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The Obama Watch
Gandhi for Capitalists
Could tea parties blossom into a national strike?
The story is history, very famous history at that.
How a solitary Indian lawyer took on British imperialism and won, gaining independence for India. Independence was at one time presumed impossible, with Mohandas K. Gandhi's strategy of nonviolent protest openly mocked and derided by the British. Yet not only did Gandhi carry the day and win his country's struggle for independence, it was the Gandhi model that was later used by an American minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. to finally end the American segregation system put in place by Democrats for a century following the Civil War.
The recent spontaneous eruption of impromptu "tea parties" -- demonstrations modeled after the Boston Tea Party of 1773 to protest against the Obama plan to socialize America -- is the first sign that Gandhi-style rebellion against the government is in the American air.
First, a quick history.
British rule of India first took shape with the appearance on the subcontinent of the British East India trading company in 1617. After 1764 British authority was effectively asserted, with the British "Raj" or reign, beginning in an official sense in 1858. By 1876, Queen Victoria was officially proclaimed the "Empress of India." Inevitably, Indian politics was quickly roiling with displeasure at the arrogant rule of the British. In 1885 the Indian National Congress was founded. The "Congress Party" as it became commonly known eventually emerged as the backbone of the growing movement for Indian independence.
It was Gandhi who developed what was called the strategy of "non-cooperation" with the British government. In its own way, this was a 20th-century version of the 1773 Boston Tea Party that Americans are refocusing on today in the wake of Obama's draconian tax and spend pronouncements. In that incident Bostonians protested a British-imposed tax on tea by disguising themselves as Mohawk Indians and, under cover of darkness, boarding three tea-bearing British ships that lay alongside a local wharf. The offending 342 casks of tea, worth almost $2 million in current dollars, were unceremoniously dumped into Boston Harbor. Nothing else on the three ships was destroyed or damaged. The fuse of what became the American Revolution, already burning, burned faster after all of this, exploding finally in the Declaration of Independence three years later.
Gandhi's version of this protest involved two Indian staples, salt and homespun cloth. Salt was a common commodity of India. Mined from salt mines, it was a necessity of everyday Indian life. It had been produced for thousands of years. Under British rule, there was a British monopoly on salt. Replicating the mistake they made with the Americans and tea (although tea was not an American commodity it was a much-cherished and imported one), the British established the India Salt Act of 1882. The tax, doubled in 1923, also made it illegal for Indians to manufacture salt themselves outside the system established by London.
Gandhi, surely unintentionally channeling Bostonian Samuel Adams, blithely informed the astonished British Viceroy, the Obama of his day, that in nine days resistance to the Salt Tax would begin. Said Gandhi of his fellow Indians to the Viceroy in language relevant to today's Americans: "But the British system seems to be designed to crush the very life out of him. Even the salt he must use to live is so taxed as to make the burden fall heaviest on him." The Viceroy in an uncanny imitation of the Obama "I won" style of governing, simply ignored Gandhi. He didn't even bother to reply. So as promised, in nine days, Gandhi and 78 others began what history calls his Salt March or March to Dandi, Dandi being a small coastal village along the Indian Ocean. The march, over some 240 miles, riveted not only the country but the world. By the time he arrived in Dandi Gandhi's march had thousands of participants who had in turn been hailed by roadside crowds of as many as a hundred thousand in one village and fifty thousand in another and so on.
With cameras rolling, Gandhi approached the Indian Ocean shoreline, dropped to his knees and scooped up a clump of salty mud. "With this," he said, "I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." Then he boiled a pan of seawater -- thus making illegal salt. A nation of oppressed Indians went wild. Villagers up and down India's seacoast began making their own salt by imitating Gandhi. Businessmen made salt. Politicians made salt. Teachers made salt. Students made salt. So many Indians of all kinds were making salt the police were forced to make mass arrests of the rich and poor alike. Historians say that between 60,000 and 80,000 Indians were sent to jail for the "crime" of making salt. And just as Gandhi predicted, the grasp of Great Britain on its Indian colony began to slip.
