I'll first touch on a quick subject that many of you are likely already aware of and this is the subject of division. Along political lines we live in a world divided into three major groups, Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism. Each of those political groupings exist purely as an opposing force to the others. The idea, of course, is divide and conquer. As long as the working classes, slaves, are divided against each other they don't notice who the real enemy is, those that benefit the most from the working classes labors, the Upper Class. The lower classes are divided by more than just political lines, you'll notice the divisions go into religions, races, sexes, nations, states, corporations, secret societies, etc... A house divided against itself cannot stand. The members of the upper class work together against the lower classes that are divided against themselves, because of this the upper class has completely conquered the middle and lower class. The upper classes domination of the lower classes was solidified quite some time ago, everything over the last thousand years or so has been nothing more than maintaining their dominance. Less than 1% of the worlds population holds somewhere around 98% of the worlds wealth. For every dollar a mid to low class citizen makes an upper class citizen makes two or more. The upper class, or aristocracy, own all of the media conglomerates, all of the corporations, all of the land and all of the people.
From here on out I will be referring to the upper class as the aristocracy because that's exactly what they are. Something around less than 2% of the aristocracy made it to that level through work. The rest of them were born into their wealth and their family lineages date back to aristocracies, kings and nobles from even before the Roman Empire. One of the biggest secrets today is that monarchies never actually died out, their method of rule only changed it's appearance. You'll note for instance that although a king of France may have been overthrown, his family and wealth remained intact. Monarchies supposedly died out because people began to wise up to the fact that 'birth right' had nothing to do with ones actual ability to govern a population. The problem is that the working classes never actually overthrew the idea of 'birth right' they only thought they did.
Today the aristocracy rules populations with perceived elections. The key here is that the election itself is actually legit, the people really do vote and those votes really are counted. However; how the people decide who to vote for is important. It is well documented that whichever candidate has the most campaign funds is going to win the election. Some candidates do get a small amount of money donated from the populace, but the vast amount of their campaign funds come from the aristocracy. Now the aristocracy does so in a 'laundered' fashion this is by channeling their 'donations' through intermediaries so that the source of the donation is concealed. You won't ever see one single wealthy person donate a billion dollars to one candidate or party, however; you might find that one wealthy person owns 36 different companies and each of those companies donated individually. Moreover you'll find that the aristocracy owns every single media organization so in addition to campaign funding they dictate who gets the most or the best press coverage from news papers/web-sites to magazines and TV news stations.
A president, prime minister, chancellor or otherwise figure head is often perceived by his citizens as being the most powerful person in his respective country. This assumption couldn't be farther from the truth. This person has literally zero power, zero decision making capability, he's more of a public relations representative or a segue between the aristocracy and the lower classes. It might appear that a president, being as he is perceived by the masses as more than a figure head, would have the capability to take things into his own hands, perhaps even try and let the public in on the truth. Unfortunately this is not the case, JFK need I say more?
I will say more though. These people are threatened with more than death, in fact a fate worse than death. Once again the aristocracy owns all of the media conglomerates, they have the public's ear, if a president ever decides to go against the program he is simply demonized, lambasted, discredited in the various news agencies. In turn this president is hated by his friends, family, citizens, he is cast out in defamation. For clarification purposes I'll state that it might appear as though a president, chancellor, prime minister or otherwise figure head is a member of the aristocracy, but in fact they are more of an upper middle class citizen, they are a part of the program just as any other citizen.
So how exactly did this aristocracy survive centuries of public revolt and revolutions? You're gonna kick yourself because it's quite simple really. The innocuous key is called Market Research. Right in your face and certainly seems innocent enough doesn't it? Not if your asking the right questions. These important questions are usually buried in a sea of other interesting, but rather useless questions. Public sentiment is what they're truly after. First take note that media and market research have been around for a very long time, you might not be aware of that, but just try and remember how gossip appears to be a rather natural human tendency.
