Huxley Was Wrong?

May you live in interesting times

Huxley Was Wrong – In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley predicted that people would not resist totalitarian control of their society, as long as they were appeased with material goods. People would actually fight to protect their gilded chains, and for a long time this is what Americans have done. The people have been happy with their glowing TV screens, crunchy Frankenstein-food, and content to sit back as their children got steeped in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt just to get a job that would pay a little above subsistence. But now we're stuck with the bankrupt system and we have none of the old material comforts that blinded us for the past century. The dragon has awoken, and the government and their corporate cronies are shocked and scared.

It's Their Turn to Be Afraid - On October 15th, around 20 New Yorkers who tried to withdraw their funds and close their accounts with Citibank were arrested for trespassing. That's right, you're invading private property by trying to withdrawn money from the bank which you are funding. I am deeply sorry for those who now face criminal charges, but am happy to see that it's becoming crystal clear to the people who the police and government are really protecting. Plus, the arrests and violence are purely a sign that the people are striking at the heart of the beast and must forge ahead. A number of other people have withdrawn money from Wells Fargo, Chase Bank, and other power brokering entities. I recommend anybody trying to do this to use the banks' online platforms to transfer money elsewhere and not to try to go in person.

This same day, thousands more took to the streets again, occupying Times Square, Washington Park, and the original Zucchotti Park. As for this last location, the first small victory was won by postponing their evacuation after over 300,000 people signed a petition to allow them to stay. I believe that it shows the fear of what would happen if the protests are suppressed (even more than they already are). After all, the movement has now spread to 1,500 cities and will continue to grow.

The Usual Tricks Aren't Working - It is interesting how resistant the movement is to people in power, and I believe that this is what wildly separates this movement from others. The following is a video showing the Occupy Atlanta movement refusing to let their Democratic Representative John Lewis address the assembly:

It gives me hope that the Move On campaign, led by the Obama faction, will fail in its attempts to hijack it for the Democratic party. Right now they must be feeling awfully like a fish flailing on the sand.

And what does a flapping fish do? Turn to censorship. There have already been reports of Yahoo Mail censoring emails containing links to the main site occupywallst.org, and now it appears that Twitter is also censoring information related to the protests. Once again, our government's hypocrisy is exposed, as they have previously condemned China for attempting to censor Google.

Even more interesting are the very timely crashes of the Blackberry servers. BBC reported that “a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog.” This conceivably could have been done by either side, but these attempts will always fail because, try as they might, they do not control the internet.

An Eye to the Future – So where will it go? Europe offers a telescope into the future. The Occupy movements across the pond have grown to hundreds of thousands of people, and with this growth has come more violent police opposition as the cops are now using tear gas against the peaceful protestors. The protestors are not yet attacking police, but they are setting cars on fire and attacking banks. The people will not allow this asymmetric resistance to stand for long, and will retaliate with their own increased violence soon enough. Even if this movement temporarily subsides, I think that the people will not be able to support or look upon their government in a positive way for a long time, as it daily becomes more obvious that the police are defending the mafia ringleaders and not the people.

Taken to its logical conclusions, the government alliance with large corporations will be brought to an end, and the banking system will be reformed. Government expenditures will be rearranged so that income tax still exists (perhaps), but tax revenue will go to the public welfare in meaningful ways such as more money to education (ending the tuition debt racket), and nearly none to the large corporations or to finance the corrupt overseas operations undertaken by the government. Considering how many protestors are in debt or being prosecuted for financial crimes, such as tax evasion, these offenses will almost certainly be decriminalized.

But I do not see how this will happen “all things equal.” This kind of upheaval would be game changing and involves a cultural revolution just as much as an economic revolution. Like the thousands of people out there protesting, I would much rather live in a world where people are not exploited and treated as chattel slaves, where children are not stripped searched at airports and the government does not sponsor companies who churn out chickens from factories and bathe your food in cancer-inducing chemicals. I would rather live in an American where the 1% doesn't play dice with the lives and finances of the 99% not only in the United States but in the rest of the world as well.

Will We Give Up? - Notoriously, young people today have short attention spans. But nobody has a short attention span to their own hunger, unemployment, or ruinous debt. These problems are not going to just be cleaned up by some deus ex machina so long as the status quo remains the same. Their lives have been touched by the crooked system and there's no turning back. The best thing that they can do for themselves and posterity is resist, and so they march on.

Children - I actively support the movement to bring children into the protests. This shows what the police are really doing and will turn popular support against them. You want to encourage the outrage at government and their baseness. This is not at all manipulating the situation, but revealing it.