Talking of this always makes me think of this Lew Welch quote, which I came across via Gary Snyder: "We remain alert so as not to get run down, but it turns out you only have to
hop a few feet to one side and the whole huge machinery rolls by, not seeing you at
all. "
Yes, this is how it seems to me too. I feel like the population is being managed by people who have great insight into what the public's tolerances are and not always for the public good (to put it mildly). This is a tough question, especially without a great view of the map, so to speak. At this point, what tools do the public have to effect change in both government and in business? I suppose that people could stop working AND stop paying taxes, but that puts the public in a vulnerable position too. To extend the lines a bit, the most effective thing might be to remove the public altogether, since they are the source of labor that generates income for two groups that at the moment, seem bent on destroying their relationships with the public. Of course, this is not practical either and in fact, the portion of the population that is leaving, is causing some problems. In my former field, (TEFL) there was such an influx of new teachers who had just graduated from college in 2010, that they drove the wages down across the board for TEFL and CELTA people in Vietnam. Some of those assholes were taking on kids classes for $7 an hour. For context, I used to teach kids classes for no less than $17.50 an hour. The question is, where to hop without stepping on other people's toes, or sweeping through like a cloud of locusts? I do think that there are peaceful and positive solutions, but peace and positivity take hard work. It may be that this confluence of issues might galvanize people into trying new things. I haven't really read much Gary Snyder, or Lew Welch. What would you recommend by them?This relates to how I feel about all available forms of protest, that they have essentially been co-opted, invited to become a part of the spectacle, a venting of outrage in a context wherein meaningful change has already been taken off the table. It's like the bleeding off of steam, releasing force outside of the machine so it can't have any internal consequences.
This all invites us, though, to the real pressing question: what avenues remain open to us for meaningful change? What, if anything, can we do about it? I'm looking for peaceful, positive actions here. Perhaps removing one's self from the equation is the only alternative.