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We are the 99 percent

a unified theory of revolution

Posted 8 years ago on Nov. 16, 2015, 2:49 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: Micah White, The End of Protest, Innovation

What I want to present is a counter-narrative about activism. It begins with Occupy Wall Street and realizing that Occupy was the consummation of our story of activism. There is a story of activism that we tell ourselves which is basically: if you can build a social movement with millions of people and they are largely nonviolent, that the movement cuts across demographics and has people from all over the country and different socioeconomic levels, and that the movement has a somewhat unified message then real change will happen.

So we had that with Occupy Wall Street. We had a once in a generation social movement that achieved a lot of the criteria of what is supposed to create social change. And we realized, in fact, that the story of activism wasn’t true. Occupy Wall Street didn’t create the social change that it set out to achieve.

I call Occupy Wall Street a “constructive failure.” It failed. But in failing, the movement revealed something very important about activism: it revealed that activists have been chasing an illusion. We’ve been chasing a story about how social change happens that isn’t actually true.

So if you look at the last fifteen years. We’ve been having the largest protests in human history and yet they haven’t been creating change. There was recently a protest in India with 150 million people, and in 2003—and this is probably the best example to refer to—we had a global synchronized march where the entire world protested against the Iraq War, which happened anyways. And of course, we have Occupy Wall Street.

The failure of these protests reveals that the story we’ve been telling ourselves and chasing after as activists isn’t true.

And I’ve been thinking about this and writing a book called THE END OF PROTEST.

Now the end of protest doesn’t mean we have an absence of protest. Instead, the end of protest means we have a proliferation of ineffective protests. Protests as it was originally intended to be—something that changes the social situation in which we live—doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

So what’s our way out of this?

Revolution basically means a change in legal regime. It is when you make something that was once illegal legal or what was legal illegal. With Occupy Wall Street we wanted to change the law around money in politics. We wanted to make something that is legal—corporations and unions giving unlimited money to candidates into something that is illegal. This is a kind of revolution.

Now revolution is the interaction between the human and the natural world.

And almost all activism falls into the category of voluntarism. Voluntarism is the belief that human action creates social change. Activists do actions because we believe our actions are what creates change. Voluntarists believe revolution is a human process that intersections with the material world. That is the most common understanding of activism and it is why people organize protests. Because the idea is that to change something humans need to act.

Well, there is another option. It is called structuralism. This is the idea that revolution is a natural process that doesn’t involve humans at all. It is a natural phenomenon that is the result of, for example, food prices. And there have been studies that have shown that the Arab Spring and Occupy coincided with historically high food prices. And those food prices were the result of climate change. Therefore, revolution is actually the result of natural phenomenon and that it doesn’t involve human action. So you don’t need to organize protests because revolutions just happen without intervention of humans.

There is a third option: subjectivism. This is the idea that revolution is a human process that doesn’t involve the material realm at all. Revolution is a change of mind. Subjectivists believe that if you want to change reality then change how you perceive reality. In this kind of activism, we would all just meditate. We’d change our inner reality to influence external reality.

And then there is the fourth possibility: theurgy. Theurgists believe that revolution does not involve humans and is also a spiritual, or supernatural, phenomenon. This is the idea that revolution is an act of God and that it is an intervention of divine forces into our political reality. This, of course, is the hardest for contemporary activists to think about. What would it mean? God is creating revolutions? So I’ll just give you one example: the conquest of Christianity.

How is that Christianity which was persecuted for three hundred years, and christians were killed in front of cheering crowds, ultimately conquered and became the dominant religion of the Western world? Well it was two spiritual conversations. The first: St. Paul. But the second, and most significantly, of Constantine.

I’ll just briefly summarize that Constantine was going to battle against a rival emperor in Rome when at noon on the eve of the battle he saw a cross in the sky. Apparently his whole army saw the cross too. And that night he dreamt that he talked to Jesus and Jesus told him that he would win the battle. And he did. He won the battle and promptly converted to Christianity and that’s why Christianity won. It was an example of a divine intervention in his eyes.

