HJ, you nailed it buddy. We need to be politically active. Agitate, Educate and Organize.
That is why the Occupy and other mainly lefty movements need to be re-looked at in terms of organization and logistics. This old punk still has alot of tricks up my sleeves. Just saying. Shouting about cold dead hands is just empty posturing with no way forward.
You gotta give it to libs, they can assemble when they need to. I guess that's cause they don't have anything else to do. Responsibilities and such.
While what you say is also true, HJ, I think the bigger distinction is simple math-- we don't have the numbers. The two party system we have, is not effectively categorized, and I actually blame the GOP for that mostly. If you tell a room full of people to move to the right side of the room if they are legal citizens of this country, self-employed, or are employed on an upward career trajectory that is satisfactory, and are straight in terms of sexual preference (outwardly at least), and tell everyone else to move to the left side of the room, you are probably going to get a much larger group on the left. If you then throw a bunch of $20 bills on the ground to the left side and say that you'll explain the consequences later, but for now, the money is free and that folks on the right side are welcome to switch sides, you build a larger discrepancy. Now if you also say that folks on the right should move to the left if they are angry with their parents and want to show that they are unique, free-thinking individuals, it's a wonder anyone would be left on the right. See where I'm going with this? (Wow, just call me Abbot or Costello...Who's on first?)
As you said ,Crudos, we need to look at social movements in recent years, the good and the bad, to see how to herd the masses. Occupy was a weird mesh of some people making a legitimate statement that others latched onto to bulk it out. A lot of folks joined because they know things are fucked, but don't really understand why, some went because their friends went, some because it was something to do and they have no jobs, and a lot of homeless folks joined in to get some food and company while they stood around a larger barrel fire.
You touch on an interesting point, Crudos, that TG and I have discussed time and time again. We too are "old punks", TG more so than I. On the truest level, punk is about anarchy, not following societies rules. I'm not sure about other places, but here the punk scene was a mesh of punks, skins, mods , and rudeboys, the distinction between each group being political in a very raw way, and together, we formed a scene-- a pseudo society. Groups fought with other groups and there was a hierarchy, but we all banded together against the rest of the world, especially "the man". What allowed us to do this? A shared acknowledgement that we were all outsiders, and a love of great music. We all had different ideologies, life styles, fashion, etc..., but none of us were accepted by society, more importantly, none of us accepted society.
We need to stop focusing our efforts on the differences between liberals and conservatives, and start looking for common ground that unites us into a larger "scene" with greater numbers and a louder voice. We need to make our message jive with all of the grass roots uprisings that are popping up all over because those seem to be gaining clout.
The question is not whether "Rome" will fall, it's a question of when, how coarse or fine the rubble is, and what we build from the rubble. What shape do we want the small communities to take that will act as nuclei for future cities, states, regions, nations, etc... (this should make sense to all of you conspiracy theorists if you think in terms of cloud seeding-- the type of particle that you use as your "seed" to grow a cloud, determines the physical properties of your final product).
Sorry this is so lengthy...