So too did he have the effrontery to challenge the British control of the economy with the importation of fine cloth. Taking another shot at the ruling Viceroy, Gandhi launched a campaign for Indians to spin their own cloth -- khadi -- out of Indian cotton, a crop that was abundant. Gandhi himself took up spinning, the work of making homespun cloth from cotton with a wooden spinning wheel. He saw to it that the cameras saw him performing what once was seen as not only a woman's task but an art that was well on its way to extinction in the machine-age of mass production. Once again so many Indians took up spinning, undercutting the government's importation of refined cloth and silk. Khadi became such a symbol of resistance to the government that, when independence finally arrived in 1948, the spinning wheel was at the center of the Indian flag, where it remains today.
So what's the point? How in God's name does Gandhi have anything to teach American capitalists from small business owners to the big boys and girls running major corporations?
Answer: Gandhi understood he had to work outside the box of parliamentary democracy at the same time the Congress Party was doing all the usual things political. He had to defy the British government by making injustices visible both to millions of Indians and to world opinion. This was, of course, exactly what Sam Adams and all those Bostonians were doing when they tossed a couple million dollars worth of tea into the harbor. It is also exactly what Martin Luther King was doing as he made injustice visible by having his always peaceful marchers provoke the police to such eye-catching displays of violence as displayed with police dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham and a police riot at the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. In all three cases this approach brought Boston, India, and the American South to a state of such chaos that the iron grip of the British (in Boston and India) and the segregationist Democrats in America began to loosen. And finally fall away altogether.
SO WHAT COULD American capitalists do to ignite a Gandhi-like revolution that will vividly illustrate their cause? Picture this.
The first clue is the radio.
House by house, as morning alarms go off to awaken 300 million Americans, the only sound they hear is …silence.
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (89) | Leave a comment
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Jim Mulcahy| 3.3.09 @ 6:46AM
This is a great idea. It is also similar to the capitalists in ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged just disappearing, leaving the looters, moochers, etc. to fend for themselves. Of course, they couldn't and everything slowly grinds to a halt.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
drudge ette obama| 3.3.09 @ 7:04AM
Count me in.
Deborah| 3.3.09 @ 7:10AM
Yes, Mr. Lord (and Mr. Mulcahy), it's time for Atlas to shrug. Let's see how many government workers will still have jobs without the private sector paying for their pencil pushing.
stu.b.con| 3.3.09 @ 7:27AM
I'm down for the struggle!
Pecos Pete| 3.3.09 @ 7:46AM
Okay let's start by NOT buying newspapers or watching TV. That's fairly easy to do. In fact, already happening.
Next, constantly write to Congress with less than respectful words. Show some emotion. The key is to write every day. Email is free, flood their inboxes. It is important to show emotion, call them crazy or whatever.
It would be a start.
dcd| 3.3.09 @ 8:44AM
I'd been hearing that unions were the bane of this country, and now Lord wants to set up the biggest most powerful yet. He must be a commie.
Mark| 3.3.09 @ 8:58AM
How about a march on Washington. If someone could get that organized -- I'm in for that...imagine the effect of a couple of million folks making tea on the mall -- refreshing!!!
1Freeman| 3.3.09 @ 8:59AM
And we need to be seen. Even a small picket teams with signs at the court house or in front of city hall in your city/town can be effective. 10 to 20 people who regularly show up and get the attention of others will work. Get a neighborhood involved and spend Saturday morning downtown. Use email to plan a rally in front of the court building and take a day off fighting, peacefully, for your country. Make the signs simple to read and clear in the message: Obama is not the answer! Don't just read this thread and smile. YOU MUST ACT NOW!
Dave| 3.3.09 @ 9:09AM
All well and good but this plan puts the burden on the entrepreneur. Successful protests (here in Boston, India with Ghandi, and here again in Selma) worked because they were done by the everyday average people people willing to make a sacrifice (no tea, time to make your own salt and clothes, walk to work) in order to make their point.
The second thing they did is that they hurt the government in both reduced tax revenue and increased costs for policing the angry protesters.
There are several ways to accomplish both those goals with minimum pain. Exploit the Family Leave Act and everybody take three days off to attend the funeral of our Uncle Samuel. Quit spending quarters - not in vending machines, not in the toll booth - just hoard them at home and see if we can pull the quarter out of circulation. Declare some month a plastic-free month and pay cash for everything that month - you'll be better off and the country's financial institutions will feel the pinch.
I can think of more but space here is limited.
Churchill| 3.3.09 @ 9:11AM
Interesting that AmSpec is pushing Gandhi rather than the actual authors/perpetrators of our original ACTUAL Boston Tea Party - those violent right wing extremist founders.
