Photo by Inbetween Architects Jerome Charignon on Unsplash
The sane caring people of Earth are sad, worried and looking for something meaningful to do. Our movement, based on an approach that historically works, offers them genuine hope. But they should join!
There is a history of movements, and experts who learned the hard way how movements succeed-and fail. Unlike Gandhi and King, we don’t need to discover or invent a framework for people power, for big changes from the bottom up.
That work has been done. It’s up to us to learn those lessons and adapt them for our current time and situation.
Tens of millions of Americans today are acutely aware of the danger our country and our planet is in. They understand that people who are hell-bent on destroying the Earth’s climate for power and profit are about to take control of the government. They understand that this new government dehumanizes people in preparation for abusing them.
They understand the orgy of hate, and possibly violence, that is about to take place.
There is a way to thwart evil and reverse course. It’s too complicated to explain in detail here. But as we deal with the immediate high profile situation, we are speeding toward doom from unabated climate collapse.
Due to the need to “compromise” even the Biden Administration worsened the situation by agreeing to open up giant swaths of Alaskan wilderness to drilling by Conoco-Phillips. In truth, no administration has ever, or ever could, take any meaningful action to prevent climate collapse.
Big Oil has too much influence or even control over the institution of government in the United States and pretty much everywhere else.
The Elephant Chained To The Footstool
I don’t know if it’s true, but there’s a story about how elephants are trained for the circus-back when we brutalized those beautiful creatures for entertainment.
As a baby, the circus elephant would be chained to a heavy metal ball, too heavy for the baby creature to move. It eventually learned that when it was chained, movement was impossible. So it learned not to try.
The adult circus elephant, as a result, could be easily immobilized by chaining it to a light wooden footstool.
Leaders under every system have taught their populations to be helpless and obedient. We have been chained to lies about the great power of leaders and have been effectively immobilized.
It’s time to kick away the flimsy wooden stool, expose the lies of “power,” and to mobilize. We are blowing off this circus.
Fearless Freedom
Our group, The Saners, isn’t buying the nonsense. We aren’t going to obey evil. When Big Oil wants us to do something deadly to the climate, that endangers our children, that threatens the health of the entire biosphere-WE won’t do the work. WE will encourage oil and gas and coal workers to “quite quit.”
WE will begin raising money to support fossil fuel workers-not desk jockeys, real workers-who begin shutting down the entire fossil fuel industry. This is a complex undertaking and our tactics will evolve. But nonviolent noncooperation is the way to begin fixing things.
WE won’t round up immigrants and hand them over to authorities. WE won’t shoot at protesters. WE will let our loved ones in the oil industry, in the military, in the police, and in every position of enforcement that human life and our communities come first-and that politicians and businessmen can do the work that they consider so necessary THEMSELVES.
The CEOs and Senators can fight wars, can frack, can build yachts.
WE will reduce our labor sharply, giving us more time to LIVE, and produce ONLY healthy food, medicine and other things that are necessary or extremely useful. Right now, 90% of what working people produce is crap. WE will begin withdrawing from this useless and ultimately destructive activity.
Economics? We substitute sanity and the values of decency and respect for life and reject market economics. We will produce and share with everyone the food and other necessities needed for life.
And then, instead of wasting days, years, decades, and entire lives producing crap for greedy morons, people can LIVE. They can express themselves in art, in music, in theatre, in writing, in whatever form they choose. They can live a leisurely existences, take calm walks in Nature (or what’s left of it), and be with friends and family and other loved ones.
Even on a permanently diminished Earth, one that seems hostile to life, our species can-on balance-have a better existence than any time in living memory.
All because we learn to not cooperate, not obey, and not ensure that our lives and planet are destroyed.
We decide to stand up for ourselves and for each other. We disempower evil by refusing to act on its behalf.
Don’t Repeat the Excuses You’ve Been Taught
I’ve heard all the excuses. A thousand times.
Here’s a few of them. They are all nonsense. They all play into the hands of the stupid morons who we’ve been obeying. Nonetheless, let’s take a look.
- People will never stand up for themselves.
Which people? What about YOU? Why do you worry about what other people do? Save it until YOU start showing courage, start withdrawing cooperation-at least slightly. Right now you can start talking truth. Right now you can slow down at work (especially if you are in the fossil fuel industry), start making “mistakes”, call in sick. We, as a movement, will develop a series of tactics. Historically, it’s the people who start the actions who make history. People who give up in advance-and that’s what the authorities count on-are falling for lies. - It’s too late. We are already doomed.
Is this possible? Yes. Is this proven? No. The vast majority of climate scientists, including the most prominent “pessimists” do not believe we are doomed. Yes, you can sagely throw around terms like “overshoot” but that’s your pessimistic mood-not science. We ARE in a dire situation and the Earth is being grievously and permanently damaged. But it isn’t over. Giving up is premature. - We’ll starve, live in poverty, or be shot.
That could happen. OR we could decide to take care of each other. Which must be a part of our strategy. And since WE PRODUCE EVERYTHING, we can find a way. For example, we could grow a worldwide network of co-ops to produce food and other necessities, work a few hours a month at them, and share the food with everyone. Is that idea perfect or even workable? Maybe and maybe not. But we work the problem; we don’t give up. Oh, and there are strategies to reduce violence by authorities, and other hazards that movements in the past have faced.
I believe those are the top three objections. There are many others. But the point is this: WE must start. In fact, WE have started.
Our movement, The Saners, has members in more than 20 countries. We have members in more than 25 states. We are ready to organize at the community level, to build a worldwide movement both from the top down AND the bottom up.
We know a lot. We’ve studied history. We continue to learn. We will fire on all cylinders at once.
The climate collapse is accelerating. The spread of fascism is here. Both of these terrible developments potentially accelerate the growth and effectiveness of our movement.
We need YOU.
Please read more about The Saners at WeAreSaners.org. Join the group at WeAreSaners.org/join. See the YouTube Channel. Let’s stop worrying, stop being immobilized, stop feeling defeated.
Let’s get moving. The faster we do this, the better.
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