This is a DRAFT chapter outline of my forthcoming book. There are two parts released as two posts: (1) The Introduction; and (2) The Chapter Outline.
This is post 2 of 2: The Chapter Outline
The Introduction (Part 1) can be found here:
This is not final content for the book. It is just a description of each of the chapters that will form the content of the book. They are just my personal notes - which I share so you can see the “big picture” of where we are heading and how we can get ourselves there.
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CHAPTER OUTLINE (subject to change)
CHAPTER 1: CIVICS 101
This chapter is a review of democracies. A brief history - its intent, its principles, and how it functions. Democracies enumerate powers to the people, exercised through a majority across communities.
Democracies are also imperfect and fragile - requiring consistent care-and-feeding to nurture them. They are susceptible to corruption by nefarious forces that will seek to dismantle them in exchange for granting all their powers to a few. The ideology of corporate capitalism will be overlaid in this discussion.
The focus will be on the democratic structures relative to both Canada and the USA.
CHAPTER 2: THE THEFT IN-PROGRESS
This chapter will outline the theft that is in-progress of our democracies.
We were provided with a warning by George Washingoton of the potential of a few nefarious individuals to overtake our democracies - resulting in usurping power for themselves, and for paving the way to dismantle the democratic institutions that are ours. They have to defeat democracy - because the powers of democracy deny them their authority to assume power. They have to - they know they do - and they will. Unless we nip it in the bud soon.
We have not heeded Washington’s warning and the bandits have arrived on the scene. This chapter will identify these villains, their intentions, and their desired end-state.
It will explore the two possibilities: (a) that the theft is well-organized via The World Economic Forum; or (b) a more loosely-organized effort driven by the endless pursuit of financial profit as outlined in the Shock Doctrine based on the Milton Friedman economic theory. Either way, this effort has been ongoing, and shows signs of rapid escalation towards a conclusion. The conclusion is the death of democracy - so their authority becomes absolute.
We need to know what is happening because it underlies our purpose to rise up against this threat and stop the theft itself.
CHAPTER 3: “CODE RED” ALARMS
This chapter is dedicated to outlining the urgency for action. Urgency is resounding across numerous - interrelated - fronts. If people do not wake up and rise to restore their democratic authority; that authority will be lost. The thieves will have completed their theft of our democracy and democracy will no longer be an option available as a recourse to us.
We have arrived at the point of urgency. The urgency manifests on several fronts - all depicting the need for urgent action:
The Climate Crisis. This is driven by the natural systems with no human control to change its pace. Either action is taken quickly, or catastrophic results will be baked in.
War & Conflict. Currently a war that threatens massive levels of escalation is being waged. It can be expected to spread, it is causing massive harm to both humanity and the ecosystems, and it is escalating the migration of millions of people. It has cascading catastrophic effects if it persists and it has the serious risks of further deterioration.
The Theft of Democracy. The thieves have ramped up their game to speed up the end-state they seek. They are recognizing that the masses are becoming aware of their crime - and they sense the powers of democracy springing into life - so have an urgency to complete their theft before they are thwarted and denied their victory.
This chapter will outline the urgency to act now and the need for people to rise up and take their action quickly. There is no more time to kick the can further up the road. It is time for revolt. Now.
CHAPTER 4: THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC
This chapter focuses on the task at hand - we are fighting a war. The war is a class war. It echoes many revolutionary struggles through history between the few assuming control over the many.
From Feudal Systems (lords over serfs); Monarchies (kings/queens over subjects); Slavery (owners over slaves); and now Corporate Oligarchs (employers over employees) - history demonstrates similar motives, battles, conflicts, and struggles where the elite class exploit the labor of the many to build their wealth and power. Each one ultimately led to a revolution.
What we have now are oligarchical rulers that embrace their power over the working classes through large corporate entities operating on a global scale. Their driving force is infinite monetary profit growth at all costs which ingratiates them with their wealth and power. As with all other forms of control and power derived through wealth creation, we have crossed the point of overreach - where the working class rebels to remove the ruling class and restore qualitative features of a more just and humane existence. This is not new. It is steeped in history. This is a class war. It is a war between the 1% and the 99%.
This chapter will focus on the history of class revolution - gleaming out of the historical record of what led to revolutionary success so effective actions can be engaged and what caused revolutions to fail so pitfalls are avoided.
So … we are in a class war. The 1% vs the rest of us (the 99%). This is a war started by the 1%. We are in the war to defend our freedom, liberty, and right to self-determination (the gifts democracy gives us). It is - literally - a class war where democracy will survive or be defeated.
CHAPTER 5: SUPERPOWER ONE
This chapter focuses on one of the two powers that we have available to us: The superpower provided through our democratic structures and institutions. Yes, these structures and institutions have been marginalized - deliberately - and are in critical care condition. But - they can be restored to health.
This chapter will outline the path required to restore democratic power - which goes to the majority of the people - and bring it back to health. A healthy democracy brings power to the people.