Try to be a little more subtle in your propagandizing AmSpec.
Appleby| 3.3.09 @ 9:24AM
I'm in. See you at Galt's Gulch. You know the way.
Bill| 3.3.09 @ 9:31AM
Count me in. In addition, I think we need to start some recall petitions for the representatives that are voting for this junk. I am retired and now have time to spend on a worthy cause for the country and for all of us who are retired and daily watch our life savings disappear. How does one start a recall petition? There are a few in Washington from Michigan who have been there way too long.
Minnesota Galt| 3.3.09 @ 9:31AM
I am there
dcd| 3.3.09 @ 9:36AM
If you want to make a statement that the government is spending too much money, stop using its services. The highway bill is hundreds of billions, so stop driving and getting goods from te otherside of the country. Electricity is massively regulated, so go off the grid. The military spends billions in the middle east whose strategic value is oil, so stop burning so much.
It's better to suffer than to suffer oppression.
Philoktetes| 3.3.09 @ 10:02AM
I am starting a ballot initiative in my state to eliminate a certain type of tax, because, despite the tax's unpopularity, the politicians won't do it. It is a small step toward liberty.
Jeremiah| 3.3.09 @ 11:11AM
This is a very good example of what happens when you take a fantasy-based approach to politics.
Ideas of autonomy -- political, economic, spiritual, aesthetic, ethical -- are always slippery and difficult to apply.
The above are particularly weak.
Generally the government does two things better than the private sector can: it provides goods that benefit all (say, the national defense); it provides goods that no one has an economic motive to provide.
Boycotting any of these services would be simply self-damaging and would generally leave everyone else unaffected.
Unless you are very, very wealthy (which none of you are) your taxes are not going to be noticeably different under Obama.
In fact, your TOTAL tax bill may go down significantly, because local and state governments may have more federal money to provide goods and services.
By all means, oppose spending measures. You didn't when Bush and the Republicans were in charge, but you might as well now. Keep us honest. But this Daniel Boone stuff is just foolish and adolescent. Before you know it, you all be back to joining militias and hiding out in the hills somewhere waiting for Big Brother to come and get you.
frost| 3.3.09 @ 11:23AM
No argument with the moral, not at all. But, without (hopefully) confusing the message, a couple words about Gandhi that I read somewhere: Anti-war protesters seem to be using Mahatma Gandhi as the symbol of the anti-war movement. During World War II, Gandhi penned an open letter to the British people, urging them to surrender to the Nazis. Later, when the extent of the holocaust was known, he criticized Jews who had tried to escape or fight for their lives as they did in Warsaw and Treblinka. “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife,” so said the dipshit. “They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.” “Collective suicide,” he told his biographer, “would have been heroism.”
Then, from Paul Johnson's book “Modern Times”: an Indian prince whines about the expense it takes to fund a messiah's message: "It takes a lot of money to keep Gandhi in poverty."
Seemed that he was also partial to enemas.....
stefie| 3.3.09 @ 11:24AM
I'm with Mark. A march on Washington is the place to start. Mobilize people who cannot come to DC, to march on their state capitols or their local government buildings.
I feel a radical shift happening in this country and am more than ready to be a part of it.
Obama and this God forsaken congress will sink us. If we let them.
Jeffrey Lord| 3.3.09 @ 11:45AM
Jeremiah...
The national defense is a service, not "goods." The goods used by the Pentagon - the weapons etc - are, of course, all produced by the private sector.
Pecos Pete| 3.3.09 @ 11:59AM
Jeremiah: You say, "This is a very good example of what happens when you take a fantasy-based approach to politics."
Ummm, marching on Washington is fantasy based when it is done by conservatives; but, perfectly okay when it is leftists? Or is it that protests by conservatives are fantasy based and that only leftists are allowed to protest?
rw| 3.3.09 @ 11:59AM
Jeremiah,
Taxation is not a zero sum game. Tax policy as with all government policies has consequences.
You say only the rich will be affected by Obama's tax policies. With repsect to income taxes that may be true but he is proposing a whole lot of policies that will raise taxes on all types of business. These taxes will passed on to consumers. All consumers.
If this is your idea of maintaining the status quo with respect taxes for us po' people then I think I'll pass.
David Govett| 3.3.09 @ 12:00PM
In light of their irresponsibility in D.C., I shall now use the term "spend-and-tax Democrats," since the party no longer even pretends to raise money before spending it.