Governments are always tyrannical, it's just that early in said governments life the citizens are not fed up with it yet, populations seem to be able to take quite a bit of punishment before they finally get off their butts and do something about it. What ends up happening is that the aristocracy uses their market research to determine when, in the future, a population will be ready to rebel against it's government. This is quite simple, you might take a survey and decide that 3% of a population is unruly and ready to support a rebellion, not enough to move a revolution. The next year the aristocracy might find that 4.5% is ready for revolution and the year after that perhaps 8%. Using mathematics the aristocracy is able to project that at this rate of growth the population will be fully ready for revolution in 15 years. Here's the kicker, they kick off the revolution EARLY! Once a population arrives at the point where a majority of them are ready for a revolution the only thing remaining is a charismatic character to rally the people and lead the revolution. So a few years early the aristocracy place their own hired agents into the population to be the leaders of the revolution. They give these agents just the right amount of press and publicity and make it seem as though this character is working against the government, which technically he is working against the government, but not against the aristocracy that the people never knew were the real government in the first place. Once the government is overthrown this charismatic character, or someone from his entourage is elected the leader of the new government.
Here's the problem for the citizens, what they don't know is that they just elected a secret agent working for their hidden enemy the aristocracy. As the new leader this agent enacts new laws and regulations that have hidden loopholes that only the aristocracy know of or can take advantage of. This new leader purposefully sets up the new government to be just as appealing to the aristocracy as the previous government. The citizens, however; think they have overthrown the tyrants and now have a wonderful new government and so they have been appeased. This new government generally starts out all sugar and spice, but slowly becomes more and more tyrannical until finally the population is ready for another revolution and the whole system restarts yet again.
This method of resetting governmental control ensuring the aristocracies place at the top has been utilized for a great deal of time, dating back before the Roman Empire.
You're absolutely right about educating people. Individually one of the best things one can do is stop working for them. If you work for a corporation you only serve to make the rich richer, the powerful more powerful. For every dollar you make, the aristocracy will make two or more, the system was setup that way from the beginning, you cannot defeat the system from within. Even working for a ma and pop shop selling tools serves the aristocracy, who's tools are they selling and where do the tax dollars go?
Attempts at armed revolution would only serve the aristocracy as well. You would be painted as a cold blooded killer, the public would fear you rather than support you and your efforts would be used against the populace as justifying new laws that tighten the aristocracy's strangle hold on the masses. The aristocracy would love to see a few people pick up arms against them for it would give reason to make them stronger. Having said that, yes education is the way, information is the most powerful weapon a person can possess. The pen is truly mightier than the sword. For each person that quits their job, stops working for the aristocracy, the aristocracy looses power.
Now those are just my thoughts on the subject. I'm not going to sit here and tell you what to do, merely make suggestions here and there perhaps. One of the methods used by the aristocracy to wield power is to make much of the populace believe themselves to be stupid or helpless. This serves to create people that are more willing to put their life in the hands of the rich for they believe the rich to be smarter and better able to run their own personal life. Make no mistake you are NOT stupid, you are NOT helpless. It is YOU who have the power they desire, it is your power that makes them powerful. It makes them powerful because you sell your power, your life, to them for an hourly or yearly wage. Stop working for them and your power will have been taken away from them and given back to you.
Have you ever wondered just why it is our children are not schooled in self sufficiency? Why is it that health and english are required courses, but gardening is not? If you do not know how to survive on your own then you are dependent upon their system. Today's schooling system has a number of purposes that serve the aristocracy. One is pulling the children away from their parents influence and into the influence of the aristocracy. The aristocracy uses school to eat up the vast majority of a child's time so that child will only learn what the aristocracy wants them to learn and little to nothing more. Moreover the schooling system serves to get children used to being supervised, having their every move ordered by someone else.
