Staff | January 19, 2004
Power's lust for total domination always becomes war against itself. The result of the nation-state's neurosis is a separation from reality. The narcissistic belief that the top 1% can control the course of history through pure domination necessitates domestic propaganda that destroys reality. America may not be god, but it has the power of Descartes' evil genius — able to construct an illusion of reality through its control of images. America's population is one that is fed exclusively on information devoid of intellectualism: thoughts so easy to digest that they are pure sophistry.
For the awake, it is a time that is both daunting and liberating. Daunting because it appears as if the world is sleep walking into a nightmare. America's delusions, its separation from an empathetic understanding of the misery produced by their expansionist ideals, has crafted a middle class no more sentient than zombies.
And yet, now is liberating for precisely the same reason. The awake have the opportunity to speak truth to the powerful expression of dominant ideologies developing since antiquity. As reality is destroyed, left to be constructed on the cover of Time in photorealistic dreams, we are witnessing domination flex its muscles. Poorly funded and equipped with the internet and a supply of cheap electronics hinting the possibility of creating a secure distributed organization, the nonviolent revolutionaries of today have a chance at recreating the world in the image of peace.
Pushed into the spectacle of the highest symbol of domestic democracy — Presidential Election 2004 — Americans will witness a corrupt, anti-democratic party steal the vote. Whether it will be through the Diebold electronic voting machines in 37 states, or through the $200 million that Bush will spend on his reelection campaign, democracy will lose and Bush will triumph. And then, in a snap, the people's voice will be silenced. And the cycle that led us into Iraq will lead us against Iran, Syria and France.
Voting is irrelevant when one can not be assured that a computer program will not add and subtract votes without keeping any logs. Further, the public cannot debate the issues when kept ignorant of the facts by a web of mass media devoid of complex truths. Bush, by being aware of the systemic flaws and still being unwilling to acknowledge that his victory is not legitimate, confesses the illegitimacy of the government and gives moral sanction to its nonviolent overthrow. That confession will be the downfall of all those who construct the political illusion justifying war.
No longer must the citizen feign to buy into a system when their political opponents refuse to give them a voice within the system. By the very principles preached by this government, we are obligated to institute democracy in the system that controls us.
Nonviolent Revolution
Only a nonviolent revolution in America which seizes control of State policed territory will succeed in ending war, famine, and disease. The simple strategy we must take is to decrease the amount of control that the State and big business is able to exert through its control of resources. If we do not wish to see America destroyed by a war out of control — a war feeding random domestic terrorist attacks of increasing severity — then we must think seriously, and practically, about accomplishing a nonviolent overthrow of the state without perpetrating the same aggressive hatred and empty propaganda that feeds war.
After the globe demanded an end to the war on February 15th, Bush chose not respond and freed activists to begin the campaign of replacing the system. The logical first step in this new direction is to begin a program of nonviolent training and organizing in local communities. We need to collect and analyze the experiences of the movement in toppling foreign regimes globally. The same skills that the ISM applies in the West Bank of Palestine against the occupying Israeli military should be brought home just as we should seek to learn from the democratic revolutionaries of foreign countries, such as Nelson Mandela who overthrew apartheid South Africa.
It is time to approach the questions of how to actually carry out a seizure of power. How will we deal with the resulting national guard, and possibility of US Army forces, sent to suppress us? And if we take control of State property, how will be prevent being labeled terrorists and killed? How do we explain our message? This knowledge can only come through free, frequent workshops that discuss the many questions that need to be answered.
These meetings should be held in a way that is open and welcoming to the public. If the government is threatened by a nonviolent democratic revolution then it is only betraying that it is a regime. Instead of standing outside of the mass we must gain protection from our immersion in it. If the government is willing to crack down on the public education of the mass in techniques of nonviolent resistance and courage than we benefit. Not only do we prove nonviolence is a challenge to the State but we learn from their exercises of power. Each increasing domestic repression will only result in the movement finding a tactical solution and furthering the fight.
Taking the step towards openly advocating building a nonviolent political movement to overthrow the state requires courage. It requires the realization that the State is already massing its resources to suppress us. We may be able to delay the coming police state, but we can not prevent it. It is best, then, that we prepare ourselves for the fight.
This is not a game without penalties. Each time we push the State it will respond with greater physical force. To topple the state we must disperse their blows so they are felt by the masses. We must face the domestic repression that America threatens and demonstrate that we will not flinch. When they attack, we dissipate, regroup, and respond. Nonviolence is a weapon that Bush's response, violence, will only strengthen.
The only option for the state is to talk with us, to acknowledge us, to carry out the structural changes that we demand: the democratization America.