Right now, Activism needs fundamental reorientation in the way we think about activism. We have the break the script, the storyline that we’ve been telling ourselves about activism. And that it involves opening ourselves these these four ways of thinking about activism, social change and protest.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Micah White, speaking at IDEAS CITY 2015 in New York City. Micah is the author of THE END OF PROTEST: A NEW PLAYBOOK FOR REVOLUTION.

59 Comments

59 Comments


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[-] 4 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

''Democratic Socialism in the United States'', by Sen. Bernie Sanders - a fantastic Pro-99% speech:

The video is a definitive exposition of the history & necessity for the collective good of US ''Society'' past and present. Please don't be ''anti-social''! Are we all our brothers' and sisters' keepers? Errrrrrrr ... YES!!

IF u post here or read here - u care about The 99% ipso facto & so, you owe it to yourself to watch this, & then either ask yourself what it is you don't agree with & why OR share this with people. As he says..

''Let me define for you, simply and straightforwardly, what democratic socialism means to me. It builds on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said when he fought for guaranteed economic rights for all Americans. And it builds on what Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1968, when he stated that, "This country has socialism for the rich, and rugged individualism for the poor." It builds on the success of many other countries around the world that have done a far better job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the poor.''..

.. while enriching & liberating ALL The People In Society! Let Love and Compassion be Society's ethos, for a ''Political Revolution'' that is both possible and long overdue and the 0.01%/1%/10% know this too!

This is a Must Watch / Listen / Read, from Bernie Sanders for all OccupyWS supporters & US Citizens, who need to STOP being MSMind-Managed into voting for 0.01%/1%'s best interests, against their own!

respice; adspice; prospice ...

[-] 3 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

I'm not giving 90- minutes to a man that supports air strikes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdz5kCaCRFM

[-] 3 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

Re. The US War Machine .. you are right to point that out about Bernie Sanders but I don't know anyone with any chance of flicking a switch and turning that off over-night. It's a mere 5 months to the HRC / BS showdown & less than a year before The General Election for PotUS - but perhaps Bernie can turn down the dial of the the ever eager US-MIC, IF he were to get into The Oval Office? I'm not sure but I will live in hope for a li'l while longer .. yet again!! I still recommend that video in my previous reply tho' and also fyi:

spero meliora ...

[-] 4 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

halt airstrikes and US weapons exports now

no claims the US attacks are out of control

[-] 2 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

weapons go in violence comes out

[-] 6 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

''W.M.D.''

~-~-~-~-~

Words Matter Deeply - so now

We Must Define them & thus ...

"Weapons of Mass Destruction",

We May Describe better as ... ...

''Words for Massive Distraction'' !!

~

We Must Denounce all the many

Workers of Mesmeric Delusions,

Who Manage Dreams & illusions.

We Must Defy their multitude of

Ways for Multiple Deception.

~

Wordsmiths of Mass Dishonesty &

Words of Mania & of Depression to

Wield Mendacious Duplicity, and

Wreak Murder and Darkness - all ..

Whilst Mothers do Despair.

~

We Must Decide ... and

We Must Declare & the

Women Must Decry ...

What the Men Defile, as ...

What 'Mankind' Discerns is

...

WAR - MEANS - DEATH !!!

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

fiat lux; fiat justitia; fiat pax ...

[-] 4 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

''In America, there is a long-standing tradition of whitewashing the past. History in this country is taught as if only people whose skin was white contributed significantly to America. One of the major reasons why many find the concept of a “white history month” asinine is because in all months save February American history is told from a white perspective. It is the fact of euro-centrism that demands the need for Black History Month in February and Native American Heritage Month in November.

''This euro-centrism seduces us into thinking that Thanksgiving should be celebrated because the Pilgrims were able to survive so that they were able to found America. This is a deeply problematic notion. It completely devalues the contributions made by the Wampanoag, and turns a blind eye to the suffering visited upon millions of native people in the wake of that first Thanksgiving.

