The Best Among Us
Posted on Sep 29, 2011
AP / Louis Lanzano Protesters pass Federal Hall on Wall Street in a recent march. The Occupy Wall Street protest is entering its third week in New York City as demonstrators continue to speak out against corporate greed and social inequality.
By Chris Hedges
Editor’s note: Chris Hedges’ weekly columns usually appear here on Monday mornings, but Truthdig posted this week’s edition early, on Thursday, Sept. 29, in the wake of controversy about the pepper-spraying of participants in the Occupy Wall Street protest.
There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave.
You can tell a lot about the power of a narrative by measuring the resources devoted to opposing, discrediting or suppressing it.
There is only one single way to really make a difference and take back America; and that is simply by working within the established system! There is NO other viably sustainable, nor morally acceptable method! "Banging on the door of the home" from the outside with the desired intent to change the furniture or appliances within the interior of the house will only be ignored by the current inhabitants inside the home, or get you arrested for trespassing.BUT, working within the multi-century old, established and, mind you, still very best(that is currently available to the human species at this chrono-point in its sociopolitical and technoeconomic stage of civilizational development) system on Earth will allow individuals the opportunity to actually affect system-wide and sustainable changes that will last and permeate onward into the future, long after the "Changers" have passed on into eternity! So, the best practical way to alter the current socioeconomic status quo is to enter the political arena by seeking a local, state or national office AND by voting your preferences at the ballot boxes. No matter how well intentioned these protestors may be; they are truly spinning their wheels in the greater scheme of American and Global reality. That’s my brief take on this current situation!