It represents the very purpose of the foundation and establishment of democracies in the first place. They came from successful revolutions that toppled the rule of the few over the many and replaced them with systems of determination by the many. The tool of democracy is for the majority of the many to direct the paths forward through engagement within their communities. 1% is nowhere near a majority so cannot function under a democratic societal structure. Democracy defeats autocratic rule of the few - by its very definition - and by its underlying purpose!
This chapter outlines the power to the people that is derived through democratic actions. This chapter illuminates the path to using the tools of democracy to guide the path to re-engaging democratic self-determination.
There is a path - at the community level - to reinvigorate democracy, heal it, and restore its freedoms and liberties. This chapter will present that path - which is a path fueled by civic responsibility and action.
CHAPTER 6: SUPERPOWER TWO
There is the second power that is the sibling to the democratic powers available to the 99%. This chapter presents the superpower of organized labor.
The 1% (the ruling class) has as its core mission the motive to endlessly pursue economic profits - which leads to their increased economic wealth and ruling power. Corporate capitalism is the core ideological process of the 1%. Their entire ideology is to enslave and marginalize the many (the 99%) to exploit their labor for economic profit.
The very activity of organizing workers shifts the power dynamic that gives the 1% their power. The ability for the workers to deny - and to outright refuse - their labor denies the 1% the ability to perpetuate their core ambition to create more wealth and power for themselves. Organized labor shifts the power from the few to the many.
Successful revolutions throughout history have demonstrated that the power of the workers to combine their individual labor into organized power to withhold and deny their labor has been a powerful force that has repeatedly led to changes from concessions to complete changes of political rule.
This chapter will review labor organization efforts throughout history and clearly present the power organized labor has to shut down the power of the 1%. This makes complete sense when viewed against the dynamic of the 1% relying on workers to perform their tasks as a means of producing the wealth of the 1%.
This chapter will present a plan for engaging labor organization efforts as an effective weapon against the 1% within the class war itself.
The superpower of organized labor is a direct sibling to the superpower of democratic self-determination. It has the power to topple the very systems and infrastructure that the 1% rely on to maintain control over the many.
This chapter will focus on the weapon of organized labor to exploit the weaknesses of the 1% - and to erode the systemic and institutional controls that form the strength of the 1%.
CHAPTER 7: UNIFICATION (The Winning Strategy)
This chapter will move into the action plan with a focus on its overall message: A massive unification and organizing effort.
The superpowers we have will not engage without unification. They depend on it. It will focus on inclusiveness - uniting the 99% into one loud and amplified voice. The focus will be on three dynamics; each adding to the powers we have:
Individuals. Calling for all to unite. Each individual is welcome across the spectrum of the civically active to more passive general support. Building public opinion consensus is a key ingredient to engaging overall power.
Activist groups. There are thousands of them ranging from large national and global groups to small local specific-issue groups. Each faces the same hurdles; the same roadblocks; and the same enemy. Each gains strength from unifying against the common hurdles and roadblocks; and experiences a common enemy.
Leaders. There are many leaders - with their own following and their own unique skills. A leadership Dream Team can become the face of this unification effort. This will be a formal call for them to unite with each other - retaining their unique “islands” of influence and priorities - but gaining the power of their combined efforts and delivering a unified power to us all.
This chapter is dedicated to a unification across principles of a flat leadership design (more supportive than formal), inclusion (tamping down on exclusionary and random and - in many ways - artificial divisions). There are dozens of topics and actions that every one of us agree on, while actually only a few that disagreement prevails on. The focus will be on the strength of those topics where agreement brings everyone together.
CHAPTER 8: KNOW YOUR ENEMY
This chapter is focused on an analysis of the 1% - the enemy we face in this class war. To defeat our enemy, we need to understand our enemy. Understanding how they think allows us to anticipate their moves. What their strengths are so we can counteract those. What their weaknesses are so we can exploit them. This is a war and we need to address this as a war.
“Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possession is a disease in them. Their people have made many rules that the rich may break, but the poor may not. They have a religion in which the poor worship, but the rich will not. They even take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse.”
Sitting Bull
The 1% have no mercy or compassion. They have no empathy for others. They will lie. They will cheat. They will steal. They will commit crimes across all levels. They are narcissistic psychopaths. That brings weaknesses for us to exploit. They ultimately cannot unify themselves beyond the peripheral level. They cannot trust each other - there being no loyalty among thieves. They have tremendous egos so cannot keep their strategies secret. They can and will turn on each other. Every one of these is an opportunity for us to weaken and disrupt them.
They focus on only one thing: Economic profits. That is the only measurement of existence that matters to them. Again, something to exploit (remove their access to our labor, disrupt their supply chains, make them fight each other).
The 1% also need a number of the 99% of us to cater to their needs. They will not work - they need some of us to do that for them. Ultimately, those that are catering to their needs will realize they are exploited and revolt. That is where the unification of the 1% falls apart. As their own home base turns on them. That is where victory will come. Our strategies need to focus on that event - to encourage it.
