Elites Can’t Be Persuaded or Forced. But We Can Disempower Them. Let’s Begin Now.

Photo by Lowie Vanhoutte on Unsplash | Revolutionaries, ultimately, don’t show up for work.

The wealthy, the ruling class, the giant multinational corporations love it when we cooperate with them. Because when we stop, they’re history.

I’m not selling fake hope here. I’m selling reality and the genuine possibility of ending the polycrisis and creating a humane and sensible civilization. I cannot guarantee success — much depends on how well we carry out our parts, and luck, too, plays a role.

That said, we have a very good chance because we are using the most effective approach in history. We are planning an escalating series of tactics, based on the principle of nonviolent noncooperation, to change civilization at the most fundamental level for the better.

This works. It not only can work. It HAS worked. Many times. Most famously, Gandhi’s followers used this approach to eject the British Empire from India. But many times, less illustrious and virtually unknown people have done what many would think impossible, using nonviolent noncooperation. For example, in the 1990s, a small group of 5 college students decided the Serbian dictator had to go. In a few years, Milosevic was gone and Serbia had a representative government.

The application of nonviolent noncooperation—at least using it effectively-is too complex to explain here. But the principles are known and they are repeatable, and they are applicable in every situation where an elite is abusing power.

You can read and learn more about it. A good place to start would be with the writings and videos produced by veterans of Otpor!, the successful (peaceful) revolutionary group from Serbia.

Playing By Our Rules, Not Theirs

In many cases, people are abused by elites because they think resistance is futile. They don’t even try to free themselves.

In others, they fail because they use ineffective tactics. They either play by the rules of their opponents, or depend on useless tactics designed to persuade the elites to change. In some cases, people use violence which can be emotionally satisfying, but it’s useless—or worse.

Many right now are cheering the murder of a healthcare CEO. They are right to point out and oppose the cruelty and abuse by the healthcare (denial) company—and that entire industry. But killing the CEO is, of course, wrong. It’s also useless. Corporations have no souls and cannot be reformed. It’s like asking a shark to stop eating everything in its path.

The shark can’t change. Eating is its nature. For corporations, doing anything to maximize profits, no matter how cruel or how immoral, is the only thing it can do.

We can’t tell a brutal government or a cruel corporation to change. We can’t persuade them either. Nor can we defeat them with violence. Their capacity for violence exceeds ours. And violence will not create a better society even if we did succeed in violently removing them.

This applies to plutocrats, to communist parties, to dictators, to every abusive power.

Protests designed to persuade elites to change, violence, voting…all of these play to the strengths of the elites. Elites can ignore or defeat these tacticsusually easily.

With respect to the murder of the healthcare (denial) corporate CEO, the reaction won’t be serious meaningful changes to healthcare.

What will happen? Executives will improve their own security, companies will promise improvements, perhaps make some minor adjustmentsand then wait for our attention to shift to something else.

And then they will reverse whatever tiny reforms they had made. If any.

No, to change the world, to effectively wield “people power,” we need to play to our strengths. We need to disobey, to defy the rules. This can be uncomfortable. But it’s necessary. Also, properly done, it’s unbeatable.

Never forget this:

Every abusive elite, today and throughout history, only has the power given to them by an obedient population. So-called “strongmen” do not build or create or produce anything. They depend on ordinary people-on us-to do every single goddam thing for them.

Pharaohs did not build pyramids. Pyramids were designed by Egyptian engineers and constructed by Egyptian workers. Pharaohs just took (unearned) credit for their work. The same is true of every “accomplishment” by every abusive leader in history. Up to today.

Hundreds of thousands of employees at United Healthcare, at the behest of that companies executives and shareholders, deny healthcare to customers to maximize profits. But, if instead of cheering the murder of a man who leaves a widow and two orphaned children, those workers respectfully attended his funeral—and never returned to work—well, THAT would make a difference.

Imagine if working for a health insurance company became widely seen as morally reprehensible, like working as a slave overseer, or a concentration camp guard. Yes, people need jobs (at least in the current civilization), but some jobs are simply unacceptable.

Now, this specific tactic is very, very unlikely.

