RifleA Revolutionary's Toolkit

 

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. . . . If you built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.  Now put the foundations under them."--Henry David Thoreau

 

A revolution cannot be won by the justice of one's cause, by the belief that the truth will out, nor by a helter-skelter of intuitive actions.  A revolution must be planned more carefully than a scientific experiment or a chess game, and revolutionary strategists must educate themselves and transcend or tame their own failings. They must understand the present system in all its complexity, grasp its weaknesses and strengths, and develop a comprehensive strategy to defeat it.  Once fully convinced that the system is vicious and self-destructive, they must cease to pay attention to its daily crimes against humanity and the biosphere, let go of the hope that the system will ever reform itself, and dedicate themselves to its overthrow. 

This work-in-progress attempts to assemble a toolkit for would-be revolutionaries, doing so through a series of articles and links. This toolkit cannot be constructed overnight, and it is, moreover, a never-ending project. So if you gain some insights from what you have seen here so far, you might wish to re-visit this site every few months for updates and revisions.

 

How can you take a fake dissident from a real one?  "The best way of controlling the opposition," Lenin says, "is leading it."  Many reform organizations, alternative websites, and so-called leading dissidents in the USA and elsewhere are CIA's or New York Times' creations, and pose a grave risk to intellectual freedom and to a genuine revolutionary movement.  These compromised sources of dissent include the vast majority of environmental, human rights, and all other reform organizations, dissident websites and publications, and "leading dissidents.  How then is one to figure out that Amnesty International, the Sierra Club, Wikipedia, or most "leading" dissident historians and intellectuals are either seriously compromised or learned ignoramuses?  

I shall have more to say about this subject soon.  In the meantime, here are a few telltale signs that should help you uncover such sell-outs or compartmentalized fools:  Where do they get their money?  Are they leading a life of luxury?  Do the corporate media talk about them in a neutral fashion or do the media ignore or virulently attack them?  Did these individuals die prematurely or spend much time in jail?  Do they scoff at precisely the things that might wake the people up, e.g., suggestions to abolish the Federal Reserve or to re-investigate 9/11 and the bankers' assassinations of well-known figures such the Kennedy brothers, Martin Luther King, or John Lennon?  Do these organizations and "dissidents" subscribe to the fiction of three branches of government or do they explicitly recognize the existence of an Invisible Government that controls these branches?  Do they talk about the Obamas or Clintons as the center of real power--or about the Rockefellers and Rothschilds?  Do they see that the present system, by its very nature,  undermines morality, freedom, justice, peace, and human survival?  Do they urge people to vote or revolt?  Do they ever come forward with practical ways of overthrowing the bankers, or do they confine themselves to such palliatives as working within the system? 

To embark upon this disquieting journey of betrayals or obtuseness, read David Helvarg's War on the Greens (the focus of that book is co-option of environmental organizations, but the same general pattern applies to almost all major reform organizations, from Human Rights Watch to the American Medical Association, from Columbia University to Caltech, from the FDA to the SEC).  For an introduction to the subject of compromised or compartmentalized dissidents, watch James Corbet's Meet Noam Chomsky, Academic Gatekeeper.

The first article in this series has already been posted, and will be soon followed by others:  The Co-Option Pillar of American "Democracy."  Part I: Why Subvert the Opposition?


Pillars of American "Democracy."  Before launching a revolution, we must explore this key question:  How did the bankers and their partners in crime manage to steadily increase their power and wealth at the expense of the vast majority?  Eight supporting pillars have already been introduced:

 

The cloak-and-dagger pillar points to one key weapon in the bankers' arsenal: Assassinations, smears, incarcerations, tortures, and false-flag operations.  This ubiquitous tactic of our rulers leads to two conclusions of great concern to would-be revolutionaries.  First, those who openly and effectively threaten the system vanish before they can overthrow the system.  So, if revolutionaries wish to succeed, they must mimic the bankers' and spooks' obsession with anonymity.  A counter-attack on the Cabal probably mandates an anonymous, internet-based, leaderless revolution.  Second, since the Cabal sustains itself in part by destroying innocent lives, the belief in non-violence is playing into the Cabal's hands.  While the oligarchs kill millions and grievously endanger the lives of billions, they imbue their subjects with the notion that violence, by its very nature, is a one-sided affair.  It's OK for them to kill two million Iraqis and maim each and every survivor of their neo-colonization program in that country, blow up the World Trade Center, murder Pat Tillman, kill sitting American presidents and Senators, slaughter countless non-violent union members and dissidents, torture, incarcerate, or kill whistle blowers and ordinary Americans--but it is not OK for us to give them a bit of their own medicine! Genuine revolutionaries must let go of the naive belief that non-violence can win a war with determined psychopaths.  Revolutionaries may wish to recall Jefferson's admonition: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."  

Bankers' Scam

Banking. Another pillar supporting fascism in America is banking.  Thomas Jefferson felt that "banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." Franklin Delano Roosevelt remarked that "a financial  element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson." To remove the danger and dethrone the bankers, we must understand how these producers of nothing are gradually becoming the owners and controllers of everything. As well, we must realize that only thoroughly bad people can reach the top of the banking pyramid.  See:  People versus the Banks. 

Other pillars include mind control (through propaganda and chemicals); meticulous cohesion and long-term planning on the side of our rulers and almost nothing on our side; human nature; rigged, controlled, manipulated, and trivialized elections; broken election promises; compartmentalization; an ever-stronger police state; and, finally, a system which permits the ascendancy of psychopaths.  Again, the very existence of this very long list forcefully suggests that it will take a lot more than voting, marching, or protesting to overthrow  a suicidal system that rests on so many powerful and mutually-supporting pillars.

