Regime Change in America
A constant chorus of calls for regime change in Iran, Syria, Venezuela and North Korea weaves its way through American political dialogue. Yet in the past few years it has become obvious to anyone living outside the Washington beltway that the most sweeping mother of all regime changes needs to happen in America itself.
The country’s great experiment in freedom and democracy has run aground. Dollars have long trumped ideals and the halls of Congress are rife with corruption. The system of checks and balances has been compromised by corporate lobbyists who must scrutinize and vet every piece of major legislation before it can be voted into law. On the surface, things seem fine: Spectacular election campaigns reignite hope and usher in change; passionate debates unfold every day on CNN and FOX; and millions of people seem politically energized, launching cyber campaigns 24/7. In many ways, America’s two-party system seems to be thriving, offering substantive philosophical and policy choices. Yet teeming just beneath the surface is the truth:
Big Banks, Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Food have the power … And every congressman and senator must feed at the corporate trough.
Only the rise of a mythical “third party” can save America now. The Tea Party movement is a promising start, but it must find a counterpoint – the birth of a radical Coffee Party movement on the left. Then America will be poised on the brink of an historic political power shift. As the planet heats up and our global systems approach their terminal tipping point, people in each movement will wake up to the fact that, in essence, they are both dreaming the same dream, fighting the same fight. Opposing views will synthesize into one powerful voice, one unified movement screaming for radical freedom, radical democracy and a future we can all believe in. Once this synthesis kicks in – maybe as soon as 2013 – we’ll see the first rumblings of true regime change in America.
—Kalle Lasn
56 comments on the article “Regime Change in America”
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Anonymous
Call me a cynic, but getting through our trying times may NOT require a political solution. After all, the thinking that got us here won't be able to get us out.
Face facts, the United States of America has had (and may continue to still have) a great period of prosperity. I know many who have enjoyed this prosperity with eyes open, and more with eyes shut.
Many, both inside and outside the boarders, believe that this enjoyment has been possible without the common citizen paying the real price. Perhaps these critics have not considered the apathy and ignorance of the average citizen to be the price?
Another reactionary political party--the Coffee Party (seriously?)--is probably not going to get the average political rep from feeding from the "corporate trough", nor may it truly do anything more than split an actual innovative initiative.
Consider looking at democratic nations with viable multi-party representatives and platforms. Find me such a nation with greater confidence and strength than the United States. I would even settle for equal. Yet, how do you measure "confidence" and "strength"? Perhaps by the rights outlined in the Consititution? The song by The Clash, "Know your Rights" may be too telling, but I am a sucker for their hooks.
Still, to quote Churchill, "Democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all the others."
Let us keep the dialogue going. Let us continue to ask probing questions. Let us not settle for sound-bite answers.
Anonymous
Call me a cynic, but getting through our trying times may NOT require a political solution. After all, the thinking that got us here won't be able to get us out.
Face facts, the United States of America has had (and may continue to still have) a great period of prosperity. I know many who have enjoyed this prosperity with eyes open, and more with eyes shut.
Many, both inside and outside the boarders, believe that this enjoyment has been possible without the common citizen paying the real price. Perhaps these critics have not considered the apathy and ignorance of the average citizen to be the price?
Another reactionary political party--the Coffee Party (seriously?)--is probably not going to get the average political rep from feeding from the "corporate trough", nor may it truly do anything more than split an actual innovative initiative.
Consider looking at democratic nations with viable multi-party representatives and platforms. Find me such a nation with greater confidence and strength than the United States. I would even settle for equal. Yet, how do you measure "confidence" and "strength"? Perhaps by the rights outlined in the Consititution? The song by The Clash, "Know your Rights" may be too telling, but I am a sucker for their hooks.
Still, to quote Churchill, "Democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all the others."
Let us keep the dialogue going. Let us continue to ask probing questions. Let us not settle for sound-bite answers.
mark montgomery
tea party movement?
lo siento adbusters, no mas.
mark montgomery
tea party movement?
lo siento adbusters, no mas.
Anonymous
For a real change one needs to face the structures of power first. They can be found in our monetary system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8p0zwraodU
http://www.webinformation.at/material/debtmoney.pdf
Anonymous
For a real change one needs to face the structures of power first. They can be found in our monetary system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8p0zwraodU
http://www.webinformation.at/material/debtmoney.pdf
David Bedicz
Dear Kalle,
The government is definitely operated by a "behind the scenes" strategy they mask with what they call a president. This way, they can still call it democracy for the people of the population to believe in and call it an open "free market" for those who blindly support the behind the scenes.
