Bcc: contributors
Friends,
Continuing our thread on "Transformation" (subject
prefix: Tx), I'd like to share an article by Arthur
Topham. This is one of the pieces I mentioned
yesterday, an "interesting analytical piece of an
unusually radical nature".
And here is something I consider important: Arthur
doesn't just give us an analysis, he also tells us how
he came to his ideas. He describes the Transformation
he went through in his thinking, what caused it, and
where it led him.
It is a personal testimony, as well as a contribution
to our understanding of our shared predicament. I
believe such testimony can be very helpful to a reader --
making the ideas easier to assimilate, making them more
real, more plausible, more personal.
Something else happens as well. The reader can see
that the ideas are fresh, that they are emerging from a
process the author is going through. They are not
fixed in concrete to be accepted or rejected. Rather
than being a _closed thesis, the article is an _open
invitation for readers to expand the daring of their
own thinking, and an _open invitation for further
discussion.
enjoy,
rkm
This article is forwarded for your information.
No endorsement of the ideas or proposals is implied.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "dnordin" <•••@••.•••>
To: •••@••.•••
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 13:25:40 -0800
----------
From: Radical Press <•••@••.•••>
To: RADICAL PRESS <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Article: Dismantling the Infrastructure of Tyranny
Date: Thursday, March 27, 2003 4:58 PM
---<snip>---
We are facing an immediate global crisis that's been in
the making for decades. The following article is one
attempt to try and give a general overview of why we're
where we're at and what needs to be done in order to
end the misery and the killing once and for all. It is
not intended as a spoof. It is a serious critique not
only of one activist's search for understanding but of
the Peace Movement in general and the the imminent
battle looming on Earth's horizon; one that will affect
us all and therefore one which it behooves all
freedom-loving people to consider. It's my hope that
you will read it and weigh carefully the proposal it
contains.
Any serious criticism and further insights are most
welcome. Those who are in the business of publishing
have full rights to reprint it so long as it is carried
in total and credit is given. Thank you. In Peace &
Solidarity.
__________________________________________
Dismantling the Infrastructure of Tyranny
by Arthur Topham
March 27, 2003
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered"
- Thomas Paine, The Crisis Papers, 1776
On March 19, 2003, only hours before the arrival of
Spring Equinox, the USA and its motley crew of
sword-rattling sycophants commenced bombing the
independent, sovereign nation of Iraq. It was, and
continues to be, an overt, shameless act of
premeditated hostility. It was also a decisive moment;
not only for the USA, but for this writer. It was then
and there that I decided I'd finally had enough. And so
without further adieu I sat down at my keyboard and
typed up a Declaration of War aimed at the instigating
aggressor nation - the United States of America. I did
so, not as a Canadian subject, but as a free and
sovereign citizen of the planet Earth. What follows is
my rationale for making such a radical and provocative
decision.
Call it a temporary loss of insanity or possibly a
state of momentary, yet justified, rage. Call it
whatever but the time had arrived, after close to forty
years of peaceful protesting, where I was finally
forced to face my deepest fear of all - the recognition
and realization that peaceful means alone, in the face
of iron-heeled belligerence and bellicose aggression -
was now no longer the appropriate response to the USA's
new rules of engagement.
I knew of course it was coming. It was just a matter of
time. A foregone conclusion so to speak. The clarity of
the US's intent had been indelibly outlined in graphic
detail throughout the tumultuous sixties. The Vietnam
war had exposed to the eyes and nose of the global
public not only the dirty dealings of the US military
but also the stench of collusion and cover-up that rose
high above the White House and the office of the
Presidency. In fact all that's taken place since then
has been but an embellishment of the original US plan
for world hegemony. So now, when the American-led
forces of imperialism made their Mephistophelian choice
and struck Iraq preemptively rather than adhere to
international law, I knew our world, at that precise
moment, was historically and psychically altered
forever.
Illusions tend to stick to us, as Lenny Bruce once
said, like "snot to a suede jacket". And they're not
easily removed. And in this case the illusion that the
US administration would somehow come to its senses
rather than use its might to try and legitimize
something obviously not morally or legally supportable
was the one I had stubbornly clung to. So when
President George W. Bush set this historic act of
supreme aggression in motion it was as if the last veil
suddenly had fallen from my eyes, leaving me, for a
brief moment, awe struck at the realization that my
deepest and most sacred principles regarding human
co-existence were now shattered!
I sat before my computer numbed, yet reflective, like
some Nietzschean Zarathustra who, when he heard the old
saint in the woods say to him, "With singing, weeping,
laughing, and muttering I praise the God who is my
God." remarked to himself, "Could it be possible!This
old saint has not yet heard in his forest that God is
dead!"
