The People Speak

Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

We, the sane and caring people of Earth, do not take orders from elites, nor do we honor their failed systems. This is our 21st century declaration of independence and interdependence.

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Twenty million people or more, people who may have no official papers, however they got to America, are people. We welcome them and will protect them, and treat them with the dignity and respect every human being deserves.

Corporations are not people. They are tools of abuse and exploitation. They deserve no respect and we will be withdrawing our participation from them, both as workers and consumers.

People require food, clothing, shelter and medicine to live. Materially, we require little else. Unlike the leaders and authorities, we ordinary people produce everything, the necessary and the frivolous. Every bit of it has a cost, in both our time (and our lives are nothing but time) and in damage to our Earth. So, going forward, we will respect the miracle of life and consciousness by not throwing it away producing useless junk in factories and cubicles.

Instead, we will only produce what’s needed, and freely distribute it to people everywhere so we can all live peacefully together in the sane, caring civilization we demand and require.

We will produce nothing extra, and certainly produce nothing for “profit” at the behest of undeserving elites, whether they are plutocrats, authoritarian parties, or merely dictators.

This end of unneeded labor will enable people everywhere to finally be free in a real sense: where we go and what we do will not be determined by bosses, by people in charge.

We declare today that we choose to be in charge of ourselves.

Instead of throwing away decades of our lives in senseless servitude, we will work only a small amount-voluntarily-producing what our bodies require. The rest of our time is ours.

Much has been made of the idea that we need work, need structure, and that people enjoy work and find meaning in it. We identify with job titles and would feel lost without our routines. People can be confused and depressed in retirement.

These are invented problems. This confusion and moodiness is taught to us, just as we were taught to crave an endless supply of consumer goods. But it is true that we must and will learn to live as free people. This is not a problem. It is the greatest opportunity a person could ever receive.

We will create that opportunity and we shall wholly embrace it.

The United States, a country that eloquently espoused great ideas and great values that it failed to deliver, is now on a rampage of hatred and destruction and cruelty. More accurately, the fools who have seized power of the government are on this rampage.

We are not a part of that. And because we, the people of Earth do all of the work, we ourselves can decide how to proceed. Part of our plan is to hold a general strike-to grind everything to a halt. Our systems and leaders and, ultimately, the values of our current civilization are a colossal failure and a complete catastrophe.

Organizers of the upcoming strike want to reform the existing systems and pressure current leaders to behave better. We deeply respect these people and will work with them.

But our group, The Saners, believe that the current system is beyond reform and must be replaced completely by the freedom and respect and caring we espouse. Our lives and our dignity are non-negotiable.

We will achieve our aims using nonviolent noncooperation. The old order cannot continue to exploit people who refuse to cooperate. Nor can it control us using police and other enforcers against us. We will speak with and embrace the enforcers who are, after all, our spouses and children, siblings, friends and other loved ones. In the end, they will support and not attack us.

It is true that our labor and our ability to withhold that labor is a great power. But our greatest power is our imagination, and in particular our power to imagine a better way to live and to then embody it.
We will change the world. We will protect the dignity of all people everywhere and we will protect the biosphere of our planet.

This is our mission.

Today, we openly declare our intention to make our vision real. We, The Saners, will settle for nothing less-for ourselves and for every person on Earth.

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Please learn about and sign up for The Saners at WeAreSaners.org. And sign up to support the general strike at generalstrikeus.com.