It seems to me that in the end there will only be one way to bring back sanity

[ThomWV]

The rich have so distorted and polluted the nation's financial system that today it functions as a pump, moving previous middle class prosperity into their own vaults. Not only have they taken all the money but they've also put in place the mechanisms to milk us of our future earnings and our children's and grand-children's too. They are the beast.

Their greed is unquenchable, the beast must be fed but if we feed it it only grows stronger. So the road to taking back our own destiny has to begin by not feeding the beast. And what, you should ask, does the beast eat? It has all of our money, we owe it our futures, and it demands more and more from us. What it feeds on, what the rich actually take from us, in the end is our labor. It is the work we do every day, our toil. That's because the financial slavery of today is much like the horror of our old slavery in that everything you do goes to the master. And the Politicians, what role do they play? They are just the paid overseers, the minions who do the work of the beast

The only way to defeat the beast is to starve it. The only way to starve it is a National Strike.

The Politicians are whores, they will go with the John who ever pays them the most but their failing is that they will throw their current client under the bus in a heartbeat if anyone challenges their position. A National Strike would scare them into action if nothing else. And we have to have action from them, action now or never. We are that close to the brink. Little fixes here and there, or even large fixes here and there aren't going to save us either. This is not a problem of infrastructure failing, or social programs going bust, or even the degeneration of education. It is no one thing or set of things - its the whole shooting match. The problems this nation faces verge on systemic and a near complete rebuilding of the democratic process and citizen involvement is the only thing that is going to save it. And where must it start? A National Strike.

[villager]

1. you got it

n/t

[Vincardog]

2. No, the criminals got it: and WE have to take IT away from them

[villager]

3. Like Woody Guthrie's "Take it easy... but take it?"

;-)

[Exultant Democracy]

4. We need a step by step guide for organizing a national strike.

I hear a lot of people talk about one but I have yet to see how we would get it done.

[ThomWV]

5. You're right. I think there are two key elements, communications and a persuasive argument

It will never happen until enough people have accepted the argument that they are being exploited to such an extent that nothing short of a strike on a national level will force our lawmakers to constructive action.

[Gregorian]

6. I imagine a leader by the name of Chris Hedges.

This may very well be how it begins.

[Vincardog]

7. IT does not require 1 leader it requires MILLIONS of leaders each standing up and saying

I am MAD AS HELL and I am NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE

[Gregorian]

8. That's not going to happen. No one is mad as hell.

Not mad enough to get the fuck out of their cars. I hate to put it in that context. But Americans are still comfortable. And most people aren't responsible nor vigilant enough to do something before it's a crisis. And then when it is a crisis, they go the wrong direction.

Sorry I'm so cynical. Shit we can't even get cannibis to be legal. We're still fearful of the 7 words one can't say on the radio. We can't subsidize battery research. We can't stop the wars.

I know. WE is us. Not the corporations. And the only way to break this cycle is to do it by force. Chris Hedges. It is going to take someone to get people mad enough. They aren't going to do it on their own until it's too late.