But we can (and must) use a series of escalating tactics—strategic nonviolent noncooperation—to disempower evil acts, and to replace them with kind ones. We must structurally change the way civilization is organized and operates. What we have today is deadly and, if it continues, fatal.

Instead, We Do THIS

The weakness of abusive political and corporate elites is noncooperation. Once we stop doing what they demand, they are just a bunch of toothless old fools.

We can’t do this all at once. And what, exactly, each person can and should do varies. We start with minor acts of resistance, almost symbolic. We do this to learn disobedience, to gain a feel for it, and to inspire others. This isn’t really aimed at elites—it’s aimed at growing a movement.

Then, depending on the person, we each either continue with the smaller acts, or participate in bigger ones. With each step, we get better at disobedience, and better at helping each other through the challenges in our path.

We will need to build alternate institutions to provide for ourselves and each other. We will need to help each other as the old guard strikes back. If we do our parts properly, the old guard will use the minimum of violence-because violence will spark anger and grow our movement. Violence will be dangerous for those who practice it.

What does a minor act of resistance look like?

A minor act of resistance would be some form of speaking out. But instead of designed to persuade our opponents, it would be intended to show our peers that we CAN speak out. It would encourage copycats, and help grow the movement. Ideally, the tactics would get attention because it’s something new and unfamiliar.

For example, I envision Climate House Parties. These would be small urban social events that people would hold in front of their homes in different cities around the world ON THE SAME DAY (or days). There would be balloons and snacks and music and discussion about the climate, about noncooperation and about signing up for the movement. (Oh, and the movement is The Saners. YOU can sign up right now at WeAreSaners.org/join.) This would create a buzz, and help increase the number of (newbie) activists. We won’t get everyone, but we will get enough people. This sets the stage for what is to come.

What does a slightly bigger act of resistance look like?

Some may never get beyond the Climate House Party stage, doing more of those and similar acts. These are risk-free activities, but they are very, very valuable.

A step up would be some slightly risky and, yeah, a bit gutsy actions.
An example of this type could be called “A Day Late and A Dollar Short.” It would be a tax protest with participants paying their taxes on April 16th and shorting the payment to the government by $1. It breaks the rules (slightly) and theoretically subjects the participant to penalties. But the penalty on such a slight violation is tiny, and it would be costly and complex for the government to collect

This tactic would be supplemented by ongoing Climate House Parties which would let everyone know what the tax protest is about:

For decades, leaders in government and business around the world have ignored the scientists, and they continue to abuse the climate by pumping out CO2 in large quantities. This has resulted in the climate collapse we are seeing today. They continue to subsidize Big Oil with OUR tax dollars. So we are withholding a bit of it, and paying late because they are decades late in addressing the crisis. They have failed catastrophically and we want everyone to know that we see this. And don’t like it.

What does a successful nonviolent revolution look like?

It looks like elites everywhere being disempowered through noncooperation. No government or corporation is attacked or overthrown. They all become irrelevant because too few people cooperate with them for them to continue.

Instead of working for elites (or for profit), people do much, much less work and all of it is inherently meaningful and worthwhile. People work for no compensation to provide for themselves and each other. They work maybe 80% less than they do today, leaving much more time to really LIVE.

The work is producing healthy food (not over-processed crap), medicine, housing, and ONLY things that are necessary or extremely useful. This is because everyone recognizes that every single thing we produce takes something from the Earth, and costs us TIME—and our time is our life.

So, we minimize work, do not degrade ourselves by producing crap as servants of selfish stupid elites, and then experience greatly expanded lives, mostly free of cubicles or factory floors.

Everything we were told were indulgences—which is anything that doesn’t earn money—will be the joy of our new, everyday lives. Spending time with loved ones, walking in Nature, playing with our children and pets, expressing ourselves in art and writing, enjoying the arts created by others.

Lawns become vegetable gardens. Offices become housing.

It will be astounding but, in retrospect obvious, that everything we were told was important was nonsense, and everything we were told was frivolous is the stuff of life itself.

Like this idea? Excited by this possibility? Read about The Saners at WeAreSaners.org and sign up at WeAreSaners.org/join.