How does this get fixed? How do we get to a point where humans, social interaction and life are all respected with the same sacredness?
When and how do we as a community reach that place where humans live symbiotically with each other and this planet?
...The exact same time we decide to choose the right course of action.
What is the right course of action?
It's not blame.
It's responsibility.
We can choose to do the right thing. And trust me it's time. No nukes. No war. No Panic. No end of the world. Just a change.
It's time to do what's best for nature and thusly for ourselves, our psyche and all life as we know it.
Do you remember when we lived in nature? It was less complicated. It was simple but enlightened. It's not caveman. We shared a scared bond with this planet.
What's best for this planet is best for all life and subsequently, us.
We need to shut everything off in a piecemeal-style so we can return to nature. We lived for thousands of years without electricity but one day someone told us we needed it.
What do we really need? ...........Nature. The true essence of being.
love truth balance
David Bedicz
Dear Kalle,
The government is definitely operated by a "behind the scenes" strategy they mask with what they call a president. This way, they can still call it democracy for the people of the population to believe in and call it an open "free market" for those who blindly support the behind the scenes.
How does this get fixed? How do we get to a point where humans, social interaction and life are all respected with the same sacredness?
When and how do we as a community reach that place where humans live symbiotically with each other and this planet?
...The exact same time we decide to choose the right course of action.
What is the right course of action?
It's not blame.
It's responsibility.
We can choose to do the right thing. And trust me it's time. No nukes. No war. No Panic. No end of the world. Just a change.
It's time to do what's best for nature and thusly for ourselves, our psyche and all life as we know it.
Do you remember when we lived in nature? It was less complicated. It was simple but enlightened. It's not caveman. We shared a scared bond with this planet.
What's best for this planet is best for all life and subsequently, us.
We need to shut everything off in a piecemeal-style so we can return to nature. We lived for thousands of years without electricity but one day someone told us we needed it.
What do we really need? ...........Nature. The true essence of being.
love truth balance
Anonymous
David, you have given nothing but quasi-passionate rhetoric. You have suggested nothing feasable, you have offered no plan. Do you really think, as you read this from yr computer, that letting go of electricity is something the general public is consciously capable of? What you fail to understand is what probably needs to happen is to force such a situation upon the public, but at that point you get the label terrorist and find yrself either dead or wishing you were or, maybe you are successful, however, and most importantly, you have done nothing.
What everyone around me fails to realize is that their attempts are completely futile when devoid of an actual committed plan that is actually enacted. We sit here throwing desperate lies we think are reasonable but they don't actually ask anyone to do anything.
This article makes an interesting shift of perspective for me, sort of actualizing the notion that we have no control of our politics (so long as we pay our taxes) we complain and piss and main and all we get is gree capitalism and oil spills - yet, i still see cars every fucking day...
If you don't like it, drop it out. Maybe when you are lost in yr nature you will have the clarity to come up with something to make yr dreams come true. Recognize what you envision is not reality anymore for a reason. Recognize that the internet is a misleading box of wonder, take yr passion to the streets, to their walls, to their ears.
Do something real.
Thank you for envisioning something other than this and for trying, but please, wake up.
Anonymous
David, you have given nothing but quasi-passionate rhetoric. You have suggested nothing feasable, you have offered no plan. Do you really think, as you read this from yr computer, that letting go of electricity is something the general public is consciously capable of? What you fail to understand is what probably needs to happen is to force such a situation upon the public, but at that point you get the label terrorist and find yrself either dead or wishing you were or, maybe you are successful, however, and most importantly, you have done nothing.
What everyone around me fails to realize is that their attempts are completely futile when devoid of an actual committed plan that is actually enacted. We sit here throwing desperate lies we think are reasonable but they don't actually ask anyone to do anything.
This article makes an interesting shift of perspective for me, sort of actualizing the notion that we have no control of our politics (so long as we pay our taxes) we complain and piss and main and all we get is gree capitalism and oil spills - yet, i still see cars every fucking day...
If you don't like it, drop it out. Maybe when you are lost in yr nature you will have the clarity to come up with something to make yr dreams come true. Recognize what you envision is not reality anymore for a reason. Recognize that the internet is a misleading box of wonder, take yr passion to the streets, to their walls, to their ears.
Do something real.
Thank you for envisioning something other than this and for trying, but please, wake up.
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