 

Holistic Thinking. One of the most striking aspects of the reform camp is fragmentation.  There are thousands of reform movements, each more often than not dedicated to one ill or another of the present system, and each ignorant of the tapestry as a whole. To succeed, revolutionaries must strive to see the whole picture.  This article will get you started: Ten Cheers for Interdisciplinarity.  A more readable version is available here.

 

Systemic Thinking.  Most analysts center their attention on one or another rotten aspect of the political, social, and moral landscape, not on the landscape itself.  As I write, some of these good people focus on the Fukushima nuclear disaster; others focus on  the blood-soaked neo-colonization of Ukraine; others are preoccupied with growing income inequality in America; while still others focus on diminishing civil liberties. A few focus on one or another larger broader aspects of sustainability, peace, social justice, freedom, compassion, rationality, and spirituality.  Fewer still pay attention to all these inter-related aspirations.  And precious few realize that all these aspirations are impeded by a putrid system of governance and production--a system which sustains and strengthens itself via an interconnected set of pillars (see above). This essay provides one example of a systemic view of reality.

 

The Insanity, Needlessness, and Criminality of Biospheric Destruction.  Writing in 1992, and echoing the warnings of earlier environmental writers, some 1,700 of the world's leading scholars, including the majority of Nobel laureates in the sciences, issued a Warning to Humanity. They were convinced that "human beings and the natural world are on a collision course."  Here are a couple of lead-ins to this crucial topic, showing that we could readily reverse course, thereby helping to save our species, billions of lives, and trillions of dollars.

Revolutionary Strategies I:  Letting go of Electoral Politics and Ideological Provincialism. Revolutionaries must comprehend, first, that politics as usual cannot possibly bring meaningful change, owing to the pillars of American "democracy" listed above and explained in somewhat greater detail in the following link:  Revolutionary Strategies I: The Folly of Electoral Politics and the Imperative Merger of the Humanitarian Camp.  This link again argues that revolutionaries must enlarge their scope to include at least these four objectives: Freedom, environmental sustainability, social justice, and peace.  

 

Revolutionary Strategies II.  At this late hour, only this dismal approach seems to hold some promise: The Al-Sabbah Brigade (also available here).

 

Revolutionary Strategies III.  Real Democracy.  Our final goal--the one we'll dream about when blood starts flowing in the hovels, mansions, and yachts--must be real democracy.  To begin with, we must organize our own clandestine revolutionary movement in a true democratic fashion.  We must then let go of the illusion that the system can be tweaked into compassion and rationality.  No, it must be overhauled--in the direction that has proven itself since our hunter-gatherer days as the only political system worth dying for.  In a direct democracy, every major decision is made by the people, without the intermediation of judges, legislators, presidents, governors, mayors, politburo members, clergymen, or tribal chiefs. Although far from perfect, it is the political system most likely to sustain peace, justice, freedom, and stewardship of the biosphere. In my view, the forcible removal of the oligarchs from power can only be justified if, at the end, their rule is replaced by genuine democracy (=rule of the people).  See:  Seven Billion Cheers for Real Democracy   

 

 Future Scenarios.  1. Extinction?  2. Environmental degradation, enslavement, extreme inequality, and constant warfare?  3. Reasons for hope: Re-emergence of a multi-polar world?  4. Reasons for hope: The Cabal falls apart? (internecine fighting among bankers, tycoons, generals, and spooks)  5. Reasons for hope:  Al Sabbah-style targeting of powerful psychopaths?  

Sabbah
 Hassan Al-Sabbah, a brilliant Iranian polymath and military strategist, was the founder of the Order of the Assassins.  The Order flourished for about 200 years, mostly in Iran and Syria, starting in the late 11th century.  The Order followed a strict code of honor, never hurting common people.  It only went after powerful Sunni and Christian policy makers who launched pogroms against the Order's Isamaili (the second largest Shia sect) co-religionists.  Al-Sabbah's strategy of asymmetrical warfare was astoundingly effective, minimizing bloodshed and bringing to heel such powerful figures as the Sultan Salah A'din.  

 

Other Suggested Readings for Would-be Revolutionaries: 1. Stefansson, Vilhjalmur.  Lessons In Living From The Stone Age. 2. Mann, Charles. The Founding Sachems.  3. Galeano, Eduardo.  I Hate to Bother You. 4. Harris, Marvin.  Life Without Chiefs (PDF: Are we forever condemned to a world of haves and have-nots, rulers and ruled? )  5. I Ain't Flying Anymore.  6. Perkins, J.  Confessions of an Economic Hitman.  7.  Sinclair, Upton.  The Brass Check  (PDF; 1919).

Revolutionary Insights: 1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Heinlein)  (PDF)  2. Brass-Tacks Ecology (1997).  3. Shining the Light on the Rockefellers: Upton Sinclair's Non-Violent Reform Strategy.

Future Scenarios:  1.  The People vs. the United States.  2  Will We Have to Wait for a 21st Century Peasants' Revolt Before Seeing Any Real Change?.  3. The Four Just Men  (PDF; 1905)  4. The Dispossessed (Le Guin).

Go to Moti Nissani's Webpage                        Additional Articles and Resources for the Coming Revolution

 

Copyright Information:  Feel free to use original material herein in any way you like.