Our Entire Civilization Is Structured Around Keeping Us From Realizing We Can Do This

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Reprinted from caitlinjohnstone.com

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Thousands of protesters outraged by the deteriorating material conditions of the nation's economic meltdown have stormed the presidential palace of Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and I guarantee you the aerial footage as they poured into the building en masse has made every government leader and plutocrat a little uncomfortable today.

NOW - Protesters storm the presidential palace in Sri Lanka's capital. pic.twitter.com/Wv6oQ10kBQ

"- Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 9, 2022

Just look at that. Look at all those people flooding in there. That is some truly awe-inspiring power. Imagine how terrifying it would be to find yourself on the receiving end of it.

I don't know enough about what's going on in Sri Lanka yet to comment with any authority on what powers might be at play in this uprising, but I do know that every ruler throughout history has spent time envisioning what would happen if a crowd that size decided to storm their base of operation. If their numbers became too great to suppress, or if your forces who would be doing the suppressing joined the ranks of the people instead, the best-case scenario for you is that you'd have already fled the building by that point, as Rajapaksa had the good sense to do shortly before the building was stormed. If enough angry people get their hands on you, it won't matter if they're armed with rockets or pistols or their own bare hands; you are in for a violent end.

If you've ever wondered why so much energy goes into keeping everyone propagandized in our society, this is why. If you've ever wondered why our rulers work so hard to keep us divided against each other, this is why. If you've ever wondered why we're always being instructed to take our grievances to the voting booth even though we learn in election after election that it never changes the things that most desperately need to change, this is why.

Our entire civilization is structured around preventing scenes like the one we're seeing in Sri Lanka today. Our education systems, our political systems, our media, our online information. Religions that have been around for thousands of years because the powerful endorsed and promulgated them are full of passages extolling the virtues of obedience, poverty, meekness, and rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's. From the moment we are born our heads are filled with stories about why it's good and right to consent to the status quo and why it would be wrong to take back what has been stolen from us by a predatory ruling class.

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