''Let’s be honest: every year on the last Thursday of November, we celebrate the beginning of a European invasion that ends with the death or relocation of millions of native people. While many have tried to redefine the meaning of Thanksgiving into a time when we cultivate a sense of gratitude, the undeniable truth is that the blood of native people stains the genesis of the holiday.'' from ...

''Let us be mindful of all oppressed people during this holiday — especially those who are economically marginalized. In the same way that Thanksgiving Day has been coopted by powerful colonial forces, powerful economic forces have commoditized the night.

''Let us honor those who were marginalized by colonization by standing in solidarity with those who are marginalized by capitalism. Across this country, workers who do not make a living, saving wage will stand up for their rights on Black Friday. Let’s stand with them. Find a protest near you.''

respice; adspice; prospice ...

[-] 4 points by Viking (417) 8 years ago

To me, this is a very accurate history of the Middle East. It's sad to think that most Americans seem to be oblivious to this truth.

We're well on our way to becoming an immoral society.

Forget ISIS: Humanity is at Stake

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/27/forget-isis-humanity-stake

[-] 4 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

''Who is next? No one really knows. We keep telling ourselves that 'it is just a transition' and ‘all will be well once the dust has settled’. But the Russians, the Americans and everyone else continue bombing, each insisting that they are bombing the right people for the right reason while, on the ground, everyone is shooting at whoever they deem the enemy, the terrorist, a designation that is often redefined.Yet few speak out to recognize our shared humanity and victimhood.

''No - do not always expect the initials ''ISIS'' to offer an explanation for all that goes wrong. Those who orchestrated the war on Iraq and those feeding the war in Syria and arming Israel cannot be vindicated.

''The crux of the matter: we either live in dignity together or continue to perish alone - warring tribes and grief-stricken nations. This is not just about indiscriminate bombing - our humanity, in fact, the future of the human race is at stake.''

Those three paragraphs above is how your very powerful and well written (as Matt attests) - linked article [ http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/27/forget-isis-humanity-stake ]- ends. It is a very moving read but alas such articles seldom actually appear in the Western Mainstream Corporate Press - for our heavily mind-managed, indoctrinated and thus, prejudiced - fellow citizens to see. In compliment of your reply and link, please consider:

fiat pax ...

[-] 2 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

where leaders do not pose as divinities and relish the endless arsenals of their western benefactors.

terrorist Paris attacks may not be ISS

not as defined bu people in syria and iraq

good writing

[-] 0 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Is a moral society supposed to destroy cultural and artistic relics such as the Taliban's destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan? Oh, yes, this started before 9/11/2001 attacks alright. In fact, the World Trade Center in New York was bombed very much before 9/11, in early 1993 shortly after the presidential inauguration.

ISIS only carried this destructive practice in some cases a little bit better by selling the cultural and artistic relics (destined for destruction anyway as idols; they bombed and chiseled away the really immobile big pieces) for cash. ISIS was a financial innovator (in the same way as our too-big-to-fail banks propped up with the U.S. [Non-]Federal [No-]Reserve's Operation Transfinite Credit) , the harbinger of a new moral Golden Age of Sharia so let us forget about ISIS and let the Middle Easterners enjoy their Sharia in the freedom and peace of Allah. Salaam.

[-] 2 points by Viking (417) 8 years ago

The pillaging of their resources.... our support of cruel, despotic leaders and the subjugation of the people in the Middle East by the West started generations before 1993. It should not be surprising to you that chaos and fanaticism surfaced during, and in the aftermath of us destroying their society. For you to put your self righteous, neocon critique on them while your belly is full is pompous and asinine.

[-] 2 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

it takes resource to travel

desperate people act in the area they are in

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Yes, things happened long before 1993. The European settlers fought the original Americans over land. I can certainly imagine that long long time ago in the Stone Age people fought over the control of flint mines necessary for making cutlery and weapons.

