From the Middle Class to the Mutual Class

To achieve such better dreams, Americans must at the same time confront anti-American institutions. Laws that forbid urgent change are a cage for us to die in. Regulations must be broken when they resist American liberation from debt, layoffs, foreclosure and bankruptcy, earthquakes, tornados, floods, heat waves, cold snaps, blackouts and traffic jams.

This is merely the revolutionary American tradition that ended slavery, gained votes for women, won the eight-hour workday, secured civil rights, and started our nation. By contrast, conferences and elections are powerless distractions.

Yet the most direct path to deflate bad authority is to withdraw personal dependence. Time to leave the car in the mud and get back on track. Use train, bike or feet rather than car. Shop less and shop local. Move your money into a local bank or credit union. Insulate your housing. Be a creator, not a consumer. Eat less meat or none. Have one or fewer children.

The next America will look entirely different than the one we know. We'll have fun building it and our grandchildren will thank us. America went to the moon. Now America will go to the future.

Paul Glover is founder of Ithaca HOURS local currency, Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP), League of Uninsured Voters (LUV), Citizen Planners of Los Angeles, Patch Adams Free clinic, Ithaca Health Alliance and a dozen more groups that transfer power to America's grassroots. He is author of the books Health Democracy, Green Jobs Philly, Hometown Money, A Crime Not a Crisis.

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