And now?
Whenever an individual or a group or a nation-state
resolves to use sheer brute force as their ultimate
means of negotiation those about to die or to be
victimized in other ways must recognize this impending
reality and act directly and decisively to defend
themselves.
The realization was profound. What it meant was that
the world was no longer held together by a common
consensus. Like Nietzsche's god, international law was
suddenly dead - a victim of the collateral damage
sustained by the USA's insatiable and tyrannical quest
for global domination. With a mere click, Might Mouse
George had deleted it from the text of humankind's file
for world peace and security and, like some strange zen
awakening, I was left contemplating the reality of
Evil, appearing in a most hideous and threatening
aspect as the once-renowned US of A - the home of
individual freedom and liberty - and manifesting before
my mind's eye as the pre-eminent and deadly visage of
Darth Vader and the Evil Empire.
I saw it as the final wake up call for the
natural-born, sovereign citizens of this beleaguered
planet. A bright, blood-red signal to stop dreaming
that we could somehow, by a showing of good will,
trust, patience, dialogue, love and compassion, end the
acrimony and the atrocities being perpetrated by this
once proud and noble nation; one now held firmly by the
hawk's claws of a righteous, sociopathic tyrant.
As an avid peace activist and radical thinker since the
mid-sixties I had continuously quested for universal
sister and brotherhood, trying every conceivable trick
in the book to advance the concepts of peace, human
rights and social/economic justice. Now, witnessing
what the US had initiated, I felt molested and pained,
as deeply as I imagine rape must affect a woman. It was
as if my most sacred, precious heart-center had been
violated and abused to the point where the foundation
of my whole belief structure, my Being itself, now
teetered on the brink of collapse like the Twin Towers
of 9/11. It was at this point that I knew, with a
finality beyond question, that the people of this
planet were openly under attack by a vicious and
diabolical presence.
Too many factors, too many parameters, and too many
strategies have been debated and tried repeatedly in
humanity's relentless pursuit of the elusive Grail of
justice to even begin assessing their specific degree
of applicability and appropriateness in this short
article. This is neither the place nor the intent.
Instead, it must suffice to say that they are all, in
some way correct, and shall remain so, even after the
radical proposition that I wish to introduce into this
general discussion of war and peace. But at the same
time that we are reassessing our achievements in the
context of the old paradigm of universal consensus we
must also begin giving serious consideration to the new
world disorder in which we suddenly find ourselves - a
world cruising rather swiftly toward an ominous abyss,
filled with chaos and madness wherein Might is seen as
Right and Love and Peace are viewed as a contemptible
form of Weakness.
There is though one element of prime importance in this
proposed re-tooling of our basic values and goals that
must be profiled beforehand and it's the mainstream
media and more specifically the north American variety.
There has always been a persistent reluctance on the
part of the Peace Movement in general to acknowledge
that an ongoing, covert program of anti-social,
debilitating propaganda has been operative throughout
the world since at least the turn of the 20th Century
when the initial media conglomerates were created. It's
my contention, based on four decades of observation and
research, that this omnipresent agenda for social,
institutional and spiritual persuasion of the bulk of
humanity was designed to circumvent appropriate
responses to national and international crises and that
it has been the overall determining factor in why we've
held back on the final push toward achieving our
collectively agreed-upon goals for world peace.
Call it a conspiracy if you will for that is precisely
what it is. In trying to ignore this program of mass
mind-control, especially the portion of it which has
been systematically occurring since the creation of the
US's National Security Association and the Central
Intelligence Agency back in 1947, we have foolishly
overlooked the most critical and sinister component of
our captor's power over us and our potential actions.
The Mainstream Mind-control Media (M3), as I refer to
it, IS the Orwellian Big Brother controlling,
dispensing and influencing our perceptions of what
constitute social, political and spiritual realities
and IS therefore a stupendously potent psychic force
intentionally being used to inculcate the general
public with specific, intentional propaganda designed
to create and reinforce a particular mindset which
continues to be the main stumbling block to the
movement's understanding of the extent and intent of
the US government's policies, both domestic and
foreign. Because of the M3's purposeful withholding of
the required nutrients of vital information from our
minds it now becomes extremely imperative that this
mind-controlling entity be dissolved in as quick and
pragmatic a manner as possible.