Crude oil was a nuisance pollutant to wells drilled for water (whale oil being superior for lighting) but many recent wars were actually fought over crude sources. No one is fighting over flint mines anymore. What is resource is RELATIVE to the technology. Ownership of the physical resource does not make it a resource. For example, I cannot fly in an airplane to meet Matt in California with no matter how much crude oil. What makes something a resource is not only the physical things but the imagination, the human labor, the capability, the technology, the infrastructure, etc.

Far too many still "undeveloped" countries' people still have not gotten their heads wrapped around this question of why the West is well off. If I tell you that I eat chicken feathers for protein you would probably laugh but the chicken breast on my dinner plate got some of its protein from feathers. Freedom to imagine and freedom to act when coupled with the drive to improve made the West well off. The formula has already been proven to be exportable and replicated elsewhere.

The sand in Wisconsin has become valuable resources for the folks hydrofracking so sand has become oil and natural gas. I may have to fight for my chicken feather protein if industries start using the feathers to make battery electrodes. Do you call fighting over chicken feathers and sand pillaging of resources?

Those electronic devices costing so much all have their brains made from beach-sand silicon. Silicon in the sand under your beach sandals is dirt cheap but silicon in those devices can be more expensive than gold. Why is that so? Is it because of exploitation? No. The number one rule is: Expunge "exploitation" from vocabulary - to throw away the mental crutches for blaming others.

[-] -1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

As for the destruction of their societies, the U.S. certainly hit Germany and Japan far harder but both have rebuilt to become well off. Destruction is not destiny. What comes after is far more important. The U.S. was so scared of these societies reverting to their sordid pasts that, to this very day, there are still huge number of U.S. troops stationed on their soils, (partly also to fight the Cold War). The U.S. held a strong and steady hand there for decades.

Contrasting that with countries in the Middle East, they were eager to get the U.S. out of their newly formed governments/countries. Yes, they have been quickly freed of U.S. "exploitations" but it is frankly, not a pretty sight there.

[-] 4 points by Viking (417) 8 years ago

I agree to a point. More accurately, I would say that 'successful imperialists' do not "withdraw their troops...," unless they can install and support their despotic leaders who can do the bidding for them, and look out for their interests. By not having to see our troops come home in body bags at Dover AF Base (like we did during the Vietnam War)....or seeing the horrible consequences of our aerial war, we have become stupefied. If we restart the draft, deploy more ground troops in the Middle East, and start seeing one of our loved ones becoming a casualty.... overnight many Americans will awaken. That scenario is not beneficial to the neocons though.

[-] 2 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

weapons to all sides of the conflict must cease

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

ISIS is the physical manifestation buttressed by a worldwide mind infestation of religious claim to lost glories and the call to jihad to give rebirth to a caliphate. The magnitude of it can be truly humongous because the Islamic faith dominates from North Africa, Middle East, South Asia, to Indonesia.

There are Billions of people who are potentially susceptible. Even 0.01% of that being activated to join ISIS means a vast army. ISIS is like a gang which has the religiously indoctrinated call on all brothers and sisters of the Islamic faith worldwide to help. Poke carefully.

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

I suppose that you are claiming that the U.S. failed as a successful imperialist so the U.S. should have marched to Baghdad and occupy Iraq indefinitely. I believe that Saddam Hussein was despotic enough. Don't you agree? Do you claim that the U.S. withdrew its troops to leave him there in charge to do our bidding and look out for our interests? Why did the U.S. march to Baghdad afterwards then?

Just about anybody else who could keep Iraq from lapsing into sectarian conflicts would have been better than Saddam but no one was available or capable so he was the BEST option, brutal but most average Iraqis were better off.

