Occupying
America: book contents plus free sample, or scope out this video!
Table of
Contents
Chapter One
A Commentary On
Modern Revolutions ----------- page 3
Chapter Two
The Occupation
Chronicles ------------------------- page 27
Chapter Three
A Documentary
of a Broken System -------------- page 56
Chapter Four
Capitalist
Implosion: The Warning Signs ---------- page 94
Chapter Five
Class Warfare:
The Attack of The Elites On The 99%
---------------------------------------------------------
page 128
Chapter Six
Counterattack:
The Second US Civil War ------- page 168
Chapter Seven
Ways to Replace
a Broken System --------------- page 211
Chapter Eight
The United
States of America: Under New Management
---------------------------------------------------------
page 249
Book
Excerpt
Just
as in Europe, we are seeing the results of colossal social failure.
The occupiers are the very sort of people, brimming with ideas, whose
energies a healthy society would be marshaling to improve life for
everyone. Instead, they are using it to envision ways to bring the
whole system down. What we are witnessing
can also be seen as a demand to finally have a conversation we were
all supposed to have back in 2008. There was a moment, after the
near-collapse of the world's financial architecture, when anything
seemed possible.
Everything
we'd been told for the last decade turned out to be a lie. Markets
did not run themselves; creators of financial instruments were not
infallible geniuses; and debts did not really need to be repaid –
in fact, money itself was revealed to be a political instrument,
trillions of dollars of which could be whisked in or out of existence
overnight if governments or central banks required it. It is nothing
but a legalized Ponzi scheme, and all Ponzi schemes eventually
implode.
When
the history is finally written, though, it's likely all of this
tumult – beginning with the Arab Spring – will be remembered as
the opening salvo in a wave of negotiations over the dissolution of
the American Empire. Thirty years of relentless prioritizing of
propaganda over substance, and snuffing out anything that might look
like a political basis for opposition, might make the prospects for
the young protesters look bleak; and it's clear that the rich are
determined to seize as large a share of the spoils as remain, tossing
a whole generation of young people to the wolves in order to do so.
But history is not on their side. As I see
it, if the occupiers finally manage to break the 30-year stranglehold
that has been placed on the human imagination, as in those first
weeks after September 2008, everything will once again be on the
table – and the occupiers of Wall Street and other cities around
the US will have done us the greatest favor anyone possibly can.
The
Wall Street protests must grow and spread across this country because
they are the only realistic hope for change remaining for the 99% of
Americans falling behind in this broken economy. Sad to say, but
democracy in the land of the free and home of the brave simply no
longer works. Big corporations and the wealthy have hijacked the
political system for decades with their hefty donations to various
political campaigns. Their contributions guarantee that bought-off
politicians pass laws and tax breaks to their benefit. It is no
secret, everyone is aware of how the system works, and it must be
called for what it is: legalized bribery.
With
traditional democratic political methods useless, what recourse do
ordinary Americans have left? We are now witnessing the only real
avenue left: ordinary citizens taking to the streets and demanding
change to the rigged economic system that leaves 99% of them behind.
It is only a start, but a vital one. Every day more people are
awakening to the stark realization that the political and economic
system in this country is stacked against them and getting worse.
During
the Vietnam era, because they were directly affected, young people
took to the streets to protest the war. America's young males were
subject to a draft, and the prospect of being shipped off to die in a
war they didn't believe in angered them a great deal. And so the war
planners wised up and did away with the draft, but look at what has
replaced it. America now has perpetual wars for oil, using a
"volunteer" military, many of whom have enlisted due to
lack of other opportunities. Seemingly unaffected by post-Vietnam
wars, students and other young people have been politically inactive
since the early 1970s.
But
that is coming to an end. Young people are finding few if any jobs
awaiting them when they get out of college (that's assuming they were
fortunate enough to afford the high tuition). They graduate with no
income coming in, but years of student loan debt to pay back. Those
without a college or high school degree are even worse off. All of
them see the sad reality, that the American Dream is only for the
privileged few. If these demonstrations and protests continue to grow
and expand, both here and abroad, the big banks, oil companies,
billionaires and politicians will have to pay attention and give some
ground. Either that, or face the prospect of violent revolution.
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