Resist the Trump Regime
Five weapons of Mass Peace Making..
The energy signal of people who long for a fight.
Around 2000 I played a role in a huge weeklong LARP adventure, I had helped to co-create. Towards the end, everyone wanted a big battle. As a peacemaker I failed, of course, to change the course of the general energy: “We’re going to get all of them!” Now in a role playing game that’s okay. My loss, yes the big battle did happen, was part of the drama, of playful death and mayhem. This “we want to get violent towards ‘them’.” is a special energy that one can feel. I feel it again. And this time, it’s not a game.
This energy of ‘Let’s go get them!’ goes around a lot in the real world. Between gangs, communities, believes and states. It went around Europe right before WWI, when war was, still generally thought, a thing to be heroic in. After millions of young lives that were stupidly lost on inhuman (read very human made) battlefields, that feeling was gone. But it returned with Hitler’s Germany in the mood of the ‘soon to be victors’ , which turned many normal people into killers. It went around the world was when the Americans were going to war in both Iraq and Afghanistan to have their 9/11 revenge (read access to oil and opium, but then the general audience still believed in all the invented ‘right’ reasons.) Once the conviction is there, the energy must burst. And stopping madmen, by deflating the balloon of aggression, by not playing their game, is harder than joining them.
That I feel this energy is rising is worrying. That a small group of very corrupt politicians and corporate superrich seem to get away with it, is worrying. And it feels very much like, that if they get away with one thing (like not getting punished for the Wall Street crash) then try the next thing to get away with. We have now passed the level of donors being blatantly open about buying politicians to further the interests of the super rich, the oil and arms industry. We have Warhawks trying to convince Donald more war in Syria and more confrontation with Russia is good for.. what? Certainly not for all people in between or world peace.
The Danger of a new Totalitarian State
If it doesn’t excalate conflicts around the world, then it may start a totalitarian regime in the country (if it already isn’t) with the biggest army in the world, and a huge part of the population, mostly white, who believe this is a good thing. They feel the need to fight anyone they consider a possible dangerous ‘them’. Not realizing this: Whenever you dehumanize an enemy; you dehumanize yourself. In short, you turn yourself into a monster. And such monsters have an overdose of self justification, and if not enough there’s war movies, and propaganda media, like Fox. That’s the process that threatens to happen/is already happening. And there’s a shocking amount of people who believe the propaganda telling them it’s a great idea. There are millions who believe in the flag, in anger against protestors, in power as a means to solve issues (must be all those Hollywood action movies).
And the left, they have not yet found the best way to deal with it. Talking about peace makes you a coward and snowflakes inviting terrorists into the country. Fighting back makes the point they like to see: you are, just as they thought, the enemy within. Protesting makes you by now disruptors of the order. And finding inner peace is the hippie answer that only works within a safe bubble. It’s time for something completely different. Here are what I’ll call:
Five weapons of Mass Peace Making.
1. Facts and Truth.
It may not help much, but the right winged people just as much lose their freedom, as the left. Marching with a ‘leader’ doesn’t make you free. It makes you a soldier or errand boy. If only being a soldier gets you out of poverty, you should wonder, if you’re not fighting for those that created that poverty. If the rich have shiny palaces, why fight for them? To protect their palaces, or should you more worry about the lack of clean water in your own community? Lack of schools. Lack of health care for your family. Here are is a link to an article that just sums up, many of the scams being pulled against the American people. Even if only 1/3 of that was true, you’d still be shocked.
Or show what does work as alternative. Make those visible. Bring them along for a visit. Many people fear strangers, only through stories, until they meet some very nice ones. Then their ideas changes.
2. Nonviolent Resistance.
Watch Selma to get an idea. How to prepare. What it may entail. What you may be up against. Understand that the huge majority of people doesn’t like to see people they can identify with beaten up, or punished harshly for speaking out. They don’t like to see people acting like monsters against normal acting citizens. That’s the power of it. You don’t play their game. This method started with Gandhi chasing the British out of India without weapons or violence. And with activating the masses for a cause. It helped Nelson Mandela end Apartheid, ..from prison.