Mike Lee| 3.3.09 @ 12:32PM
I can now see what Ayn Rand warned us about. The nex question is "Who is John Galt?" or more importantly where is he. I'm all for the March on Washington or a Chicago Tea party. Let this be the summer that the AC (angry conservatives) begin the long march back to sanity. Apologies for all of the Marxist terms.
Nick| 3.3.09 @ 12:43PM
Jeremiah,
As usual it is you who lives in a fantasy land, as do all liberals. If you think the states are going to lower taxes, can I sell you something, anything?
One of the worst things, in the long list of things, you liberals get wrong is believing society has the first crack at every last red cent I earn through my hard work. And the only fight is how much of my earnings society deigns me to keep for myself.
To say we (cons) didn't oppose spending is just flat wrong. But as I wrote in another thread, you libs denouncing the GOP over spending is like Hitler attacking Castro for the number of murders the latter committed.
Hank Rearden| 3.3.09 @ 12:49PM
Once this budget passes there is no going back. If you are a parent and have done nothing to protest this insane giveaway of your child's future, you must consider yourself a negligent parent. It is the same as not teaching them to read. You are condemning them to debt-ridden mediocrity.
Jeff Vowell| 3.3.09 @ 1:25PM
Jeff -- As always, provocative food-for-thought. Like stu.b, I'm in ("...down for the struggle!"), but like Dave, I have some concerns. I'm afraid most Americans today just don't have the stomach for such sacrificial and 'out-on-a-limb' reactionary behavior. Were this generation faced with the same difficulties and choices of our parents/grandparents (the Great Depression, WWII, etc.), would they acquit themselves as ably? Based on the current state of pampered entitlement, I tend to doubt it. And that makes me sad. I am, however, heartened by the many brave voices expressing themselves in response to your column. Thanks!
Frank Marschino| 3.3.09 @ 1:43PM
I'm in!
Joe Burgess| 3.3.09 @ 2:35PM
Can you feel the revolution? The only reason they tell you era of Reagan is dead, is because they want it to be, and they're scared. Here we come liberals. We're taking our country back. Right after we let you destroy yourselves. "Get the hell out of my way!"
Jeremiah| 3.3.09 @ 3:08PM
Mr Lord --
To be sure, national defense is a "service." I wasn't using the term "goods" in quite the sense of "goods and services." Rather, I was saying the government provides "things that are good," which would include services.
Now, it is true that the private sector makes weapons and other things. Still, it is the government that sponsors their production.
It would make no sense to have the private sector take care of national defense, of course. Speaking of Ayn Rand, she made the absurd argument that police and fire services ought to be "privatized," and rather than taxes paying for them, insurance contracts could.
There is a point at which libertarianism just becomes childish twaddle.
We do live in a society. A society is a GOOD thing. Philosophy can begin only once you've accepted the basic health and goodness of human communities. If you're stuck on that point, you are estranged from political philosophy itself.
I'm afraid many of you haven't negotiated this turn in the road yet.
The immense and almost crazy wealth and technological sorcery of our culture has encouraged two, now three generations growing up convinced they are capable of a kind of "autonomy" and independence that is impossible.
Jeffrey Lord| 3.3.09 @ 3:37PM
Jeremiah...
You say "Still, it is the government that sponsors their production."
Again, it is we who "sponsor" - meaning pay for - the government. The "government" sponsors nothing. It creates no wealth. It has but the ability to tax and print. Every last penny was created by some private citizen's hard work. This is what is forgotten here. No one is saying "society" is bad...But "society" is composed not of inanimate objects but individuals, real and deeply unique human beings.
There is nothing in the least crazy about our belief in autonomy. It is a belief that existed well before the last couple generations. Indeed, it is precisely because our ancestors of 1776 believed they, not the British government across the ocean, had the right to autonomy that we got here in the first place. Do we need government? Of course. We have to be protected from our enemies (and our freedom attracts a ferocious kind of those and always has.) There are basics to be attended to. But millions to tell us pigs smell? Gee, if you can't figure that out on your own, go earn the money and finance your own study.
Dorothy, TN| 3.3.09 @ 4:27PM
http://taxdayteaparty.com/find.html
This is the site for a national gathering to protest in cities accross America on April 15th.
Spread the word and prepare.
Dave, MA| 3.3.09 @ 4:56PM
This is very simple. Just don't pay your taxes. Work under the table. Of course, it'll never happen.