Mental prisons
All that we have accomplished en masse as a Peace
Movement over the past forty years has only led us,
step by step, victim by victim, martyr by martyr, up to
the front of the oaken doors of Freedom. We are still
within the prison walls. What I wish to offer to those
who are standing before that portal to peace,
desperately awaiting a final closure to the killing,
suffering and injustice in the world, is the
proposition that in order for the peace-loving people
of the world to step across the final threshold to
lasting liberty, happiness, and justice we must first
perform the radical and necessary act of dismantling
what I refer to as the infrastructure of tyranny.*
At the end of the day, and after half a century of
struggles, what this implies is that we must
metaphorically, and literally, bust down the doors of
this exoterically-induced psychic prison which has kept
us stifled and confined inside our heads and hearts and
shackled us with the seemingly omniscient belief that
good will, and good will alone, could and would
eventually liberate us all from the horror and
suffering of needless and endless war. This belief,
inculcated over generations by tyrants, monarchs,
organized religions, centralized state governments
(both capitalist and communist) and now transnational
corporations, has finally reached its apex in our time
and proven to be incapable of halting the juggernaut of
uncontrolled aggression. Instead of resolving the
endless dilemma of increased and ongoing violence,
rogue states such as the USA, Great Britain, Spain and
Australia are now acting unilaterally, while at the
same time broadcasting via the M3, their sinister siren
songs of insanity to those nations still holding on to
the old paradigm of peace, relentlessly and desperately
attempting to recruit more countries to join them in
their collective madness. As a result, what we're now
witnessing in Iraq will soon be spreading throughout
the world body politic, like some alien form of rampant
cancer, bringing with it increased death and chaos.
That infrastructure which, in all its implied enormity
and influence, allows, supports, promotes and
perpetuates the present reign of terror emanating from
the USA and its aggressor allies, MUST be dismantled
from the absolute bottom to the acme of its power
structure. In order to accomplish that objective it
will require an intensity of direct action and civil
disobedience far beyond all we have witnessed in the
past. What this means for people everywhere is that,
coupled with courage, trust and an inestimable
sacrifice of self, must come the recognition that we're
now swiftly moving into a place we've been conditioned
to fear and loath for lifetimes - GLOBAL REVOLUTION!
Forms of transformation
The forms this final battle will take are impossible to
describe. They will be as varied and as spontaneous as
the individuals and groups who perform them but it
should be understood that in a major sense they will be
anarchistic or leaderless in design and strategy in
order to forbid the encircling and assault that will
occur once the process assumes massive proportions. The
Creature will not willingly lay down its arms. That we
can rest assured of. The struggles now occurring in the
streets of America and in cities around the world are
indicative of the varied, imaginative and creative ways
that individuals and groups can act in order to bring
this dismantling process about. As the chanting among
the movement's partisans declares, "There ain't no
power like the power of the people 'cause the power of
the people don't stop!" And it won't! once we've made
the quantum leap to understanding and realizing that
our personal responsibility demands that we participate
and act to ensure this final outcome. It can't stop
unless we choose instead to succumb and submit to the
Evil which now fully penetrates that
political/ideological hydra we euphemistically
recognize as the New World Order.
As the singer/songwriter John Prine once said, and to
which I liken the USA's actions, they've "crossed the
evil line today" leaving the world a much sadder,
forlorn, fearful and destitute environment in which to
try to live a life secure in happiness, peace and
harmony. Today's US government is now controlled by a
diabolic cabal of murderers, perverts and religions
fanatics with George W. Bush as the mythical Beast of
the Apocalypse. Through deceit and malice, and aided
and abetted by the M3, he's now wrapped his nation in
sheep's clothing adorned and studded with stars and
stripes and has set upon a course of action that can
only lead to a hell on Earth for everyone.
Such is the scenario which has now brought us to the
point where, as a Peace Movement in these final hours,
we must confront that dark night of our collective soul
we previously backed away from and hoped we'd never
have to face. The choice is now clear. The longer we
hold back the more our rightful, personal power will be
sucked from us and used by this armaggedon-bound bully
to enhance his position and power and inflict further
pain and suffering upon generations to come. Yet, for
those with the courage and tenacity to pass through
this ring of fire and emerge on the other side
unscathed and reaffirmed in the deep conviction that
this cruel and inhumane infrastructure can be
dismantled and transformed it can, and will, be the
glorious beginning of a new dawn for humankind, one
that will shine on crazily forever! We can make it
happen. We must! And we shall!
Violence And so ultimately my initial outburst of
justified rage over this indefensible war against the
people of Iraq was, in a very real sense, my personal
passage to the realization and acceptance that more
radical means are necessary if we are to stop this
global touring terror-show now being billed as the
inevitable and essential precursor to the final
security and protection of the human family. That said,
there leaves the question of violence itself to be
addressed.
