I also like this line and will quote it quite often, with your permission;
“Superficiality is the enemy of a sustainable vision.”

PS; I will continue my gadfly bit though, mainly because of it’s instant gratification, therapy and the exercise I get while I do my bits. Well, enough said. Thanks again.

I would not pretend to have a blue print, but there are universal principles which are the touch points of transformation.

I would start with understanding the works of Ernesto Cortes who change parts of San Antonio for Mexican Americans. It is not so much what he did but how he did it.

We are working on initiatives that follow the path of a co-created mission. The mission mobalizes toward a vision. People meet to discuss ideas, propose and we bring resources, and utilize local media to promote as well as strategic approaches to leverage the municipality.

Change on a human-scale is quite doable. Too many people let frustration end their quest, and drives them to cynicism. Frustration is natural, but just when it seems futile – a break through. And brick by brick you begin to transform the local narrative. And it makes its way into the region and beyond.

This is how nature transforms and continues to emergy. Reality is the emergence of a new narrative, replacing and creating a new reality.

Avoid at all costs, using hierarchical models. Nature is not a hierachy. Hierarchies are about domination, control over, and ultimate is the basis of this (USA) and all previous empires. A movement is not a hierarchical organization; it is self-organizing and emergent. It can move mountains and topple cancerous imperial empires.

None of this precludes deep understanding of universal principles that guide everything. Understanding wealth and poverty in a deep way will help eradicate. Superficiality is the enemy of a sustainable vision.

And by “guys” I meant everyone. My native languages are not gender specific. I don’t seperate male and female. I have a pair of those lumps on my own chest and it’s quite a handicap. Combine that with an accent, which as a man would have gotten me laid, but as a woman it’s just another handicap. It’s fantastic how the liberal and progressive men beat their chests for Palestinian rights half way around the world. Yet they completely fail at seeing the woman standing next to them as an equal.

All my posts (certainly the ones that are a call to action) are my walking the talk. So, this is not simply about posting some wild-ass ideas on DV. The short answer to your question: “So will you start in your locality? Absolutely! “Can you find two other guys who will help you? More than two and not just “guys”!!

You said:
“I think a local experiment that would begin the struggle of creating democracy where there is none – here in the USA – would be a local movement. It would start with a clear platform, a declaration of justice. A movement coalescing around specifics would yield a force which must be reckoned with; an unending, relentless people’s movement. Leaders would come from the movement, chosen by the movement.”

That is precisely it. So will you start in your locality? And can you find two other guys who will help you?

This must be a tireless movement that doesn’t end with an election or a solution, but vigilantly moves to keep a grounded democracy alive. It must be integrated into our way of life.

I’ll give you this much, Americans have gotten so lazy that the “ruling gentry” have ruled with impunity. But that won’t change unless people change it. The rulers only exist because WE LET THEM!

Resistance is one option, the other is to stop handing over our power. Rulers cannot rule without subjects. Stop being subjects.

I think a local experiment that would begin the struggle of creating democracy where there is none – here in the USA – would be a local movement. It would start with a clear platform, a declaration of justice. A movement coalescing around specifics would yield a force which must be reckoned with; an unending, relentless people’s movement. Leaders would come from the movement, chosen by the movement.

This would start, not at the abstract monolithic “national” level, but at a one, a hundred, thousands of localities where we can identify one another and breath the same air and talk and move on talk with specific action. A locality can be transformed.

A local movement can become a much larger movement. But you need to start where you are. The country is just too fragmented. If there is a movement, as the collapse continues to unfold, labor, civil and human rights groups will build solidarity. But that solidarity, to be substantive, must start with a nucleus, a sustainable energy, a people power which cannot be denied because it is real.

Frank who is Frank? That would be us. I sure hope that some of you out there are trying to get a few million people in front of the halls of power as so far from this new guy doesn’t look good. We could all change are name to Frank, think Frank. Yes a few million yell Frank at the same time. Do you think we could get an echo down those halls? “Think Frank”. $300 billion to Citigroup, “Hallelujah”

……or you fight, you resist. It’s possible you know. But first you need to stop thinking like an American. First accept that this is a struggle that may not yield any rewards. But it is necessary for it to take place. And then recognize that a small minority could be a hundred times more effective than the majority. The majority are usually apolitical or just followers and it is the same everywhere in the world. It is a case of minority vs. minority. They have all the power but they also have a hubris. We have only our wits or intellects. With discipline, organization and persistance we can accomplish a lot. Hopefully we will not develope a hubris. I believe we are in a perfect situation now. The elite are so full of themselves and so arrogant right now, they think they’ve got it in the bag. It is the perfect time for them to be blindsided.

I don’t think most of you realize that Obama has already ushered in a great change. Millions of people in this country have not had any voice or any representation in the past eight years. It wasn’t that great before that but not quite as bad as the era of king george, the dimented. Now there is going to be another four years of zero representation. Basicly it keeps getting worse and worse and worse. Many of us have come to the conclusion that the only option left open to us is to fight back. We are angry as hell and we have nothing to lose. And that’s the worst kind of opposition for the elite. So yousee, he has been an agent of change.

And as far as this article; it’s very “cute”. But we are up to our necks in it, we need to do away with “cute”. We, the third party people, knew you were going to regret it before you voted for him. Now we have to hear you guys bitch and moan about it for four years and then go reelect him for another four years, in which you will continue your bitching and moaning. The thought of listening to you whine for eight years is enough to make me wanna go throw myself off a bridge.

But keep up the progressive Melodrama. You never know, Bollywood may decide to outsource one day. And you just might become a star.

I really think it is silly to talk about Obama as if he is a black president. He is a carefully selected elitist. He will make every effort to secure the empire. He will point guns hither and yon to do so. He will play with ideas and foist them out a if he had an intention or two.

He is, if somewhat smarter, no less the servent to the power elite then has been George W. Bush and William J. Clinton before him (and those before them). This is an elite club, and only the thoroughly vetted are allowed to reside in the White House. Each of these Presidents has a personality, but what they say and do is limited by the oath to preside over the empire.

Again, this is not a democracy but a republican plutocracy. It was set up that way from the beginning and continues right through to this day. Our little charade of fussing about what Obama does, or his selection of this Clinton-retread, or a George W. Bush appointee (Gates), or a Likud chief of staff, etc. etc. is just quaint and totally inconsequential.

Only real change whereby the system in place disappears as the dominant governance can alter this predicament. When the federal government was created, it was done by the elite to concentrate power, control and wealth at a time when the revolution could have created a real living democracy. That opportunity was stamped out and it has never returned.

Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, the whole lot are all part of this plutocracy where behind them the elite of the elite rule. Our constitution was meant for THEM, not the rest of us. We either play along or ….