13081 Resistance is Fertile
Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime. — W.E.B. DuBois
It's not hard to look at the present situation and feel like things are hopeless.
I'm sure that's what people involved with the struggle against human slavery thought.
More recently, when I was younger, my home town had "Colored Only" and "White Only" signs on its restrooms. African Americans were not allowed in the town's restaurants. They had to sit in the balcony of the theater. Our small town, which could hardly afford one school system, maintained two — one for whites, the other for blacks. During the long struggle against Jim Crow segregation, I am sure many people wondered if their situation would ever change.
The institution of slavery never seemed so eternal than it did just before it provoked a civil war that led to its demise. The response to agitation for change in the 1960s in the South of the United States was — "Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!" — as governors stood in the doors of schools to keep African American students away from the white kids.
All of that went away, in spite of the temptation to despair and surrender.
Dominant systems are well stocked with the constancy, persistence, and resilience we have been discussing as they relate to developing sustainability. They resist damage, support themselves, and are able to repair themselves when damaged. We the people are essential to the dominance systems' programs of constancy, persistence, and resilience. We support them with our money, time, effort, talents, work, and creativity. We resist moves to dismantle their dominance and replace it with sustainability. We rush to repair them when damage occurs.
Going into the future, that's going to change.
Just as slavery and Jim Crow segregation came to an end, today we move towards what amounts to a "final battle" between the old systems of subjugation and domination and the new humane systems of human community that care for people, care for the planet, and have a care for the future.
Three stages of revolution.
There are three stages to revolutions. The first is Ideological Resistance. One of the functions stacked on iPermie is “ideological resistance”. Here we take advantage of the contagion of ideas to spread the word that a new and better world is not only possible, it is on its way.
The second is disobedience. A second function stacked on iPermie is “Manual of Civil Disobedience.” Most people think of civil disobedience as protests or demonstrations. But given the signs of these times, the most important and effective civil disobedience is how you live your life. By breaking out of the Excess Consumption Default Design system, you live a life of civil disobedience.
The third stage is the actual time of systemic change, punctuated equilibrium that will birth a new and more humane and just normal. Our goal is a peaceful transition and devolution of power away from the economic aristocracies who presently rule to a system of grassroots democracy that forms itself in response to the circumstances.
The secret to that success is to do a successful job with our ideological resistance and our disobedience to established authority.
They fight with money. We resist with time. They will run out of money before we run out of time.
- If they can’t pay their soldiers, their soldiers will not fight.
- If they can’t buy ammo, their guns will not fire.
- If they can’t reward their friends, they will have no friends.
That is the long and the short of our task going forward. Resistance is fertile!
We are the pioneer species colonizing the damaged cultural ecologies of our era. As the on-going situation unfolds, more and more people will be driven by their circumstances to becoming open to the iPermie approach. As we grow our communities of care, compassion, and permaculture praxis, we will present attractive alternatives to the politics of economic domination and cultural subjugation that are the best the system can offer.
When people are ready to ask questions, you can be there for them with answers.