A WORD IN REGARDS TO FARMING
If you deny working for the aristocracy then you are left with farming, and not much else, and even then, you serve them if minimally. The tools you buy, the land you work on, it all belongs to the aristocracy at the beginning. But eventually, all roads lead to them, don't they? Unless you work solely on trade and not for any cash or money. So initially thinking, really agriculture is the only self-sustaining job you can hold with the most minimal aristocratic interference. Should we all, then, become farmers?
I'm not sure whether I'm for or against armed revolution. It is true, the pen is mightier than the sword, but with the aristocrats controlling so much of what is said and repressed in the media, it is the one who holds the paper on which it is printed that is truly mighty. The few magazines/newspapers/other forms of media that try to cry out the truth or at least open the public's eye will become "unreputable" sources. (Excuse the geeky reference, but if you've ever read Harry Potter, all I need say is The Quibbler vs The Daily Prophet.) What we are left with is our own voice and I think that we are reduced to whispering lest they think us insane and are less inclined to listen to us.
I think you are right in saying that they control us by bashing us down, much like a bully in a playground. They are smarter than us because they have degrees from fancy universities. (Not what I think!) I've heard more than once, the comment of "they went to university, they studied their field, I'm sure they know what they are doing." Of course college graduates earn more than high school graduates. It is because we let them. Because we tend to think that because they've had more schooling, they are more adept at doing whatever it is they do than us. A lot of the times, that is the case, but when we simply make assumptions like that is when we get in trouble.
I feel that ever since the No Child Left Behind Law came into effect, our schools have been reduced to test taking. We are forced into rote memorization for state tests that have little to do with sustaining yourself in real life. Often, they have very little to do with our field of study in general. These children are being bred to follow trends instead of learning to think for themselves, to make their own connections! Again, what can we do, other than to try to educate outside of "school" or homeschool our children, those that are fit to do so?
I know, this is somewhat hopeless, but I believe myself to be more of a realist. Unfortunately, a lot of what I do is simply ask questions, but I do so because I want to understand or I want to know of other viewpoints that I have not thought of yet.
THE RESPONSE
In response to your No Child Left Behind comment I agree. I think the passage of NCLB essentially takes control of teaching methods away from the teacher and puts it in the hands of the state. It used to be that teachers could use, barring the obvious, any methods they wished to deliver their teachings to children. With NCLB teachers are forced more and more onto time schedules and monitoring by the state, they have less say in what they teach, how they teach it and by what time schedule they teach it.
You have some good points with respect to agriculture and technically I suppose one could fashion their own hand made tools, the likelihood is that there would still be some benefit to the aristocracy through the purchasing of tools, but after startup one would start to grow their own seed and tool purchasing would be minimized. The loss, however; would be great for the aristocracy. First they would no longer have that persons man power delivering energy to their machine, they would no longer have that persons ideology spreading the ideas of working for the aristocracy. Notice today how it is that if someone refuses to work for them they are made fun of, demeaned, tortured emotionally by the masses until they finally give in. To be perfectly honest the aristocracy could probably care less about money, that is only a means to get what they really want which is your time. Time is money, time is really the only thing you have, the time you have is your life, you can spend it being you and doing the works you wish to do or you can spend it on them and doing the works they wish for you to do.
If you as an individual and I as an individual separately refuse to work for them then what we have left for ourselves is likely agriculture or hunting to feed ourselves, lest we resort to begging on the street which actually benefits the aristocracy quite a bit. Side note, begging by the homeless serves to instill fear of losing ones job, moreover it serves to absorb money in the form of charity which people must work to make, the more you give to the homeless the more you must work for the rich to make up for what you gave.