Later on, after the march to Baghdad had been completed, we saw the full implications of what it meant to break up a brutal dictatorship using an iron fist to stabilize the fractious Iraq. I surmise that the U.S. probably could not have imposed such an iron fist unless vast number of our troops were stationed there. Even before the march to Baghdad, the U.S. Army voiced grave doubts about stabilizing a country of "25 millions" after its victory. I feel really sorry for the Shia uprising that was crushed by Saddam after the U.S. had withdrawn its troops after Desert Storm but unfortunately a second chance did not bring anything better than persistent sectarian wars.

My conclusion is that Iraq did not have the national consciousness to stay together as a single country so we can only treat the symptoms and hope to stabilize for the lesser of all evils.

[-] 0 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Do you know why ISIS has so far withstood the onslaughts of the U.S., Iraqi security force, Assad's Syrian Army, Quds, Shia militia, Free Syrian Army, al Qaeda, al Nusra, Peshmerga, Russia, France, etc.? It is a very long list, don't you think?

Figure that one out (using religious, cultural, and historical understandings) and stick to no-ground-combat-troops-there policy. Having few U.S. casualties is advantageous to the U.S. because lives matter. Furthermore, although victory has to be won on the ground, it is still eminently possible with the correct partner on the ground as having been proven before. This partner can also buttress the political regime that will stabilize the war-torn areas for the good of the people still there. Let me be clear, the U.S. has no appetite to occupy the other countries for long (definitely not like Germany or Japan, which were far worse in WWII). However, stability is definitely sought after because terrorism had long reached U.S. soil.

It is true that having no pain and no ugly sights make the drone killings psychologically easy to carry out, making anti-war movement impossible. Drone killings, strictly speaking, are not wars because the U.S. Congress did not declare wars. I do support the viewing of the grisly results of our tepid military actions. It is an important part of the feedback loop to the American people but beheading journalists and stifling the freedom of speech make that impossible so drones drone on, punctuated by boom, booms.

[-] 3 points by Viking (417) 8 years ago

Your purposeful twisted, obfuscating analogies lack logic... are disingenuous, and are designed to bring us into your neocon way of thinking. That worked well for you for a long time, though. I realize that.

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Game theory showed that there was a very simple non-losing strategy for competitive games. It was known for millennia if not longer. It has also safeguarded the world from nuclear war since the end of World War II. I am not neocon but I know how the game was played. Maybe in a few more decades, you will eventually figure it out. Good wines take quality and time.

[-] 3 points by Viking (417) 8 years ago

It sounds like that in your xenophobic mind, that you think we should stay the course, and continue bombing the crap out of anyone who might resist our imperial pursuits.

[-] 2 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

What other options do you propose? I'm all ears.

My lifetime experience with this sort of mental blackholes indicates that one has to realize first what one is spiraling into and take actions accordingly. Without realizing the approaching event horizon or somehow a miraculous godly intervention occurring, nothing can or will be saved.

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

What other options do you propose?

Jimmy Carter talked human rights rattling our allies and took cutting defense to heart and the U.S. was greatly humiliated by its military incompetence. It was really no surprise that U.S. embassy hostage rescue from Iran mission ended in rescue aircraft crashing into each other killing the would-be rescuers.

If you look at your local law enforcement, don't they carry weapons, ready to beat the crap out of everyone or shoot them at their back? That is how it works for all humans, isn't it? Russia infiltrated Ukraine to annex Crimea and fomented rebellions there. The U.S. did not exercise leadership and confront Russland so how did it turn out? The idiotic Russlanders greatly approve of Pootin's performance. I really don't like to see another bloody mess in Russland knowing how well their Rotation had turned out before but the approval has made the testosterone in the poo tin (our own mega-wiener did get this ignorantly wrong as puke tin, sorry!) grow by leaps and bounds. Just look at that male-pattern baldness - I bet that the chicks pine for this dude like flies and Viagra or Cialis does not exist in the medicine cabinet! "Men think between their legs" is a very ancient truth.

