Quasar – Outside the Paradigm

This is something that I just threw together, with the help of  my good friend, Thomas Jefferson. I couldn’t have done it without him.

Click below to download the PDF: Declaration of Occupation

Declaration of Occupation

 When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for the People to dissolve the Political Processes which have utterly failed them, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to their Occupation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Humans are created equal, that they are endowed by Nature with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among People, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed equally, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to occupy the Government, laying a new Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the Wellbeing and Happiness of the community as a whole. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Oligarchy, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to occupy such a Government, and to provide rational and fair Implementation of just laws for their Wellbeing. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Citizens; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the recent and present Presidents, Congresses and their Corporate Sponsors is a History of repeated legal Crimes and Usurpations, all having in direct object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Citizens and the Planet itself. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

They have refused their Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

They have squelched and stifled our ability to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless compromised to such an extent that they be virtually ineffective; and being so compromised, ultimately serve only the ends of those Corporate Sponsors.

They have called together Lobbying and behind the scenes Dealmaking at places untimely, and commonly in secret for the sole purpose of disenfranchising the People and forcing them into compliance with their measures.

They have erected a multitude of New Bureaucracies, and sent hither swarms of Legalese to harass our people and eat out their substance.

They have kept among us, in times of peace, Police Forces trained as and functioning as Standing Armies.

They affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

They have acted to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution; giving their Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops and police among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders or Brutalities which they should commit on the citizens:

For co-opting our Natural and Fair Trade with all parts of the world:

For unfairly imposing little or no Taxes on the 1%, while the 99% shoulder the burden:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For allowing Governors to suspend Legislatures in their states, and declare unelected persons or Corporations invested with power to legislate for us.

They have plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, removed our mountain tops, sullied our air, polluted our lakes and streams, and destroyed the quality of life of our people.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions and recently our peaceful Occupations have been answered only by repeated injury. A President, a Congress and their Corporate Sponsors, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, are unfit to rule as such over a free people.

We, therefore, as citizens, being the true Representatives of the United States of America, in Occupations and General Assemblies and among the people at large, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this Land, solemnly publish and declare, that the 99% are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent of the Plutocratic Rule of Corporate Influence, that we are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Acceptance of Illegitimate Laws, and that all political connection between us and those of the 1% who choose to Control us, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Citizens, we have full Power to wage Protests, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Truly Free and Independent Citizens may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the Laws Of Nature, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

A while back I was having a discussion with a friend about the economy. He complained that robots and mechanization was stealing jobs. I disagreed. Then just last week Dylan Ratigan had a segment on his MSNBC cable show where he talked about how robots are stealing jobs. While I love Dylan and love his holistic viewpoint of the organism that we are, and think he is usually right on, in this case he was dead wrong.

Robots don’t steal jobs, people do.

Let’s imagine a simple work scenario. Let’s say you have a small company; a cooperative with 5 employees, each working 5 eight hour days per week. That is a total of 200 hours of work per week. Now lets say one of the group walks in one morning and says, “hey guys, check it out. I did a little hunting and found this robot which is perfectly suited to do some of the work we do to produce our product.”

Should you be freaked out because your job could be threatened? No. You should be glad that your life just became a little easier.

So, lets say, for the sake of argument, that this robot can be paid for with only a small investment and once up and running it requires very little maintenance. So it turns out that this particular robot can do about 40 hours a week of work that the 5 employees have previously been doing. This is great. In a sane world this is what would happen: The workers, as a group, now only need to do 160 hours of work. 160/5=32. Voila. Everyone gets a day off. You have just entered the world of the 4 day workweek. It really is that simple.

So why don’t we see this. Two reasons pop out to me right now. First and foremost, it’s because most companies aren’t collectives. Let’s say in a similar company to the one above, there are 5 workers and a boss; a boss who prioritizes his or herself over the employees with little concern for their welfare. For that boss the decision is simple. Fire one of the 5 workers, the robot replacing one of them, and all the profit from that robot goes right into his or her pocket.

The second reason is that even in that collective, the workers may choose to continue working 40 hour weeks and with the robot, each would make more money. Now this is their choice. Yes and no. Part of the reason that workers would make that choice is because of the state of the economy and the fact that it is getting harder and harder to make it on the same amount of income. The reasons for this are far outside the scope of this writing but it is essentially because of the same thing. The whole system is topsy turvy and completely out of balance because of the inequities created by those who do not have the welfare of the community at heart.

(see the end of this article for a reference to some information about the disparity between the bosses and the workers and between the wealthy and the rest of us)

I was a teenager in the 60’s. Back then the transistor was just coming into its own. Travel to the moon was a reality. Suddenly color tv was common. Recording devices were improving rapidly. It was a time of innovation. And much of it was available for the consumer to outfit their home or increase their ease of living. I can’t remember now exactly where I remember this from but there was this idea then that in the not too distant future we would no longer need to work 40 hour weeks; less work and more leisure.

We were dreamers. We overlooked one basic human quality. Greed. The bad apples. And that expression, one bad apple spoils the barrel, has never been truer. It only takes a very few people to ruin the game. Money provides tremendous leverage. Just as noise and silence can never co-exist, greedy people, although a minority, with the leverage of money, have the power to really fuck things up for the rest of us.

Robots don’t steal jobs. People do. And if you are tempted to say, “yeah, but the way it is now we all need to work as much as possible and that’s a reality”, well that’s ok. I won’t fault anyone for doing what they need to do to get by, but we can’t get it right if we put the blame in the wrong place.

