Back to Gaffer's Philosophy
Archives.
The Gaffer's Philosophy:
Part 80: The Organization:
December 8, 2003:
In essay 79, I said we must get elected without special interests. Once in power we must change how things are done at all levels of government. All of this implies that we will have some kind of political organization with candidates. So, what I'm talking about, what we really need, is a political action group or organization. What kind of organization? For sure, not another party. Perot tried that and turned the idea of a third party into a very bad joke.
I have to be clear about this. What I am really talking about is a peaceful revolution, but a revolution nonetheless. The two party crap has degenerated into an unworkable comedy. What we need now is a coalition of nonpartisan superior people. This is more of a grass roots kind of organization. It should be an organization of people cooperating at the local level. I think we must keep it basic with many small groups of people. We do not want to fall into the convention trap where it becomes about back room deals and fixes. We do not need to have masses of silly true believers and brass bands to use as window dressing to hide what's really going on. We need a lot of people who can become part of the process, believe in human ethics, and work like heck to bring it off.
It sounds like I'm talking about young people who still have a sense of integrity and faith in their power to make changes. For sure, I am. Now a thoughtful reader will ask, not too politely, "Then, what the **** are you doing? How are you part of that?" I can only answer, I am an exception. I am an old person, perhaps an old fool, who still believes. They tried, but the could not beat it out of me. I'm an old man and I still believe. I am cynical as all get out, but underneath I still believe.
Most of the older people I know are not like me. In general, they are tired, bored, boring , disillusioned, and yes, lazy. In truth, I would not recruit most of the old people I know to do anything useful or in any way difficult. Most of them would not even try. They would give me some of the biggest BS rationalizations for not pitching in that you ever heard. The fact is, most of them have lost it. Some never had it. So, yes, I expect mostly young people to get into this, if anyone does. When I use the word we, that is the we I am talking about. I hope it's not just me and the mouse in my pocket.
As to the organization, our motives should be very, very clear. It's to take back the government. We can have no secrets in that regard. What and how we are doing is probably not going to be secret. We can communicate by e-mail. If we need secrecy for some reason, we can encrypt our communication. At this time, I cannot visualize a need for secrecy at any time. We should be clear that secrecy and subterfuge are some major government behaviors we hope to end.
I said we do not need conventions. In fact, we do not need large meetings of any kind. We need many small action groups communicating all of the time and perhaps a central coordinating and communication committee. We need many local organizations. I see these as action and discussion groups, but we must not get bogged down in discussion. That can become an excuse for inaction. We will also need someone to go between the groups and make sure of communications, call them travelers.
This organization needs to be completely outlined. It should not be totally defined by me, but I do need to fill in some of the details so people know what I am talking about. I see it as the task of the many communities to fill in the flesh of this organization. There will be questions of how candidates are selected and how the groups are organized to be answered. There will be many questions. I do not see it as my task to answer all of the questions or even to think them up. That is why we must have organization.
One thing I am sure we must do is declare candidates at all levels. That, after all, is the point. To take back the government, we must occupy the positions. We must run for office. We must run for all offices in all jurisdictions of America. To do that, we will need a lot of tough dedicated people. We need people in all corners of the country who can and will adhere to a philosophy of impeccable personal ethics. We need people who can deal with losing and not quit. To be sure, we won't win at first but we will get noticed and other people will come to us. They will come because they think we are true to our ethic. If they find we are not, they will quickly abandon us. That is as it should be.
In the meantime, we can keep working and talking. To be effective we have to keep talking about what we are. We can talk in taverns, town halls, grange halls, and auditoriums, anywhere that people will listen. For that we need motivational speakers all over the country. Our message, out theme, what we are selling is personal ethics with no expediency. That is the basis of our movement. We live our ethic and we demand it from others. We get our message out by speaking directly to other people. We can speak one on one, to small groups, and to large groups, whoever will listen.
If each of us does their part we will not need much in the way of funding. We will not be running expensive loud dishonest ads. We will not be bad mouthing other candidates. We will not be having massive rallies or expensive shindigs. Our message is about personal ethics and all of those political activities belie that. We will need some funding to pay filing fees and the like. Much of that can come from small personal input. As our message gets better reception, we can also get income from speaking engagements. Our message is, for all practical purposes, a motivational message. People will pay to hear that as our influence grows.
As to law, we can expect that many of us will be arrested and imprisoned. We will probably become political prisoners. That is part of the process. The charge will be sedition of one sort or another. It is really a measure of our success. It will not happen until we have become a threat to the thugs in power. They will ignore us as long as it is safe for them to do so.
The people with power will do their best to stop us. They must because they will know our intention is to destroy their power and make sure they never acquire it again. This does not mean killing them or even imprisoning them. It means rendering them ineffective through the application of just laws. Our goal is to restore the rule of law, restore the constitution, and restore our representative democracy. When we do, the political hacks will be powerless.
Once our organization is established, there will be those in politics who will come to us wishing to get in on it. We must look very, very hard at these people. In general, those who have been part of the problem should be excluded. Their thinking is corrupted. However, exclusion of ex-politicos cannot be a hard rule. Questions to ask are, "If you knew this needed to be done, why didn't you begin? Why did you play the game? Why did you wait for someone else to be at first risk?"
Some will answer honestly that they wanted to do some good. I can understand getting into the political scene with the misguided notion that one could do some good. I did so myself for a short time. I quickly realized that getting into the machine is not a way to fix it. The machine goes on. You simply get carried along. You are like a fart in a windstorm trying to stay together and control its own destination. It is the machine that must be replaced, don't you know. We cannot do that by becoming part of it. I got out when I realized that. It took only a short time. I believe, for the most part, those who stayed in were those who had acquired wealth or power or both. They became part of the problem.
Here are some of the things a peoples organization will need. We will need a symbol. I have thought about that and will continue to do so. We do not want to look like the thugs so we do not need a uniform even if it's only a silk suit with wing tip shoes, but we must be recognizable. Our symbol should do that for us. Along with an identity we also need a website. It should be simple, easy to understand and navigate. It should be about our message and what we are doing, nothing more. For security, we will need our own impregnable servers. We cannot depend on third party service providers for that. It's too important and too easy to invade.
Of course, we will need a name. Personal ethics should be part
of it or be implied in it, but it should not be cumbersome. That
is another item I am thinking about. Here are a couple of thoughts
I have had. Clearly this needs more thought.
Should we call it the Ethics committee?
The Ethics in Government Organization. TECO.
The Quixote Coalition.
Right now I tend to favor the simple name, Groundswell.
It's something to think about.
Back to Gaffer's Philosophy
Archives.
|
|
|
|