[-] 0 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Imperialists do NOT withdraw their troops after conquering a place. Bombs from the air are just substitutes for troops on the ground which have been withdrawn making any imperial pursuits impossible. There is a fundamental valuational difference of human lives between the U.S. and the Islamic world. No troops being on the ground saves U.S. lives in spite of huge amount of resources needed to make fighting remote war possible.

Things are actually much cleaner and better than days of old when whole divisions hurled themselves, after bombardments, at enemy territories killing many civilians. It is true that the drone warfare still causes collateral damage that it can improve upon through better and more reliable targeting and intelligence but that requires personnels on the ground defeating much point of the drone warfare reducing loss of lives. That may well change.

This is why I support admitting refugees. Valuation of human lives will increase and we can certainly use more people who can commit to the same ideal because they have experienced the worst of the "Old World." Of course, this does mean that they shall henceforth obey the laws of the "New World."

[-] 1 points by Viking (417) 8 years ago

Replying here. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to respond to your posts. I'll leave you to have the last word because debating you is not on the top of my to-do list.

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

"the blood of the native people stains the genesis of the holiday" is false. A more accurate statement may be "the blood of the mostly whites in the American Civil War stains the genesis of Thanksgiving as a national holiday."

Thanksgiving celebration was a proclamation by Lincoln in the very heated midst of the Civil War (about national unity under the strain of depraved slavery) of American states' unity and the dominance of the northern (Plimoth) origin of Manifest Destiny over the southern (Jamestown) one.

Although the origin is bloodstained, we can still rejoice in it in much the same way that Jesus's bloodstained crucifixion on the cross is still revered as a holy symbol in some churches.

Thanksgiving had a joyous origin earlier than the Civil War though. I like its earlier meaning of finding allies and friends in a seemingly God-forsaken land being joyous. It is the Grace of Divine Providence, analogous to the itty-bitty Hope fluttering out last from Pandora's box. We only grafted on the meaning of defeating and exploiting the original Americans later, in enforcing revisional political correctness.

I like the nearly total shutdown of commercial activities in decades past because it offered the peace and quiet for catching up academically before final examinations if one so wishes, as well as the hustle and bustle and catching up with relatives, too. Thanksgiving is Grace.

[-] 4 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

What?! How can you say even that - ''"the blood of the native people stains the genesis of the holiday" is false''?!! I put it to you, that ALL The Empirical Data shows that the indigenous people have been subject to a genocide, however do feel free to furnish me with proofs that this is somehow - wrong!!!

Yes,Thanksgiving as it's now known - is a product of Abraham Lincoln's real desire for a national mythos to engender a national ethos probably - but to state that "the blood of the mostly whites in the American Civil War stains the genesis of Thanksgiving as a national holiday" .. is just a bit much and you can rest assured most Americans don't think that and .. ''in a seemingly God-forsaken land'', to go on to say that .... ''We only grafted on the meaning of defeating and exploiting the original Americans later, in enforcing revisional political correctness'' - is beyond me, tbh! Beware divine permissions for Empire!!

Finally I can and do, agree that Thanksgiving should be a true break from ''commercial activities'' and the same should be true for ''Black Friday''! Americans deserve a break because they have the least number of Public Holidays of any modern country. To end .. even IF I do not totally agree that .. ''Thanksgiving is Grace'' .. I do nevertheless agree 'Giving Thanks' is graceful but "what for" is important too!

respice; adspice; prospice ...

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

I certainly agree that the original Americans experienced what the articulate Europeans called Ethnic Cleansing.

Damn what most Americans think whether whites' blood stains the genesis of Thanksgiving. I reiterate my right as an American breathing free to believe what I will. As for the defeating and exploiting the original Americans, there were wars, infiltrations, and (broken) treaties galore. Wars have consequences. Krieg leads to kriegen, although neither I nor my ancestors participated directly in the dispossession and genocides of the original Americans. We could at most be accused of purchasing stolen goods unwittingly.

