Perhaps the only form of revolution that could work?

There's all kind of talk in the air about secession, revolution, rebellion, standing up for one's rights.

Secession has been tried. The people with the biggest guns win.

Revolution always - without fail - replaces the old form of tyranny with a new one. It may, in some instances take a few years for Leviathan to raise his ugly head, but he will.

Standing up for one's rights? How can one stand up for one's rights when one has literally sold one's rights away for a pittance; when one lives in debt, owes years of mortgage payments on a house, a car, a credit card, and has literally sold one's self into slavery? If one owes money to a bank or a credit card account, that person is a slave.

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender. Proverbs 22:7 (ESV)

I talk about the state of things sometime in my own home, express my frustration with the status quo. My son tells me that I should "do something about it." Tells me I should run for political office. I think that I am doing something, and I think that I have hit on the one potentially effective mode of change.

My wife and I live way below the official poverty level. We are not poor. I didn't say that. I said official poverty level.

My net worth is probably no more than a few thousand dollars, but it is a positive net worth, not a negative net worth like that of many (most?) Americans.

I am self employed, making enough to get by but leaving time for the things I consider important: family, friends, music, gardening, church.

My wife is a substitute teacher. She works from three to five days a week, as opportunity and need dictate.

We do not have any debt. We drive older vehicles that are well maintained and get us where we need to go. We don't spend money on crap we don't need.

I watch very little (almost no) television. Commercials usually just piss me off. Many of them irritate me so badly that I'll make a point to not buy what they are hawking. I don't need most of what they tell me to buy, anyway. Fact is, very few people need what they tell us to buy.

We eat local. What we can't grow or kill, we try to buy locally when possible. That's not always possible, but we try. Eating out is a comparatively rare occurrence for us, because we choose not to do it.

One reason that we choose to remain at a low level of income is that I know that the more I earn and the more I spend, the more I feed the Beast. I don't like to feed the Beast. I hate the Beast, why in hell would I nourish it?

This does put limitations on us.

We don't do "vacations." Family reunions every couple of years, a camping trip here and there, but no Disney World, no tourist attractions, no cruises. Why? If I had money, I wouldn't do that, anyway.

I can't afford much medical attention, even with insurance that has ridiculously high deductibles. I hurt my foot this summer, didn't see a doctor. I can walk on it, but it still hurts. It probably would be good to see a doctor, but I am living with it. I have come to grips with the fact that if I come down with cancer, I will die. I do not expect to live forever. We'll all die one day.

Now, what I am about to say may sound arrogant. I don't mean it like that, really. I don't consider myself a genius or a messiah or anything of the sort. I have just hit on a lifestyle and philosophy that works for me. But it sets me to thinking...

I don't have any hard figures. I don't know where to find them, if they exist. But, what if half of the people in the United States took an attitude like ours? What if 50% of Americans just disengaged from the system as much as was physically possible for them. What if we just:

• quite selling ourselves into slavery?
  
• quit buying crap that don't need?
  
• quite believing the lie that we have to be like the family down the street that thinks it has to be like us?
  
• started spending what money we had locally as much as was possible?
  
• started providing for as much of our needs as we could by our own hands?
  
• stopped expecting the doctors and the politicians to make it all better?
  
• slowed down and began to enjoy the really important things in life?
  

I think that we could stop talking about, whining about, philosophizing about, hoping for the "revolution." We'd become the revolution. I think that the system simply could not sustain itself if that many people dropped out of it. If enough of us just quit feeding the Beast, the Beast would die.

But it seems we'd rather talk about how bad it is while we keep feeding the Beast, because we are sucking off of its big, greasy teat and we just don't care to be weaned. It's too easy to embrace the Beast, feed off of the Beast, in turn serving and feeding the Beast, even though we say we hate it.

If the Beast died, we'd lose many of our favorite television shows. We might not be able to get that randomly appearing McRib that we all love so much. We'd miss our football games and our American Idol and our Dances with the Stars.

Naw, the cost of starving the Beast would just be too high. So, I guess we'll keep feeding it.

But there's a thought. There's a challenge. What if, one by one, we just started to drop out until we reached critical mass and all the smoke and mirrors just collapsed.

Yeah. Pipe dream. I know. But a man has to have a dream.

The best revolution would be a peaceful one. In fact I have hopes the military will in one swift move make a change and maybe not even tell the public. We could have everything change and not even know it right away. Beats the hell out of blood shed. But hey I feel Americans alone have grounds for a revolution so good luck to them and hope they are creative.

Hi! My husband and I are in the process of doing just that. It is hard. money is tight, no cable, no eating out and we drive old cars. My mother always told me "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. Not much fun but we can see the end of hardship eventually. Credit cards are a trap.I do all the usual stuff to lower costs but sometimes it feels they are tightening the noose at the same time and you are just standing still. I guess we will just keep on keeping on.

a reply to: incoserv

Hang a sign up on your door signifying your home as a safe zone for all free and sovereign beings to shelter themselves in times of tribulation. If enough people do this, the world becomes voluntarily liberated. After that, it won't matter what elites in Washington DC do. "Avoid strength, attack weakness, take all under heaven intact."

the best revolution would be electoral. to have people vote in a completely new system. have it laid out and clear as day to what the idea stands for.

any revolution built on violence only ends in tragedy.

that being said, economically starving the government out is an interesting idea but requires too much self control.

We haven't the discipline and that would take MATH which YES I am that bad at.
But to answer your question (50% STOP)the BEAST would die and you would be speaking Chinese or Russian,possibly spanish depending on who invaded first.
The roads would go down in a year ,electricity maybe a little longer.
Onne they got the CHECK points in place they could begin to RETRAIN YOU to be a BETTER citizen...Don't think you would like it.

a reply to: incoserv

Intelligent and thoughtful rant: I enjoyed the morning read. That said and while I admire your self-disciplined form of living (America needs more just like you and your family), I do not think these steps you list offer much of a path to change on a national level. They own the air we breath, money we spend, land we inhabit and all the rest. Whatever currency of life we trade to survive--it is first and foremost theirs. Thus economical living no matter how reserved or unplugged I fear can accomplish little.

Many forget that we now live in a fascist country, with oligopolies running it behind the scenes. What that means is, the "owners of capital" will "legislate" mandatory purchases in the future, if revenue does not match their expectations or projections. If someone chooses not to buy them, they will simply pay a "penalty" at tax time. When the "owners of capital" run out of consumer good that they can force people to buy in order to go to work, like gasoline, internet connection, car insurance, bus/subway fare, cell phones, suits/uniforms, soap, deodorant, razors, etc, they will simply make it law that you have to buy them, in certain quantities before tax season. You will not be allowed to be frugal in the future because the "owners of capital" will take close to the same amount back in the form of "penalties", when you choose to "not buy" and then don't have the proper "coupon" to prove you bought these items, in the required quantities, when taxes come due.