Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash | When we stopped bowing to authority, the leadership is revealed to be powerless.
We propose NOT digging graves for our own children just to enrich or empower imbeciles.
Despots and plutocrats are simply human beings, not fearsome supervillains. While there are various organizations and rules and traditions that give them “power,” ultimately all of their power comes from the obedience of ordinary people.
Despots and plutocrats have people who do everything for them. They produce nothing. They enforce nothing. They do nothing—except issue orders. Every time a person refuses to comply with the orders, that power is reduced.
Because everything is done for them, often leaders and other top level authorities have stunted abilities and cannot do the simplest things. The underlings—us—are typically far more skilled and capable than the people in charge.
The only special skill of despotic leaders is swindling, deception and masquerading as being all-powerful and virtually invulnerable. But now, in the 21st century, the Wizard is hiding behind a flimsy curtain that conceals very little.
The Essence of Disempowerment is Withdrawal From Empowering Plutocrats and Despots
The most basic, and easiest form of disempowerment of the “powerful” is quiet quitting. It is often too dangerous (at least initially) to outright and openly defy leaders. They have (for now) enforcers, including armed enforcers who can wield violence. Or other forms of cruelty can be used, like withholding food or medicine.
Quiet quitting is pretty easy, and difficult to detect, much less block. You (and any of us) can “make mistakes”, miss work due to “illness,” or simply be slow or inefficient.
Once we realize that nearly all the work we do is not only useless, but also destructive, we are motivated to begin quiet quitting. Our lives—we spend decades of them on factory floors and in office cubicles, producing useless or even deadly products and services—are wasted. And, through our labor, we rape the planet and fill the atmosphere and oceans with gigatons of toxic CO2, dooming our own children.
We should refuse (quietly at first) to engage in such wasteful and deadly activity. And we should work together, escalating our refusal and resistance, in stages.
Along the way, we peel off the enforcers to our side. After all, police and judges and soldiers and National Guardsmen are our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings or even ourselves! Our loved ones can be persuaded to protect—and not threaten—their loved ones. This has happened countless times in movements everywhere throughout history.
Indeed, successful people power isn’t primarily about enforcing our will. It begins with refusing to enforce the will of our oppressors.
The Saners Will, Ultimately, Enforce Sanity Through Example and Noncooperation With Evil
We have a small but growing worldwide community of people who are dedicated to harnessing people power to effectively address the polycrisis. Our group is young and still small—we haven’t done much yet.
We are growing and organizing and planning. We hope to begin making (at first small) waves in the coming months. We have studied and learned from various historic movements that use nonviolent noncooperation—the most effective form of people power.
We understand that people are busy and dubious about making waves. But we must. We invite you to join us. This does not require any major commitment. You will do what you are comfortable doing as your time and energy permits.
For now, it would be excellent if you read (at least a bit) about us at WeAreSaners.org. And sign up at WeAreSaners.or/join).
Oh, and begin to identify as a Saner by wearing The Green Dot and being prepared to describe the objectives and approach of The Saners.
This could be the start of something big. We hope so. Why not explore this possibility?
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