If the original Americans wish to join the thanksgiving, celebrating the friendship and fellowship as allies, I welcome it. This land is your land. This land is my land. To all who yearn to breathe free and broke off the yokes of oppression of the "Old World," Welcome! The original Americans unconditionally qualify. Let the spirit of fellowship and brotherhood begin anew. May all that is born on Thanksgiving with Grace and Love be blessed forevermore!

[-] 3 points by ImNotMe (1488) 8 years ago

Errrr, ok then and an amen, I suppose! Thus, in the ''spirit'' of your reply ... please try to consider this ..

Further, with reference to your replies to me here: http://occupywallst.org/forum/everything-you-need-to-know-about-jewish-ritual-ch/#comment-1067652 ... I did read what you said - but I will not be giving that thread the oxygen of any further publicity as I said all that I wanted or could say on that matter to'turbo' already, so that will explain my lack of direct reply to you there.

I end by noting that the USA - born of refugees fleeing oppression and economic migrants, who engaged in a Revolutionary War of Independence, lead by intellectuals and then had a Civil War (purportedly) over Human Rights for all; seems to have{not so slowly!} morphed into a rather reactionary nation - where the ''intellect'' is suspect but pugnacious blowhards like DTrump are lionized!! It's sad, but it need not be like this for ever ... IF Americans will just learn to switch off The Idiot Box flickering in the corner of the room! Try the internet instead (you're here already after all :-) & stream this to your consciousness and heart...

per aspera ad astra ...

[-] 1 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

Nomadic Natives migrated in semi-arid drought punctuated CA

planted acorns for drought tolerant oak trees.

strained bitter acorns for food

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

I've learnt something new. It is another food source. I did wonder why squirrels love my land.

[-] 2 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

still an atheist

[-] 2 points by turbocharger (1756) 8 years ago

""And those food prices were the result of climate change."

Where on earth is this coming from?

[-] 2 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Superimpose a map of the trouble spots of the world on one showing where climate change has eroded the welfare of the inhabitants and you can see the excellent correlation. Of course, postulating a causal relationship requires more on-the-ground research but I B E L I E V E!

Marginal areas where climate change had the biggest impact: Fertile Crescent, Northern Africa, Eastern Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. We have the trouble spots of Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali.

California is also hit very badly by its five-year drought but it is not marginal so it has not lapsed into chaos. Connections make great differences and I tell you that the U.S. federal government WILL come to rescue California if need be. I feel the same way about that gigantic organ dangling down under with real cojones.

[-] 2 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

droughts are nothing usual for california and happen through out historty

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Modern California has tens of millions more people than many decades before so droughts can be very disconcerting. The sheer multitude can be a huge problem. The fortunate thing is that "Escaping from California" should be easier than "Escaping from Alcatraz" because California is connected to the mainland.

Southern California where you are is artificially propped up. Hence, its reverting to deserts can be traumatic.

[-] 1 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

the Pacific coast Navy base is in CA

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Yes, I worry that Hot Air can turn Sans De ego into "This Land is Your Land" 's diamond deserts with mushrooms in h-- air.

[-] 1 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

It's 50 F 10 C long hair keeps me warm

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Some people really need the nuclear power plants' cooling-tower style to keep their heads cool. You should be fine staying in Californica out of the reach of the ayatollah. Californica needs Samson's hair to stay strong.

[-] 1 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

Strong human coupling drive helps socially

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Absolutely, family units of all societies are based on that physical bonding. Genesis 2:18 - "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Copulation imbues the couple with the reproductive power of the first man, from which perfection, societies can spring forth.

I think God was trying too hard to improve on the perfection of the first man, already made in His image, to make man more like animals having mates. That led to the Problem.

[-] 1 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

physical attraction helps social bonds in groups

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Surely. Genesis 2:25 - "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."

[-] 2 points by beautifulworld (23767) 8 years ago

Please put the book down.

[-] 2 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

God's Words are captivating. You should read it, too.

[-] 2 points by beautifulworld (23767) 8 years ago

Those are the words some human wrote down, that is all.