Jim Mulcahy| 3.3.09 @ 5:48PM
Jeremiah,
Re Speaking of Ayn Rand, she made the absurd argument that police and fire services ought to be "privatized," and rather than taxes paying for them, insurance contracts could.
Many communities, mine included, have volunteer fire depts. They work just fine. Many companies have private security forces, including the U. of Chicago. There is nothing absurd about it. It is you who seem to believe that only the govt. can supply us with our plenty. how many examples will it take before you are disabused of that notion?
jon galt| 3.3.09 @ 6:35PM
Much easier to just assassinate the top five democrats and watch what how the rest respond...
Galt
John Smith| 3.3.09 @ 7:55PM
Cute idea guys. I'm curious if any of you excited about this idea did any volunteer work for conservative candidates during the 2008 election. How about the author? Anyone make any contributions to campaigns? That's how stuff is really done. That's how our ideas win. Get off fantasy island and do something serious.
CRT| 3.3.09 @ 7:57PM
A year ago I would have said no way such a protest would happen, but now we all better hope it happens and soon!!!!
Sundevil| 3.3.09 @ 8:05PM
Jeremiah,
Emergency services have been privatized in many major cities (I know Phoenix is one of them) and work better than when run by the local municipality. Gee, there's a shocker. Public conpanies bid for the services, just like the way many other private sector businesses work. Anyway, try to research your facts before you come to conclusions that are essentially wrong. Why must the government run the police and fire departments? To avoid corruption? Ya, OK, that never happens. Laugh.
Son Of Sam| 3.3.09 @ 8:10PM
The ObamaNazis are not merely targeting capitalists: they are seeking to destroy the middle class. The idea of a third class in between the "Two Americas" doesn't sit well with the traitors and America haters. That's why it doesn't matter how many times their mad schemes "dont work" whether its welfare or being soft on crime or taking 800 billion dollars of the peoples money and giving it to banks so as to somehow help us. For liberal traitors, these things DO work, and work quite well. The war on poverty wasn't about helping the poor, it was about saddling the middle class with massive new tax burdens in the name of "compassion". Coddling criminals isn't about "rehabilitation", its about inflicting the thugs against us, making us far less secure in our homes and in our own neighborhoods. Its a tax on our souls and psyches. In all of this, they have served the "progressive" intent very well: you cannot "remake" America until you've broken its backbone.
Look for this to be the next broadcast at
http://www.geocities.com/samadamssos/
until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
D>S>SAMMIS| 3.3.09 @ 8:17PM
Those that doubt the power of some of these suggestions, don't appreciate that many small contribitions make a big impact. (Sinatra--"High Hopes) I for one have a pitchfork lashed to my mailbox for all the Soccer Moms to to see , twice a day. I added two tea cups yesterday.
dcd| 3.3.09 @ 8:47PM
Now we will see if the right is willing to put their time and money where there mouth is.
March, protest, petition. Pick a day, gather a few hundred thousand of your closest frieds and march on the capitol.
It worked for the left, mocked and condemned as they were for taking their complaints to washington, and now they are in charge.
So put together a short and simple list of demands that the vast majority of the public supports (less spending, lower taxes) and take it to the streets.
Rita| 3.3.09 @ 8:52PM
If America does not do something soon, we are lost forever. We have another chance in 2010 to fix the problem. Make sure our President does not have a house and senate to just rubber stamp his agenda.
Jeremiah| 3.3.09 @ 10:11PM
Mr Lord --
I wonder how the folks at American Conservative think about "jon galt's" post above, in which he advocates political assassination (a form of terrorism).
I don't see anyone complaining about his post, and I'm surprised you guys haven't taken it down.
Galt's post:
jon galt| 3.3.09 @ 6:35PM
Much easier to just assassinate the top five democrats and watch what how the rest respond...
Galt
Jeremiah| 3.3.09 @ 10:15PM
Since the "top 5 Democrats" would presumably include the president, Galt's post really should be deleted.
(It's illegal to threaten the president's life or insight others to acts of terrorism.)
