Political thoughts from the past are surprisingly apropos
Posted By RichC on February 24, 2013
Every once in a while, actually a lot lately, someone will include something from the past in their books, articles or blog which reminds me of the challenges we face in becoming independent thinkers. A couple sailing friends of mine who have and are currently living a life out of the mainstream and shared a few thoughts back when they left the “hierarchical system” and headed down a different path (they are a few years older and wiser than me, but our thinking was very similar). Come to think about it, some of Mark’s political thoughts from the late 60’s and early 70’s seem very fitting for today?
Written in December 1973
“When a political and an economic system become corrupted, there are four possible sources of action available to a person. If the person is unaware of the corruption s/he will either be an open supporter of the system or will feel no need to criticize it, and, by implication, support it. On the other hand, if the person is aware of the corruption of the system s/he will either become an opponent of the system or will fall into cynicism with the attitude that ‘nothing can be done.’
In this day, those who fall into the first category of being ‘un-aware’ are few and far between. During the past ten years one would have had to a hermit in order not to know that our government, and indeed our whole economic system, is suffering from rather great faults. Ever since Roosevelt put a socialist cast on the failing legs of capitalism, the economy has needed one operation after another to keep it going. Every operation has helped to weaken the total system. Every organ replaced by an artificial one has meant a further restriction of our freedoms. There is little similarity between the aging monopolistic, centralist system of today and the small, decentralist, free enterprise system that was given birth by our ancestors.
. . . It is my belief that political power is in the hands of the people – whenever they choose to use it. Once the people refuse to support a political system, it dies. When workers refuse to give their lives and consumers refuse to do their purchasing according to the demands of an economic system, it dies. The ultimate in political opposition to an oppressive and unjust system is not to fight it (which only tends to make it stronger), but to refuse to recognize its existence, to totally withdraw support from it. Such a course of action makes it necessary for one to become almost entirely self-sufficient. All of those things which are produced by the organized society must either be produced by oneself, obtained through cooperative effort with one’s peers, or done without.
It is this course of thinking that has led me to the decision that I must terminate my position …” MORE from Tis a Gift to be Simple
Read the rest from Judy and Mark Handley’s recent blog posting.
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