The Modern Revolution
Now that the White House is orange, I’ve given consideration to the best way for angry Americans to revolt and avoid the inevitably devastating actions of the new US President and the Conservative Congress. An assassination would make things worse, burning our communities never seems to be the answer, and protests and marches don’t change a thing.
A modern revolution requires a real threat – not bullets, blades or bombs. No, a modern revolution revolves around money. The only thing that will catch the attention of the President and Congress is a full-fledged, industrial revolution that sees Americans lose all industriousness.
This is going to sound crazy, but revolutions tend to be. What if every one of us with longtime jobs for at least a few years got fired tomorrow and subsequently applied for unemployment benefits before Paul Ryan and the Republicans can disappear them? Just think: a few million people going on unemployment in the same month would not only defund the government, but crash the economy and fuck over every corporate stockholder. What do we care? We’ve got no skin in the game except the minimum wage. They want to cut individual welfare, yet continue to increase corporate welfare. Give them a real reason to cut individual welfare then.
It would be like a union walkout but on a national scale. Corporations would hemorrhage cash looking for replacements, and stockholders would jump ship before it made the plunge down the waterfall. Then, when the corporate fat cats plead for us to come back to work when the replacements they’ve found can cut it, we’ll demand a higher minimum wage, equal pay for men and women, mandatory maternity leave, a single-payer, State-run healthcare system, student loan forgiveness and insist education, pharmaceutical and prison industries be not-for-profit. And until our demands our met, corporations and the economy continue to collapse. That’s real leverage the people have never had.
The threat of a vote in two and four years just isn’t enough, but taking money out of the pockets of the greedy always works. Congress will scramble to keep what’s left in the pockets of those who got them elected. They’ll pass legislation to defund unemployment, Social Security benefits and the Affordable Care Act (which they already intended), but we will show resolve, sacrificing things we take for granted.
We’ll buy solar panels to charge our devices or get rid of our devices altogether. We won’t pay for electricity or food. We’ll create both. We’ll stop paying for water and dig our own wells or pull it from rivers and streams and make it potable. We’ll shit in buckets and use it in our organic gardens. We’ll stop paying for fuel and start riding bicycles. We’ll give up our homes and live together in public spaces, and this time we won’t leave when militarized police attempt to “clean the park.”
Revolution requires sacrifice, but I fear the average, angry American is unwilling to do so. Prove me wrong. Revolt! Please revolt? Pretty please.