Nick| 3.3.09 @ 10:28PM
Jeremiah,
You never answered my post above. Can I sell you something, anything?
puffdaddy| 3.3.09 @ 10:41PM
Did anyone see the Wall Street Journal Poll? Big numbers for Obama, big majority trust his social engineering, so basically, we are done because in 2 years it will not matter if his numbers are down, we will be stuck with "social change" and there's no place to go.
ruth| 3.3.09 @ 10:47PM
Jeremiah, the left wrote books about the assassination of President Bush. There were other pieces of 'art' that conveyed similar messages created by you guys. Doesn't feel good, does it? Go suck on a stone, troll.
ruth| 3.3.09 @ 10:48PM
Bull. Obama's numbers are tanking, and it's just the start, troll.
CelloFellow| 3.3.09 @ 11:57PM
While the intentions behind this plan are good, I want to say two things:
1) Most of those big businesses like the gas companies and retailers are owned and operated by many of the same people who control the government. They won't join in a general strike like this.
2) This general strike idea would get attention very quickly, but the government would likely claim it to be a huge crisis that it must remedy the only way it can: force. So here come the brainwashed special forces and cops, the robotic Predator drones and robotic tanks and maybe even robotic troops. They round up all of us, nationalize all industries that have joined the strike, and *bang* we are in a complete slave state.
Anothing thing about the strike idea is it is not doing more, it is doing less, or in fact doing nothing. Ghandi, as explained in the article, did something. He made something. He made salt, and clothes, and opposed the unjust monopolies. We could do similar, opposing our unjust Federal Reserve money system, for example. We can say to heck with your fake, debt-laden, fiat money. We'll use natural commodity money and there's nothing you can do about it.
That would have the spirit of Ghandi, much more than a general strike of all things capitalist shutting down for a day to show the world how much it depends on it. Sure, it'd make a point, but at what cost and with what benefit?
-Josh
Mudita| 3.4.09 @ 12:29AM
Dear friend,
I am from India and live in Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad. I belong to a Gandhian family and I have done Masters in Gandhian Philosophy from Gujarat Vidyapith, a university founded by Gandhi himself in 1920. I am very happy to see that you have been very inspired by Mr. Gandhi. But I have something to tell you. In all the struggles of Gandhi, truth was the base. He never was rude or bad to Britishers. He said I know no enemies and he had been so humble everytime. He also understood counterpart's arguments and always considered the last person of the society. So I would like tell you that whatever you decide to do (if learning from Gandhi) please think whether your deed will benefit the last and the poorest of your society? Then only you are on a right path.
Best wishes and kind regards
Mudita
nick| 3.4.09 @ 3:36AM
also, ghandi says 'relax' : http://www.headlineshirts.net/gandhi-says-relax.html
Shivalingua| 3.4.09 @ 6:51AM
Mudita has addressed the core of the problem. Any protests, govenrment solutions or capitalist or socialist fixes of the mess you have created in the US of A has to focus on human being the benefactor. Till the last member of your society.
If you want changes/actions created by minds that hate, I tell you brothers ... your country is on a mistaken path still going deeper into the woods of destruction.. but maybe that's what is needed before the sunshine comes back again. Shiva rids the universe of ignorance and self pride...
Bagbalm| 3.4.09 @ 9:22AM
Suggesting a general strike is not the same at all as what Ghandi did by making salt. He did not shut down commerce and deny salt to everyone - he bypassed the British in an area where they had simply taxed a good needed for life without adding any value to the transaction. A more closely corresponding action would be to make whiskey or grow pot or carry out a trade such as cutting hair or running a taxi cab. Activities with which the government interferes with no benefit to the seller or the buyer. Do you really believe your barber will only keep clean instruments and protect you from disease if the government forces him to do so? Why does the government deny a person with MS the relief of pot except as a naked display of their own power to intimidate us?
There are already many people out there 'making salt' -- support them instead of buying government salt.
Maureen| 3.4.09 @ 9:43AM
The powers that be (TPTB) OWN all the radio stations, so I'm confused. What are you talking about? People would have to reject most of modern society (because it is all controlled by TPTB). Ultimately, I think this is what will have to happen but how many are ready for that?
geo8rge| 3.4.09 @ 9:50AM
Ghandi wanted the British ruling class to go home to Britain.
The 'founding fathers' wanted the British ruling class to go home to Britain, or atleast Canada.
So you want the US ruling class to go where? You simply do not understand the problem.