With respect to that oft-cited topic I will state in
the most unequivocal manner possible that I am not
proposing the movement begin employing the same tactics
as its repulsive and misguided opponent and suddenly
begin violently opposing those currently responsible
for the bloodshed and mayhem in Iraq and elsewhere.
Such a case scenario I would acknowledge as only one
possible course of action, if and when all other
imaginative modes of monkey-wrenching have failed to
accomplish the objective thus sought. It must be
remembered that as there are many ways to skin a cat
there are also many ways to prune a bush. What I am
cautioning though and now have accepted as inevitable,
is that such actions may arise should all other
attempts at facilitating this transformation fail.
I am not making a judgment one way or the other on the
use or non-use of violence. I admit that there is a
moral demarcation line here that has in some ways
hamstrung the peace movement since its inception and
it's one that I would suggest the forces of Evil have
consistently used to their advantage. From cheek to
cheek down through recorded history we've been martyred
and murdered and mind-controlled and enslaved and I am
asserting that such a position is no longer valid,
tenable or acceptable in the situation that we are now
in. As the great writer Arthur Koestler remarked in his
book, Janus: A Summing Up:
"From the dawn of consciousness until 6 August 1945,
man had to live with the prospect of his death as an
individual; since the day when the first atomic bomb
outshone the sun over Hiroshima, mankind as a whole had
to live with the prospect of its extinction as a
species.
We have been taught to accept the transitoriness of
personal existence, while taking the potential
immorality of the human race for granted. This belief
has ceased to be valid. We have to revise our axioms.
It is not an easy task. There are periods of incubation
before a new idea takes hold of the mind; the
Copernican doctrine which so radically downgraded man's
status in the universe took nearly a century until it
penetrated European consciousness. The new downgrading
of our species to the status of mortality is even more
difficult to digest."
That, I would suggest is the haunting position we now
find ourselves in. With a nuclear holocaust a stark and
grim possibility if this illegal war is not curtailed
soon will we be able to find the time to assimilate
such a dreadful revelation?
I would also add here for clarification that, for the
benefit of those who still struggle with the concept of
violence, I consider the destruction of physical
objects, be they vacant buildings, bridges, banks or
bombs, not something to associate with the term
violent. To me violence is an act perpetrated upon
other sentient life-forms not man-made objects.
Symbolically therefore, my act of declaring war upon
the government of the United States of America was the
final voicing of my pent-up rage and the notice given
that I WILL RESIST the tyranny planned by Bush and the
New World Order. For that reason and that reason alone
I feel clear in saying it was both necessary and
justified. Like some primal scream from the depths of
my Being it confirmed, once and for all, that the
spiritual warrior within me will NEVER succumb to any
fascist, totalitarian agenda emanating from the US
government or any other centralized State apparatus.
With a little help from our friends The next step for
the resistance movement is to present to the world a
blueprint of the nuts, bolts, beams, girders and
facades that comprise this infrastructure of tyranny.
One that will give each and every one of us a clear
picture of who and what it is that supports this
massive, psychotic edifice of Evil currently plaguing
the peace of the planet. Given the road map and the
actual locations of the facilities and the players who
perpetuate this scheme for ecological and genocidal
disaster it will then be the personal responsibility of
the partisans of peace to decide on their own
strategies and courses of action.
This superstructure of death and destruction must be
dismantled piece by piece rather than crumble like the
detonated Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Then,
it can be replaced by a new, decentralized global
Sanctuary constructed from the recycled remains. Out of
that transformative process will come a new home for
the human family, one built from the organic
constituents of Love, Peace, Justice and Universal
Harmony where all of us who truly value the things of
the spirit and the flesh can live in safety and
freedom.
Finally I would say, please remember that each of us
can and must attempt to perform some task which will
help to bring that reality to fruition. Recall the
immortal words of John Lennon who once said that we CAN
get by with a little help from our friends. Let us not
falter. Let us not fail. Let us just begin and DO IT!
Namaste!
---
Arthur Topham is a writer, father and grampa living
with his lovely wife Shasta in the wilds of central
B.C. He is also the founding publisher and editor of
the Radical Press and The Radical, an alternative
newspaper once published in British Columbia, Canada
and now suspended in a devachanic state awaiting
rebirth. Arthur spends much of his time in cyberspace
monitoring the movements of the Beast and keeping his
radical readers informed on his website
http://www.radicalpress.com He appreciates hearing from
readers and can be emailed at •••@••.•••
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