Restless

Have you noticed what's going on around the world lately? Whether it's Mexico City, Hong Kong, Ferguson, or New York, the story is the same.

People are starting to wake up to reality and their reaction is one of outrage and anger.

When cops shoot unarmed kids, governments place corporate interests ahead of planetary ones, and laws are broken by the very people paid to uphold them, we should push back.

I probably don't need to tell you that all these protests are connected. If you trace the issues back to their source, you will find the same three culprits grinning sheepishly: greed, hatred, and ignorance.

Thankfully information technology is helping dispel ignorance all around the world. Try as they may, the 1% can't keep a lid on all the dirt they're doing. All it takes is one brave whistle blower  and the whole world finds out.

If you want to know why so many people across the planet are taking a stand, it's because, for the first time, they actually know what's really going on.

Our honeymoon of blissful ignorance is coming to an end. Soon enough we'll have to take a stand and affirm what we all know intuitively and factually: that rule by the few at the expense of the many is a broken model which has and always will result in corruption.

Things simply can't go on like this indefinitely. Sooner or later, something is going to have to give. Either we let short-sighted elitists drag our planet into the dumps or we rise up and take charge, not so we can install a new oligarchy to rule over us but so we can tear the rotten system down and replace it with something better.

Before we can get to this stage though, we have to learn a few important lessons.

Love Your Enemies

Moral outrage is good. So is unrest. It motivates people to get off their asses, put down the gossip mags, and act against the destructive forces lined up against us. The problem, as I outlined at the end of this post, is that we can't combat greed, ignorance, and hatred with greed, ignorance, and hatred.

We have to be above the scum, not swimming in it. Our cause might be righteous but when we employ violence, we defeat ourselves.

I totally understand the impulse to act violently in the face of corruption. I can only imagine the acidic hate that would boil in my veins if one of my (unarmed) kids got shot by a cop.

That being said, police officers are not the root of the problem, only a symptom.

Sure, there are plenty of racist cops out there. Then there's the straight arrow who got bullied in school and signed up so he could finally get a taste of power. And guess what power does? It corrupts. Aside from these unfortunate cases though, cops are just like everyone else, average Joe's and Jane's trying to make a living.

There are easy and effective remedies for police brutality. You could equip cops with body cameras, as some departments have already done. Here's another idea: you could stop giving them second-hand tanks and military-grade weapons. That might slow things down a bit.

So why isn't this happening on a grand scale?

Who do you think is giving police departments enough artillery to take out a middle-eastern dictator? The same people who have the power to mandate body cameras on all officers but choose not to.

The same people who are trying to kill net neutrality, spy on their own citizens, and allow corporations to ravage our planet.

There's no conspiracy anymore: our would-be masters do their dirt right out in the open. Their arrogance borders on madness. They think they can do whatever they like, that they stand above the unfair laws they themselves set up.

They're confident because they've met resistance before and overcame it with ease by sewing discord, distracting, and downplaying. Which leads us to lesson number 2.

Move with Purpose

In a lot of ways, Occupy Wallstreet was a massive blunder. It raised awareness on the widening gap between the richest 1% and everyone else but it failed to produce a coherent strategy to level out the playing field.

Occupy Wallstreet was a child's tantrum. Mom and dad know we're pissed, but they also know that we're powerless, leaderless, purposeless. All they have to do is keep baffling us with bullshit and we'll never rise up and take what's rightfully ours: the world.

As I said, outrage and unrest are great motivators, but alone they lead to... nothing. Corrupt governments are immune to protest because they don't give a shit about what protestors think. What do they care if a few thousand people make a fuss? So long as their bills get passed and donations keep coming in, all is well.

Protests send a statement, but without follow-through, without a way to hold those in charge accountable--without leverage, in other words--those in charge wait patiently for protestors to get tired and disperse.

The way I see it, protests are networking opportunities. "Oh, you're against this pipeline too? Let's be friends!"

A protest is the birthplace of revolution, not revolution itself. A protest is the means, not the end. It's where like-minded people meet and design a proper strategy for change.

More than protests, we need plans. More than anger, we need wisdom. More than violence, we need purpose. What's the endgame? What's the goal? To stop a pipeline from being built? To put an end of police brutality? To eliminate political corruption and strip corporations of their influence in government?

Whatever the cause, it starts with you.