Your premise is also silly as the Bush then Obama administrations are doing their best to make sure capatalists (actual rich people) do very well. Which is why Socialist PM Gordon Brown made damn sure Whatshisname got his million pound pension at age 50 after destroying RBS. The reason for all the bail outs. Rich people are not losing anything. It is people with IRAs that are losing. They are mostly at the end of their work lives, they are transitioning from a meager working life as a producers to a poverty on the government dole aka social security. They are irrelevant. They are on the liability side of the balance sheet as far as the US gov is concerned.
Most Americans are on the public dole, face it. Government pensions, social security, government paycheck, whose left. Rush Limbaugh, who loves a big government as long as its killing people. Really, how many producers are there out there?
Your reasoning also indicates you don't have any idea what your are talking about
"In hundreds of thousands of barns agonized cows are not milked, "
"hospitals missing doctors, nurses, orderlies"
Two highly regulated areas of 'production' that would be less well remunerated if it were not for government regulations. They will not strike except for more government hand outs.
Your yapping about Wal*Mart and McDonanalds also indicates you do not understand that they are doing comparitively well.
You want to put fear into the hearts of the American ruling class. Convert to Islam, that'll fix'em, and scare'em too.
Pingback| 3.4.09 @ 10:03AM
Gandhi for Capitalists « NObama Blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard| 3.4.09 @ 10:19AM
Who is John Galt?
Lila Rajiva| 3.4.09 @ 10:20AM
Just fyi, Gandhi's tactics were interwoven quite closely with his spiritual goals....
http://counterpunch.org/rajiva02152005.html
Nate Butterfield| 3.4.09 @ 10:46AM
A general strike just to punish is not the way Gandhi would have wanted to go. A general strike should be used only as a tool of instruction not as a tool of destruction. Mudita, Shivalingua and Bagbalm are correct. A movement of non-violent non-cooperation must first and foremost be about the betterment of this society.
If it is about punishing "left-wingers" then it is already a failure. By countering their hate for "right-wingers" and "capitalists"(as if every system of organization wasn't capitalist, it's just a question of who controls the capital) with hate for "left-wingers" and "socialists" you only feed the hate and animosity. This leads to civil war. You must first and foremost counter their hate with love. This will expose them as the aggressors and take away any moral superiority they think they have. You must work to change their minds and hearts. You must love them and try to make them your compatriots. If you want to convince people that a free society is the most just society then first you must demonstrate that you are working in the best interests of the country and that we as Americans can be trusted with freedom. If you use violence and anger to oppose violence and anger then you are right back where you started and the country is no better off.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Mohandas K Gandhi
Having said that. The current system is tyrannical and is harmful to not only our own country but to the rest of the world and needs to be challenged and replaced. Agorist trading networks and using commodity based currency would be a good way to start. It would challenge the system, benefit those involved and lay the groundwork for people to have an alternative to the government endorsed system. Refusal to pay taxes, carry government issued IDs and refusal to serve in any capacity for any government functions would also be good ideas.
Pingback| 3.4.09 @ 11:45AM
Re: Tax Revolt Rallies Planned | Political Class Dismissed links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Al| 3.4.09 @ 11:48AM
To truly follow in Gandhi's footsteps, make toys instead of salt.
The "Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act" makes it illegal to manufacture toys without testing them for lead. Mattel lobbied for the law; it was signed last year, and went into effect last month. Details here:
http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/columns/TimothyCarney/Washington-toy-story-shows-why-regulation-helps-the-big-guys38690727.html
It's illegal to make toys, sell them, or give them to children without spending a massive chunk on lead testing first. This effectively puts any mom-and-pop business out of business.
Call it the BurgerMeister MeisterBurger campaign. Make toys, sell them, heck, give them away, that's illegal too. And make sure the government knows about it.
-=ad=-
liberranter| 3.4.09 @ 11:51AM
A nice idea, but the problem is that there will NEVER be a complete strike by capitalists. The simple reason is that there will ALWAYS be someone who will recognize the void left by the strikers and who will seize the opportunity to turn a buck. These people will be perfectly willing to compromise with the Establishment in order to turn do so, no matter how antagonistic to real capitalism in general the Establishment might be. Ayn Rand's "capitalist strike" scenario in "Atlas Shrugged" demonstrated her fundamental ignorance of what capitalist entrepreneurship really is (i.e., voluntarily and freely providing goods or services to people equally as voluntarily and freely willing to pay for them at a price mutually satisfactory to both parties, with the entrepreneur's goal of accumulating as much personal wealth as possible). Poster Maureen has it exactly right about radio stations, which underscores my initial point. Radio stations, ostensibly "private enterprises" are heavily regulated by the State, more so than many other "private" industries and their owners, if not actually part and parcel of the State Establishment, are content to accept the role of vassal (and with attendant subsidies) in order to personally profit, even at the expense of being free to use their property as they see fit to provide broadcast content in a manner of their chosing that customers truly want. (See Gary North here http://www.garynorth.com/public/2588.cfm for a perfect summation of the real nature of capitalists).
