A toolkit for the revolution

We yearn for a better world, a righteous world, but how to make it happen? It is terribly ambitious, daunting. Too much!

But all politics is local. Yes, it IS too ambitious to try and make a righteous world. So start small. Plant seeds. Create localized pockets of liberation. It has been said that all politics is local, and that is true. So if you want a righteous world, maybe start by working for a righteous community. Maybe “community” is to big and/or too abstract, and it is better to start by working for a righteous neighborhood.

Here is a terribly incomplete toolkit for such a mission-

Make friends with your neighbors! One of the hallmarks of our present society is the isolation of individuals. Talk with your neighbors. Invite them over for coffee, tea or barbecue. Identify common ideas and values. Break down barriers.

Reclaim the commons! Brainstorm projects that can make use of common areas, vacant lots, medians, etc in your neighborhood and use them for community gardens, street parties, etc. Do it with your neighbors.

Que viva la free shit! Find ways to share and give without seeking compensation. ORGANIZE a free market in your community where people can bring what they don't need and give it to people who do need it, where people can come and share knowledge and share skills. Circulate the rumor that money is shit and we can live in a loving and giving utopia if we really want it.

Divert the waste stream! Capitalism seeks to maximize consumption, and it does so in part by maximizing waste by such means as disposability and planned obsolescence. So we have landfills choking with crap while people live in want. Fuck that! With some creativity, you can find ways to divert that waste stream to productive purposes, keeping crud out of the landfills, helping your friends and neighbors, and sabotaging capitalism by reducing need and showing that many good things can be had for free. I take computers and monitors that are being obsoleted by businesses and schools, I load them with the wonderful anti-capitalist Linux operating system, and give them out to the community, for free. Net result? Computers stay out of landfills, folks get computers who would ordinarily be economically excluded from the virtual world, and I keep alive the rumor that WE CAN DO IT, and we can do it for free. Many organized groups are doing this. Food not Bombs takes produce that would otherwise be discarded, cooks it into healthy, tasty vegan meals, and gives it out in public to any and all who want it (along with subversive literature ;-) ). Food not Lawns organizes people to permaculture their yards and common areas into productive, perennial food forests. Get the book, Food not Lawns, by Heather Flores and find out how you can use guerilla gardening to grow a conscious community along with your vegetables.

Practice consensus with those who you work with. We are taught that “democratic process” is the be-all , end-all, but it is a cultural artifact and a divisive one, a process where “majority rule” makes a world of winners and losers. As does our economic system. Go to www.foodnotbombs.net to get a good book on consensus process.

Forget the politicians. We can do this. We are the ONLY ones who can. Remember what Emiliano Zapata said about leaders and politicians -

“ We all look for leaders, strong men without faults. But there are no such men. There is only ourselfs.”