" I mean the train of thought
that money/profit has higher importance then everything else (human/worker/animal rights, environmental concerns/realities,
etc. etc.). The World Trade Organization (WTO
www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/") is a prime example of this, along with trade "agreements" like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA
http://www.canadians.org/documents/NAFTA_at_Ten.pdf) and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA
www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/ftaa/topten.html"). With the WTO, NAFTA and FTAA (not to mention CAFTA, the IMF/World Bank...) we see government "representatives" from many
countries gathering behind closed doors holding meetings in secret about trade policies that directly and/or indirectly affect
every human being in the countries represented; millions of people who have no input into policies that will decide their
future. They'd rather us all just shut up, or better yet, to not even know of this. When you hear in the news, IF you hear
in the news, of large protests at say the FTAA ministerial meetings the articles will focus on protestor/police clashes, which
are usually rather biased, but
never seriously address the question of WHY tens of thousands of people deemed it of importance
to travel from their homes in order to protest the FTAA. But back to those affected: For NAFTA it's CAN/US/MEX, for FTAA
it's every country in the Americas (34 I believe, minus Cuba), for the WTO it's at about 146 countries now. There are so many
facets to what these trade policies involve (good 43 page reading on this is "A Peoples' Guide to the WTO and the FTAA"
http://www.ourworldisnotforsale.org/downloads/Making_the_links_int1.pdf) but
the key thing that can be seen over and over again is that anything that gets in the way of corporate profit is marginalized
or complete deconstructed/removed. A country's environmental laws are seen as in the way of trade and dismantled, workers
rights and unions threatened, human rights ignored, social securities privatized (health care, water, energy, post-secondary,
libraries, education...), food security, genetically modified foods is a whole other issue.
Here's where
our problem is: If people rally and get Bush out of office, although Bush has been worse than alot of presidents, very
little will change. If the Democrats win (Kerry this year, or whoever else in other years past and future), it's not as if
suddenly the FTAA is dismantled and the US pulls out of the WTO. Nope, capitalism marches on and the people can be silenced
having played their little role in "democracy" (although democracy is MUCH more than just making your mark at the polls every
few years). Many people feel that maybe Dennis K would be best, he would actually withdraw the US from some of these money-driven
endeavours, but won't vote for him cause they know he won't win and so they vote for the lesser of two evils.
If you
are satisfied in voting for the lesser of two evils every couple years, then my message is not for you. However, if you believe
the system is corrupted and there needs to be radical change, then you are whom I'm looking for! If you believe that human
rights, animal rights, and the environment are important issues, not just things in the way of trade, we need you!
First
of all, trade is not necessarily bad. I have nothing against large trade agreements; globalization will happen. But there
are alternatives to the negative corporate globalization that is currently taking place, of which our governments are pushing
forwards. People work on how to
MakeTradeFair.com and there has been drafted an Alternative Agreement of the Americas and other such things where trade is encouraged but based
upon the belief that people and the environment must not be sacrificed in the name of the almighty dollar.
But as I
said at the top of the "brief" post, a revolution in the minds of the people is necessary before any decent amount of change
can happen. Our media is in shambles (media is VERY important in democracy as it deal directly with public opinion) and very
much controlled by corporations. And as we saw last year with the FCC relaxing its ownership rules, the mass media power is
becoming focused into fewer and fewer hands. The media needs to be taken back, not used as a babysitter or as propaganda machine
or as an information-source/map that only has Britain, USA, and the Middle East on it.
www.FAIR.org and
www.DemocracyNow.org (great news source!)
I'm gonna stop...I warned you that it'd be "brief"; lol. Questions, comments?
-K's
PS
- look! An entire post w/out sweeping generalizations about SUVs, wealthy people, communists, anarchists, conservatives or
liberals.