In short, unless the State takes actions that border on a Khmer Rouge-style seizure of all private property (in which case the economy will grind to a screeching halt anyway), there will be no "capitalist general strike." The best that any of us can do is to preach the gospel of liberty as far and wide as possible, practice what we preach in everything we do, and show others through passive resistance how to undermine the State's every action. Only a gradual escalation of such passive resistance on many small fronts will have any long-term effect whatsoever.
;lakd| 3.4.09 @ 1:17PM
F_ck Rand, she was no Ghandi.
Tools don't shut themselves down; and corporate owned grocery stores won't buy it; and the blue-collars have mortgages they can't pay to catch up on.
Grandiose vision, in the right direction nonetheless. Sic Semper Tyrannis.
Russ| 3.4.09 @ 3:43PM
The colonists dumped tea to defy fiat. Ghandi made salt to defy fiat. MLK marched in peace to defy fiat.
Ergo, today's situation requires that we stop using/accepting government fiat money. Use silver, gold and copper measured by weight. Preferably in gram-sized increments. If I had the means, I would launch such an initiative in my own town.
Tj| 3.4.09 @ 5:26PM
Ge8orge?
"What's the frequency Kenneth? WHAT's THE FREQUENCY??!!!"
(Works best with heavy duty aluminum foil--not the generic kind)
Tj| 3.4.09 @ 5:26PM
Ge8orge?
"What's the frequency Kenneth? WHAT's THE FREQUENCY??!!!"
(Works best with heavy duty aluminum foil--not the generic kind)
Pingback| 3.4.09 @ 7:45PM
The Tea Party is Here: Contrary to what you may think, Mr. President - We didn’t ask links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Angel| 3.4.09 @ 7:59PM
Last I checked, things weren't going so well in India. Lots of very disgusting conditions for the poor there, including Untouchables. Please! Do not lecture us, you've got enough of your own problems to be giving us advice. LOL!
Paul X| 3.4.09 @ 9:03PM
Ain't gonna work.
If even 10% defect and keep going, they will take all the business from the others. No way you will keep the others offline long with that going on.
Gandhi's genius was that he chose some method that was not bothered by defectors. It didn't matter if 10% or 20% of Indians supported the British salt monopoly or thought Gandhi was wrong to fight them outside the "system". His plan still worked.
If you are going to plan something like this, find some way that does not fall apart when some percentage of people defect.
mudturtle| 3.4.09 @ 9:49PM
I have boycotted The American Spectator once even I became disgusted with the neocon sliming of the old right.
TAS all of a sudden gets religion when some other creep takes nominal control of your beloved fedgoo that the TAS faction seems to think is their birthright.
Grow up and kiss your masters that dumped you for a newer brand name.
mudturtle| 3.4.09 @ 9:55PM
anyone here want my basement collection of TAS before it went neocon? It is in the old tabloid format published in Indiana before all went native in the whore of the Potomac.
SM| 3.5.09 @ 1:03AM
Too late. The government already owns a large enough share of all the corporations that run America that this simply cannot happen.
Tax revolts. That's the next step for us. Tens of Thousands will be arrested in America just as they were in India. This is a natural consequence of the govt growing so large that its law simply cannot all be obeyed. Willful, peaceful defiance of one group after another and voila. We know by the very nature of nationalization shows that their power is already waning. I do think an American Gandhi will present very soon. When the student is ready the teacher appears.
Pingback| 3.6.09 @ 3:54PM
The Liberty Papers »Blog Archive » Will Atlas Shrug? An Compilation of Blogosphere C links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Trackback| 4.23.09 @ 1:12AM
Model Ocean Liners, on Model Ocean Liners, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
gfhgf| 12.2.09 @ 1:34AM
H264 Converter,
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poptropica| 4.8.10 @ 11:29PM
I’ll have a Poptropica full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You
Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale
You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out. When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. I’ll have a Poptropica full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You