One last thing. It’s an entirely different thing if you really like to work. And I don’t say that facetiously. I am a champion for peaceful handwork done in a mellow environment at a relaxed pace. It can be very good for the soul and contribute to a good life. I should also say that this article doesn’t address the possible quality differential between robot made products and handmade or closer to handmade work. But, these days most of us enjoy products that need to be made in ways that don’t involve truly pleasant work.

So, in those cases, I make the case. The dreams of the sixties are possible.

The following quote is from an article by Bill Quigley, titled: Socialism? What a Joke! The Rich Are Winning the US Class War: Facts Show Rich Getting Richer, Everyone Else Poorer

“In 1973, the average US CEO was paid $27 for every dollar paid to a typical worker; by 2007 that ratio had grown to $275 to $1.”

I’ll bet if we’d heard in 1973 that the CEOs were making 27 times as much as the workers we would have been shocked. The idea of them making 275 times as much is…. is….. – You provide the adjective.

(The picture at the start of this article is from the cover illustration from Tom Swift and His Giant Robot, volume 4 of the Tom Swift, Jr. Series, rendered by Graham Kaye, (c) 1954.)

I’m feeling disheartened after Tuesday’s election. Yeah, there was a lot of madness being given voice out there. And some of that madness became lawmakers. Some of it is the evil of greed. Some is blatantly and openly racist. Almost all of it is hypocritical. And some of the madness is of the truly delusional variety. A couple of my favorites are (click to see them) Alan West claiming that he has a security clearance of a level that even the president can’t get and Rand Paul arguing for tax cuts for the rich because we are all one – “there are no poor”. (they both won)

There was an excellent (and fun) piece on the Rachel Maddow show Thursday night about the whoppers that float around the right wing community and are never scrutinized.  As she said there is no internal debunking. There is evidence that these things are not true but it falls on deaf ears. The paradigm of the community of people in that believe-in-whopper world includes the fact that if something is proven false by anybody outside their community, outside of Far Rightville, rather than accepting that evidence, instead it re-enforces their own information, now that the evil bad lefties say it isn’t so.

It’s like they have all the bases covered. It’s kind of a perfect storm; the mentality that anything outside of your clique is invalid. It’s really a high level paranoia. Which is not surprising when one is hypnotized and vulnerable to suggestion.

I once saw a movie, Mirage, where Gregory Peck, one of my faves, was trying to rally a wishy washy friend of his to take a stand. He said, “Wake up Josephson. If you’re not willing to commit, you’re just taking up space.”

That’s what I have to say to the voters who voted Republican, especially those who fell for the appeal of the wingnuts. Now, on the surface you may say, “but they are committed. They felt strongly about something and they did something about it; they voted.” But being committed, by my reckoning has to run a little deeper and be more encompassing.

I once wrote something about the state of the world’s environment saying something about one just taking up space if they don’t commit. A European friend of mine, commenting on that, said she felt that was extreme and could induce a feeling of guilt if you’re not being active in the environmental movement. Which could then lead to a sense of failure and basically giving up altogether, or feeling despondent. Like there is nothing you can do that is going to matter against the great hypnosis of blind consumption and waste and its consequent dross, so why bother.

What’s important here is that commitment can mean many things. We, in simply being alive, are having some sort of impact. And I do believe that being aware of the consequences of our impact is important. But commitment doesn’t have to mean action like spiking trees, or lying down in front of a bulldozer, or even writing representatives or voting. Commitment can be sharing our feelings with friends and people we meet about how things are. Or it can be meditating. Or exuding love energy and appreciation while walking in Nature or taking a deep breath of fresh air. There is energy in our attitudes and orientation. Just being focused on what we believe has the power to effect change.

So, being committed means being awake and aware and allowing your mind and heart to be voices and forces in how you live. As far as just taking up space, I think if you are content being hypnotized by some familiar paradigm and you respond without pause to wording targeted to get your hackles up or to make you complacent, or you’re blindly making choices to avoid the complexity of life, yeah, you are just taking up space.

And, if you have guilt around that statement, well, maybe that’s what guilt is for. To eat away at us a little and tell us that some part of ourselves is not satisfied with where we’re at. (Just try and be clear that the guilt is your own and not what the church, a guru, or anyone else has told you about how you should behave or act.)

For me, this is the lesson of Tuesday’s election. This is not new; in fact “it’s been burning since the world’s been turning”, but the election along with the president’s milquetoast concession that we now need to find common ground and compromise with the new rightwing Congress are an exclamation point. I am an activist by nature. Though I don’t always manifest that spirit in action, I will continue to vote and in some small ways contribute physically. But whether one votes or contributes in another way, I really think there has never been a time on this planet where it was more imperative (meaning imperative as necessary to health and survival; not as a rule or law from above) to commit yourself to living. And to living aware and open; aware of our multi-faceted and dynamic nature and our need to participate.

Yes, I am feeling disheartened. But I also feel charged, like there has never been a time so ripe for something really new. Call me a fool but that’s how I feel.

Be excellent to each other.

See the page poem “Hypnosis, Drip Noses” under the page Non-Newsy Writings in the menu above.

Finally, check out this. An excellent interview with Jim Morrison by Lizzie James. She asks him provocative questions and he has much to say about personal responsibility to one’s awareness of their surroundings and their own reality. (The interview itself starts a little over half way down.)