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Larry Pinkney of BlackActivistWG.org joins us today to discuss how and why so many well-meaning Americans were bamboozled by Obama’s “hope and change” routine in 2008. We discuss the failed establishment left/right paradigm and how the misleaders of the left rally their flock around the Democrat flag every election cycle, as well as how community activism can lift us out of the cycle of abuse inflicted on the people by the political machine.
SHOW NOTES
An Obama Presidency: More of the Same Only Worse (2008)
Send donations to Larry at:
Larry Pinkney
C/O Black Activist Writers Guild
PO Box 581822
Minneapolis, MN 55458
I remember during another sleepless night in summer 2005, I was fear-porning myself without actually realizing it, watching CNN, at around 10 pm at night.
There was Anderson Cooper, interviewing for little reason this new senator from Illinois and he was kissing his butt and saying he could be the first “black” (he’s a mullato damnit, but a human being, although a crappy one…I was wondering what this was all about, they never do that with other senators they interview, try to push them to try becoming president…the machine was starting one of it’s programs is all.
I can’t find the song individually but the speech at the beginning of this song from punk band Good Riddance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOgj6gb0ZLU starts at 10:32, song 7, Article IV, I forgot who make this speech but it came up in my head as I was watching this interview. I’m sure James or other users could identify that speech I always found very powerful, and maybe also enjoy the song 😉
Merry christmas everyone, I’ve managed to find my own meaning of christmas, and these days where people have massive difficulty giving their own family members time, I’ve been only driving 5 hours north every dec 23rd to meet with my dad and brother and it has always been pleasant, the gifts are minimal in importance, we do give each other something, it’s nothing people all of our 3 can’t afford. But yeah the meaning of it all is family, and forgiveness of the past in case some bad things happened in the past, even if distant. Never give up on family, what else is there?
Excellent interview but there’s one thing I question about Larry’s advice for James’ question of (if memory serves me) “where do we go from here?” Larry mentioned a 3rd party and quoted Camus about the people needing a voice in who the candidates are. That again feels like the “go the political route” rather than the “the machine is the problem”.
Even if “we the people” were able to get our choice of candidate elected president, I still have strong doubts that the true puppet masters would allow liberty to flourish. Both James and Larry did mention that politics were not the solution though but I think maybe something more “tangible” (rather than a line like “get out of the cage” or whatever the exact line was) needs to be fleshed out (possibly in a future podcast between these 2). A practical concern that comes to mind is how the Amish are self-sufficient but how the government went after them for selling raw milk.
Suppose they had a war and nobody came? I listened to the G20 AP podcast (Nov 2014) where the Aussie said he would report on the protests going on, but he wasn’t convinced the effort of participating in it was worth the price. James Corbett said it might be just as effective to stay home and plant a garden. Therein lays the solution. Creation over consumption. To hold a protest every single person needs to consume from, and therefore support, the very corporations they are gathering to protest against. And then when they get there and hold their protests, the police get to justify their new toys and tactics, the MSM reports on the just how dangerous the protesters are and how much the police are needed to protect all the “good people” from their violent tendencies. We continue to rise to the bait and feed the myth that the world is a dangerous place and is getting more and more dangerous every day. Instead, how about we allow them to prepare for the worse, amass a huge army of police, National Guard… and then have absolutely no-one show up. Rather than spend hundreds or thousands of dollars apiece to travel to and support yourself for days at the protest site, how about we stay home and try to consume as little as possible (think of a concession stand selling (”911- I was there” t-shirts at ground zero on 9/12). The most effective protest we could ever hold is a mass withholding of our consent. Spend that time in creative activities. Don’t travel, don’t buy gas, and don’t go to Wal-Mart. If you really need something, go to a local store or shop and support a local proprietor with direct ties to the community. Plant a garden with non-GMO seeds. Hold a community meeting and discuss a bartering system, a child care co-op,… Use the WWW to spread the concept and organize the protest. Hold educational seminars on community building. Learn about the power of consent; expose the paradigm of mass marketing, nationalism, religiosity, and tribalism for what it is a massive effort to buy/affect individual consent.
“JUST SAY NO…Thank you.” Withhold consent on a national/worldwide scale. Designate one day where we purchase a little as possible, Create rather that consume. And say it with calculated respect for the individual while maintaining a non- threatening, non-violent manner. If they have no provocation, they have no reason to engage and therefore no reason to be there spending massive tax dollars. The effect of non-spending for a day would send a greater message than anything else we could do as a movement. Remember the G Bush statement at ground zero just after 911 that the most patriotic thing the citizens of the USA could do is get back to the mall. Keep the economy going; that is the most important thing. By negatively affecting the economy, we could demonstrate to both sides where the real power lies in the social equation.
You have said on many occasions that the best way to expose the tyrant is to force him to be a tyrant. By withholding our combined consent, the powers that be would have to decide to change the rules, or somehow force the “protesters” back into a consumer mode.
I just listened to your interview with Larry Pinkney which just bolstered my contention that the best way to affect change is to start at the lowest level with self, then family, then community. The best way to return “Power to the people” is to quite giving it away.
Withhold consent.
“You can vote however the fuck you want,
but power still calls all the shots.
And, believe it or not,
even if democracy broke loose,
they’ll just make the economy scream
until we vote responsibly.”
Ending lyrics to
Propagandhi – A People’s History Of The World
The responsibly should be understood as to be between quotes here. It’s really difficult to have real democracy unless the powers that be aren’t removed from their…power position/ability to influence.