Anyway the point was that yes, if you and I separately refuse to work for them we would have little choice but farming, gardening, hunting or otherwise spending our time making sure we have food. However; if you and I quit working for them together and with others as well then our options expand greatly. I think the idea is that groups of people can band together, not against the aristocracy, but simply to help each other live without the aristocracy. In a group we can each have our own specialties, our own works that we contribute to each other. I am a pretty technical person, in such a situation I would likely find myself building/fixing computers, programing applications and entertaining software. The computers and programs I make would be used by the others to improve their ability to perform their works, be it farming, mechanical/electrical works, construction, etc... In a group or community we would have the ability to choose for ourselves what to spend our time doing. We might have just one or two farmers, maybe a hunter or two that provide food for the whole and they would receive help from time to time from the rest of us, at the same time they too might help the others in their works when they have time.
Now I would gladly help out the community with my technical works because I know that if I didn't that community might fail and we'd end up back in this society. I would gladly help out the farmer with my works because I know that by helping him I would, in turn, receive food, and the rest of those in said community would receive food helping them all to be able to perform their chosen works which, in turn benefit the community and thus myself.
I have some more thoughts on the subject, but this is getting long so I'll finish up real quick by saying that I think my idea is basically that we who can see our own oppression can band together to help each other live without the aristocracy. Now we wouldn't fight to destroy the aristocracy, we would help each other be free and those that do not see their own oppression would simply continue to live that life. You see I don't like the idea of forcing opinions upon people, I like the idea of lead by example. So those who do not currently understand that they are oppressed can simply see how a self sustaining community lives and then decide for themselves if they wish to be a part of their oppressive society or a part of a community that lives their own lives and help each other voluntarily. The choice is ours and the consequences of our choices belong to us all the same.
ESTABLISHING A FREE COMMUNITY
A few points regarding a community of free peoples. The community I propose does not make use of things such as money or trade, only giving knowing that the benefits will be received in due time under time's own volition. The community I propose does not make use of things such as laws and rules, though there may be guidelines and suggestions that are not enforced. A community of free peoples, where no one forces others to be one way or another will garner no hatred towards them and thus crimes such as murder are not likely to be a problem. People murder out of hatred, but why do they hate? Because they are sick of being judged, being controlled, but if a community does not control or judge then they will garner no hatred towards themselves.
PROPERTY TAX
When it comes to the issue of property tax I think the best bet would be to appeal to the publics logical side. We say look there is a large empty plot of land here, no one was using it so now we are using it. We disagree with your way of life, we do not want to give money to your government thus paying the salaries for your military to use to wage war, for your governors to use to line their pockets, for your aristocracies to use to oppress. We disagree and refuse to fund your organization, but we will not stand in the way of your ability to choose to live life in that manner. Will the government be able to convince the public to organize an effort to physically force a peaceful community off of their land? We may succeed and we may fail, but I for one would like that when I die I will do so knowing that I tried, that I didn't just roll over and let myself be a part of their world. I can turn tail and run ensuring that I will have a living body, but I will not have my life, the aristocracy will have that. If I choose to life the life of enslavement I will be dead, if I choose to try and be free I might live.
HUMAN NATURE
Ah but you are not considering human nature. I don't think greed and hate and everything else are modern inventions. Whether or not you believe the bible, the evidence is there that men are wicked and greedy. Is everyone going to be so peaceful as to live and let live? Is anyone going to be so open minded about what the community stands for?
I would love to believe in this almost Utopian community you are thinking of, but I just can't help but see problems left and right.
First of all, for cell phones and computers: Would we be hooked up on the same lines that the rest of the country is? In that case, would they still be able to stick their noses in our business? (These are real questions, by the way, I'm not so good in the technology department.)
Also, there's bound to be some people who are more hardworking than the rest. Who's to say that the rest of the people will not take advantage of this and create a mini aristocracy?
No, I'm sorry, but I think human nature will win out this one. We cannot all be serfs without someone wanting a little more. I think what will end up happening is that people will crave law and order (not the show) and end up creating some form of government which some will take advantage of.
We have tons of history behind us as humans, but sadly, a lot if tends to repeat itself. A lot of it, also, can be messed with and warped and hidden. We are only humans after all. Some of us are always going to want power over the others.
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