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Words have power if people believe. The Bible, the Quran, the U.S. Constitution, the Magna Carta, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, etc. are all words some human wrote down. They are made real by believers, giving them the power.

[-] 2 points by beautifulworld (23767) 8 years ago

Knowledge sought, that is not sought with an open heart and with the best of intentions for all people, is not good knowledge. I don't care who wrote it, if it does harm to any group of people, it isn't worth s-ht.

[-] 1 points by turbocharger (1756) 8 years ago

Commodities are traded on a global scale. If that werent the case, then clearly OWS getting going because of rising sugar costs in Australia would make no sense at all, right?

[-] 2 points by grapes (5232) 8 years ago

Global linkages can be both good or bad depending on the situations of the linked parties. Macroscopic causality makes sense. Many trouble spots of the world suffer from low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia [hunger-induced starvation] on a large scale), lack of milk and honey (low serotonin levels), coital/sex-ratio inequality(excessive testosterone), and insufficient sex and orgasms (low oxytoxin levels).

IS jihadis want sex slaves. We also have mass murderers in the U.S. complaining about the lack of sexual partners. China's sex ratio with the excessive number of only children of male sex (who grew up being accustomed to getting their ways) and the South China Sea brinkmanship of the U.S. and China scare me. Food, cooperation, trade, love, warmth, and sex, drive human beings everywhere. What will an overlay of coital bliss with crimes and armed conflicts show? Maybe Islamic cultures suffer from too few wives with the up-to-four wives for the wealthy/powerful and 72 virgins in paradise for others. Coital inequality kills?

Bonobos are sex-pervasive and peaceful but chimpanzees are neither. Nordic cultures seem more bonobo-like and happy. The U.S. seems to be more chimpanzee-like with its highly religious sexual repressions blending with sexual hypocrisies enabled by the First Amendment.

Ultimately revolutions emerge from the intricate dances of the biological/chemical/physical molecules. Both objective reality and causality do not exist at the ultimate microscopic level, not because the laws of objective properties and of cause-and-effect no longer exist but because there is NO way to prove or disprove. The butterfly effect exists - Constantine's seeing the cross in the sun might be one case in which hexagonal ice crystals floated in the sky across the sun. What color is the electron (color is often considered an objective property)? How did it pass through that insurmountable barrier (indeterminate causality)?

[-] 2 points by emile (10) 8 years ago

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-02-02/cyclone-yasi-hits-australian-sugar-crops-price-advances-to-30-year-high

Cyclone Hits Australian Sugar as Global Prices Surge

Sugar cane plantations in Australia, the third-largest exporter, suffered severe damage after Tropical Cyclone Yasi cut through an area accounting for a third of output, helping send futures prices to a 30-year high.

“We are going to see a massive reduction in the amount of sugar that region produces,” Steve Greenwood, chief executive officer of Brisbane-based producers group Canegrowers said today on Bloomberg television.

Yasi, packing winds stronger than those from Hurricane Katrina, crossed overnight into northern Queensland, which also accounts for 85 percent of Australia’s banana output. The cyclone, which also hit the towns of Mission Beach, Tully and Innisfail, is moving inland toward Mt. Isa, where Xstrata Plc has begun evacuating staff at its copper and zinc operations.

Raw sugar for March delivery rose 4 percent to 35.31 cents per pound yesterday after earlier reaching 36.08 cents, the highest price for a most-active contract since November 1980.

[-] 4 points by beautifulworld (23767) 8 years ago

Americans absorb the higher price of everything by taking on more debt. Food price increases included, just like tuition, utilities, auto repairs, rent, gasoline, you name it. They sheepishly accept their economic tyranny and just take on more debt in order to survive, as their wages stagnate.

[-] 3 points by turbocharger (1756) 8 years ago

Here ya go:

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=sugar&months=180

Looks like it was pretty artificially inflated in 2011 to me.

[-] 2 points by MattHolck0 (3867) 8 years ago

I wear my NO WAR sweatshirt almost every day