3. Humor.
This is another version of not playing their game. The 3rd way means moving out from in between the poles everyone is caught in. Indeed. They can attack what they understand. By not playing their game; move flexible around issues. Discover guerrilla tactics of the mind. Make fun (of them), in ways they can’t be angry about. For this you must also make fun of yourself. Perhaps make life a party, and live the freedom they claim to protect. Show it’s already there. Take the wind out of their storm. One may be surrender, complete with white flags, with blue smileys. As a big signal: we don’t play your game.
Another 3rd way is to speak to someones heart and not to his stance or anger. Don’t go along with the mask he has put on, speak to the desires of the soul.
4. Act towards own.
I don’t mean inner peace, that too, but I put the focus on something else. Moral leadership. By punishing and taking out war mongers, madmen, war criminals in your own ranks, you show moral leadership. And you help deescalate towards other nations, that are arming out of fear. The overwhelming majority of people on this planet want to live in peace. The peoples in all those ‘terrible’ countries may hate their own leaders, but probably fear Trump and friends more. But if Trump was taken down, and some of his war mongers as well; then these populations can more easily consider if they would have that same power too; to take out their own monsters.
It’s not about ideology, or what side you’re on. This is another 3rd way concept. Whomever read Victor Frankl’s ‘Meaning of Men’, of his time in a Nazi Concentration Camp can understand this. There were good people among the guardians who tried to be as easy and humane as possible in terrible conditions. And there were monsters among the inmates, who killed and stole, for their own survival, or acted out their hate and pain on their fellows. It’s never about ‘right or left’ or ‘Us or Them’ It’s about choosing to show and act from your humanity within whatever your conviction and your intention. We all can be Monsters. Or choose to be Angels.
5. Believe you will win.
Because we will. It may take years, may cost, suffering may/will happen. Yet, on average, world history tends to favor peace. Currently (let’s hope and work it stays that way) there’s less war then ever on the planet. The amount of military per citizen is declining. One thing one can worry about is that the lack of people who experienced unjust war from close up is declining as well. So young boys can believe that it’s all glory, heroics and bravery for the country again. Often way too many need to die, before the masses realize that is a lie. Many victorious soldiers come home with trauma’s too. Many families of victorious armies lose relatives too. And the real spoils of war, only benefit the corporations that got the resources, or sold the arms for it. We all pay.
Working for peace is actually what it contains to be civilized. Just consider. If one crazy guy with a gun can disturb a whole populations with one attack, then how many civilians are needed to keep the peace when things like that happen? That amount is a huge majority. Don’t forget that. Only fear can you make lose track of that majority. Only fear does make people lie about where they stand. But if you in secret make jokes, those that laugh, might be on your side. And like the Berlin wall, with enough pressure, can a population move mountains. #metoo did the women speak up about abusive men. Perhaps a #nolonger can help everyone to speak up against misuse of power, secret pressure to lie, cheat for bosses, and or donor interests, etc.
And read here, how being part of a Gentle Revolution, can feel very rewarding.
Links
Here’s some Gently Revolt articles by me that may help. About finding Social Courage, about becoming the Solution, about helpful attitudes, about dealing with fake media, about change through chaos, about Foolkido, which has more ideas about this. And here some Swarming articles that may help understand and organize leaderless movements.
Earlier articles of mine that speak towards this situation: Our leaders are not our leaders anymore. See how little general rules apply to them. The Roman Empire still Rules. Discover how little advanced our civilization really is, despite technological jumps. Goodbye Democracy and Capitalism. About how our current culture is high jacked by psychopaths, who make you think, behaving like them will get you ahead, and how that endangers our planet as a whole.
Other Links: to help act: here’s a list of over 180 methods, regarding non violent resistance. “Blueprint for Revolution” by Sdrja Popovic is a Good Book, to read now. This guy helped overthrow Milosevic in Serbia, with many Eastern European revolutions and even with the Arabic Spring, before it went sour.
And if you Google, there’s many more.
Note: I re-edited the text to update it to current events. This was part of the first version. And now Trump (see video) wants his own private, read corporate, secret service, run by Blackwater people, the worst mercenaries in the world, to do whatever they deem right, read profitable, or protect his power. And when he gets it, in many other countries dangerous madmen will think, “Hey, if he gets away with it, so can I.” Because the moral leadership in the world often gets followers who think,” this is how it works to be most powerful, let’s be more like him.”
