Multi billionaire Bill Gates has said it would take a lot of money to change human behavior, and I fed that quote back to him when I futilely beseeched him and Warren Buffett to back the establishment of DemocracyPow!er, that would combine a central planning and coordinating unit, a virtual, on-line "U.S. Chamber of Democracy," with the political muscle of a massive coalition of Americans mobilized into a "People's Reignbow Coalition." [11] I never got a reply from the two multibillionaires after sending them complimentary copies of my book and a subsequent follow-up. They apparently had no intention of opposing the corpocracy which had forged them. And I never got a reply from the Reverend Jessie Jackson whom I had proposed leading the coalition. [12] I learned later that he was apparently "shaking down" corporations for his own interests. [13]
Heeding Don Quixote's creed that "the quest must continue, no matter how far, no matter how impossible," I have launched a new version of the USDC [14]. It would consist of millions of discontented Americans organized into about 12 alliances of unorganized and already organized Americans with similar grievances and activist efforts. As for funding, I have I think gotten smarter. I am searching for "outliers" among the wealthy power elite, individuals who are wealthy with a social conscience. I have already found one, a wealthy lawyer who founded America's largest injury law firm (bannering the slogan, "Dedicated to protecting the people, not the powerful," and who recently underwrote an expensive, but successful campaign to raise the minimum wage of Floridians. [15] I dismiss any cynics who would regard his firm as "ambulance chasers," especially since most lawyers are functionaries of and paid by the corpocracy. I plan to ask David Swanson if he would be willing to lead the USDC if it materialized. I regard him as the "goliath" of peace activists, having cofounded World Beyond War and shepherding it into a world-wide network of chapters and affiliates. [16]
Achilles Heel
Power is the capacity to control resources to achieve desired ends. That capacity is far less an intrinsic attribute of any human being and much more a consequence of extrinsic sources of favorable situations and circumstances. I call these extrinsic sources "props." The power elites within corporate America and government America trade these props to sustain and grow their power. Over the years I have researched these props and identified 25 of them [17]. An obvious example of a prop corporate America's power elite give government America is campaign financing. Just as obvious an example in the reverse are the many handouts such as corporate subsidies and "go-past jail cards."
It is one thing to know about these props and entirely a quantum difference to leverage them into being "knocked down." With that in mind I proposed in my latest book numerous ways to knock them down. [18] For example, one approach to knocking down the prop, "banksers and bad capitalism" would be to bring the Public Banking Institute (PBI) into the USDC. When I first learned about the PBI a few years ago it was barely on the horizon but has since been gaining considerable momentum. According to its website, "Across the nation, more than 25 initiatives for public banks are actively being pursued, by progressives and conservatives, 30 of 50 states have proposed legislation in support of publicly owned banks, and over 50 organizations are promoting public banks." [19] Although the PBI is a single-issue initiative, the underworld of private banking harms every aspect of the lives of the less powerful. [20] If the BPI joined a growing Corps there ought to be mutual benefits to both. Like the Floridian outlier I will contact PBI soon.
The Distant Future
Some sage has said "build the future, not predict it." I demur. The stakes for humanity's future are too alarmingly high to not try doing both. My proposed USDC is an effort to build the future. As for predicting it, I have now made two stabs at it. I would like to retract the first made in 2011 where I confidently claimed that the book published then is not a doomsday one. [21] In writing my newest book, after thoroughly reading many authoritative experts' assessments, I concluded that one or the other of four forms of doomsday would probably happen later this century if America's power elite were not stopped from their "killing the future" with their daily stream of ruinous actions. [22] The four are Armageddon, biological warfare, ecocide, and evolutionary apocalypse. To be fatalistic or passive about them is tantamount to a death wish for future generations.
Building the Future
Ending the corpocracy does not by itself automatically create a real democracy. One of the alliances I proposed for the USDC would take the lead in building a "People's America." While I leave creation of it up to the USDC once established, I want to express my vision of the salient features of a real democracy for America: a) at peace with itself and the world, b) politicians who are public rather than corporate servants, c) laws with teeth for the benefit of the common good, d) where the "living field" is leveled with power more evenly distributed among the populace without becoming an anarchy, e) where all Americans have the same universal rights, f) where all Americans can reach their fullest potential as human beings, and g) where there is a new Declaration of Independenceof the Power Elite. I know this list reads like a wish list, but anything conceivable is possible.
In Closing
I ask readers of this article to consider which of the following options best speaks for them about this article: a) much ado about nothing, b) must get worse before getting better, c) beyond our control, d) the USDC won't fly, or e) count me in to help. If your choice is the last one, please contact me (democracypower[at]att.net) if you know of any wealthy outliers who individually or collectively could fund a contract with one or more organizations and/or to make any other suggestions.
Incidentally, I have absolutely no financial stake in this endeavor, but I would consider if asked being an unpaid consultant.
Notes
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