The Art of No Deal

Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

There’s no reason to negotiate with people who have nothing of value to offer.

So, here in America, we elected a vile vicious idiot who’s taking away all the benefits we’ve earned and paid for with our tax dollars, and giving our money to himself and his ultra-wealthy friends.

This isn’t happening just here. It’s happening just about everywhere. There are pals of the ultra-wealthy—and enemies of the people—all over, taking similar vile vicious actions, and spreading lies, hatred, fear, poverty and death.

We are focused on them and what they are doing to us. We are divided over everything. We find every possible reason to NOT work together against our common foe. This is great for them and terrible for us.

Let’s clear away the weeds, think clearly about the situation for a few moments, and then dedicate ourselves to fixing this mess. We can do this.

What NOT To Do

Part of our problem is that we’ve been spending just about every waking moment doing the wrong things. Our attention has been deflected and we are mostly helping our abusers and fighting among ourselves.

Nowadays, we are freshly aware of the abuse speeding up. Some of us are taking to the streets, holding signs. Others are organizing other actions like boycotts and strikes. Most of us are trying to restore what we had.

Some of us are planning to go much further. We are out to end the abuse for everyone worldwide. We are out to address our actual problems—environmental, climate, unnecessary suffering, divisiveness and—a hugely misunderstood and mostly unrecognized problem—the utter waste of billions of lives in servitude to literally insane elites.

So, here’s what we need to STOP doing, or for now slow down doing.

1. Stop reading, watching, consuming, spreading and discussing lies and distractions, the propaganda of our oppressors.
2. End division by dismissing geopolitics and building human relationships—especially with imagined “enemies.”
3. Begin withdrawing support from our abusers and all their rules designed to abuse us—working, paying taxes, programming ourselves with their lies, anesthetizing ourselves with their distractions.

And here’s what we need to START doing.

1. Switch from ineffective tactics to ones that will actually disempower abusers.
2. Build alternative structures to meet human needs outside of the deadly systems and ideologies that dominate civilization today.
3. Create and embody a humane, loving culture to replace the culture of greed, hatred, bigotry and violence propagated by our enemies.

These are changes in our culture, our thinking, our behavior and our values. This is an internal revolution that will change everything—without any violence on our part.

Sadly, our opponents will—and have already been using violence against us. Violence and lies and our obedience are the only tools available to them. And as we withdraw our obedience, they will be left with only violence and lies.

That said, we will defeat them if we decide to do as I describe. Not if OTHERS decide to—if you and I do. Because we will break the ice, set the stage and inspire those who will follow. That’s what most people do—follow. Not because they are weak or stupid—they aren’t.

They follow because they are trapped, because they have been gaslit from birth, and have had the fight in them either removed or redirected. And people are tired from working, from just trying to get by in a civilization that—by design—keeps them exhausted and desperate.

Most people are, beneath it all, smart and caring. They want to live their lives, be with friends, enjoy their hobbies, daydream and create things. They want to live.

But what they want, their most fundamental rights to live fully as human beings, has been denied them. These rights have been denied to you as well. We will end this outrage, this stupidity, this tragic and unnecessary waste.

Culture Change and General Strikes

Countries are a ridiculous and dangerous construct. There is one civilization, a single planet that we live on full of people and other species. We have a complex biosphere that nurtures us, that we have co-evolved with to the benefit of both. But we turned on our planet, and working with our abusers, began ruining the Earth itself.

Now we face a hostile and an increasingly deadly planet.

What’s the approach? What are the tools we need to fix these problems? Where do we start? What needs to happen NOW?

1. Change the culture.
   Our small but growing international group, The Saners, will start by spreading positive, compelling and always intriguing messages, creatively designed, and widely distributed. This is the people’s all volunteer creative agency to be called PlayfulArts. This is being organized now and launched soon. We will have a core body of creators and distributors, but anyone on Earth will be welcome to participate and the potential growth and impact of this new cultural force is unlimited. It will be as if we are all Banksy—but focused on exactly what we need to fix this crises.
2. Begin and accelerate our withdrawal of cooperation.
   Join movements like GeneralStrikeUS.com. (Sign a Strike Card HERE right this moment!) Some groups and actions are encouraging community, building alternative structures (different and humane ways to meet human needs), and—most importantly—withdrawing cooperation from our oppressors in various ways. Take part!
3. Win enforcers to the side of The People.
   Strengthen human relationships with people hired to act as enforcers for our opponents: police, ICE workers, military people, National Guards. When these people are reminded regularly that they are our relatives, our loved ones, our friends, then at the critical moment when ordered to fire on us, they will put down their weapons.
4. Increase the number of people taking steps, even small steps, daily as a matter of habit.
   Talk about these efforts and recruit people to take part in the most effective and targeted actions and activities.
5. Produce what’s required to meet human needs.
   Outside of the commercial ways—which produce wealth for our abusers and meet human needs (sometimes) as a side effect, we need to satisfy human needs—for everyone. Join a co-op or a soup kitchen. Organize your community and meet with neighbors to discuss what can be done at the local level. Buy food at farmers markets. Refuse to buy from Amazon and other gigantic corporate enterprises. Buy whatever you need—when possible—from small local shops. Talk with the people at these shops. Always be building bridges with neighbors and strangers.
6. Build the passion for freedom, for life, for community.
   Wasting our lives in cubicles and on factory floors, year after year, decade after decade, must be ended. This isn’t needed. It’s a fraud and a trap. We need to meet human needs, and then LIVE FULLY as human beings—not as (under-)paid servants of the undeserving rich. We have a vision and a direction. We will make a better world, and move closer to it every day.

What about our overlords? What about the predicament we are in, right now? We need to remember this: WE have all the power because WE do all of the work. Simply refusing to serve our abusers disempowers them.

They can’t extract oil, they can’t produce luxury goods for themselves, they can’t produce anything! They can’t do anything! When we stop serving them, they are done.

Yes, it’s not that straightforward because there are roadblocks to claiming our freedom and our lives. But we can and must begin removing those roadblocks. Every idea presented in this essay are genuine effective steps towards doing that.

We Are NOT Pressuring Our Abusers Into Negotiation

This isn’t a plan for reform. This is a complete removal of abusers from any influence whatsoever. This is a complete systemic change from a worldwide system of commercial exploitation to a worldwide system of humane and genuinely caring cooperation.

We don’t negotiate with the old dying order. Why? Because they have no (real) power and they have literally nothing to offer us.

They create and do nothing constructive or positive. And ALL of their power is actually OUR power. That’s why we use nonviolent noncooperation. Withdrawal from supporting evil is all we need to do to end it, and nonviolence is consistent with our values.

They want us forever focusing on them, on the work they want us to do, on the thoughts they want us to think. We refuse. We don’t want them. We don’t need them.

We have our agenda, a positive agenda and from this moment forward, we are sticking to it.

Join The Saners at WeAreSaners.org/join.