CHAPTER 9: OUR VICTORY CELEBRATION
This chapter will focus on painting a picture of what victory will leave us with once the 1% are evicted from our democratic institutions and what our path to a self-determined future will look like.
We will have the powers of democratic self-determination in front of us. We will have choices - but they will be choices that need to be selected by a majority consensus among us. That is how democracy functions. This chapter - and this book - will not focus on specific platform or policy agenda items - it will outline the path for the decision-making where everyone gets a voice, and decisions as to platform and policy agendas are determined.
This chapter will present a structure that focuses on the agendas determined at the community levels and filtered up to the broader national and even global spectrums. Priorities will completely flip - they will travel from localized communities to national and global communities. Priorities will travel from the bottom up. Not the other way around.
Communities will become their own self-governing democracies. Individualism will be respected and communities will reflect the individualism within their communities. We will cover some of the structural possibilities as numerous alternatives have been presented - while each may have minor differences between them - they all present structures of localized priorities, agendas, and aspirations empowered by community cohesion and self-determination.
CHAPTER 10: THE DREAM TEAM
This chapter will focus on presenting the function of leadership. Who will lead us to victory over the 1% and purge them from our institutions? Who will lead us in a revived, restored and healthy democracy after the 1% are purged?
The leadership proposed is not designed around a ruling hierarchy. The word “leader” itself is a semantic anomaly - better reflected by the term of a “designated manager or facilitator”. The people will select leaders to fulfill their demands - to execute and deliver on the agenda and demands of the people. The designated managers will be selected based on skills and competencies to deliver agenda items as opposed to setting agendas.
The role of political parties in the political landscape will be discussed in a form to remove their role as wedges placed between the people and their government. The people will direct the government to deliver on the agenda and policy items selected by the people. The designated managers will report to - and be held accountable to - the people in their communities.
We have the opportunity to select a group of leaders - as opposed to any individual. Leaders can be selected based on their skills and competencies. They can be selected for specific skill sets and combined with others bringing other skill sets to a team. A Dream Team of leaders can be selected to complement each other and inspire us all. The Dream Team can start with as few as five. But there is no limit to how many a Dream Team can support - it can just as easily be 50 or 500 or 5,000.
We will present the imagination of a Dream Team of leaders. Flat in its top structure, and accountable to the people. Representative democracy is the credo to be the guide; where “representative” means representing the wishes of the majority of the people.
CHAPTER 11: THE TACTICAL PLAN
This chapter is going to focus on the general tactics involved to remove the scourge of the 1% from our institutions and put democratic self-determination back into the hands of the people.
Actions will focus on responding to the tactics deployed and wielded against us by the 1%, and our own actions that will exploit their weaknesses and leverage our own rights. The tactics will focus on leveraging our two superpowers and the powers that our own unity gives us. They will focus on growing our unity faster and faster until the 1% control over us collapses.
We are 99% and we outnumber the 1%. So, we will undertake to create and build our momentum until they give up and exit our institutions. We need to make them afraid enough to leave. We will focus our tactics on disrupting and toppling the actions of those that enable the 1% (the mainstream media, the politicians and their political party infrastructures, the corporations, and those that fund them and their activities).
We will explore how we leverage our democratic voting power. We will explore how we leverage our labor organizing power. We will explore how we leverage our unity and amplify our voice. We will explore how we leverage action every one of the groups among us take. Our unity will give us our powers; this chapter will focus on using those powers.
CHAPTER 12: THERE IS ROOM IN THE INN FOR EVERYONE
This chapter will focus on the principle of inclusivity. We need everyone and we need to have a place for everyone. People are afraid to take that first step - the first step requires them to find their personal courage. But - by embracing everyone that takes that first step, every next step is taken together. We need to present a vibe of embracing everyone. We need to present a welcoming and inclusive place for all.
Some people will be active and some will be passive. However, for a revolution to succeed, it requires them all. It requires those that actively engage and participate. And it requires massive public support. This has been borne out by experience over history.
Some people may offer limited skills, but can still engage by boosting messages and notices of action. The objective is to be as loud as possible. To amplify. This chapter will focus on developing the core principle of inclusivity and respect for everyone that shares our common goals and interests. After all, we are in it to win it !!!!
CHAPTER 13: PAVLOV’S DOG (Division and How to Defend Against It)
This chapter will discuss at length the tactic of the #1 approach used by the 1% - which is to divide us. Using the manipulation techniques reminiscent of Pavolv’s Dog. Training us to be and stay divided. If we understand ourselves, what makes us adopt those divisions, and understand them - we can liberate ourselves from this tactic used against us.
We have to stay vigilant on this tactic used against us. This is the one factor that is delivered completely by design to thwart us from taking back our superpowers - to keep us from being unified. We will build our defenses up to thwart it.
While the 1% has weaponized division to thwart us, we need to counteract with our own weapon that drives to unification. The countervailing measure we have in our arsenal is the weapon of love. Love leads to listening, mutual respect, and keeping an open mind to diverse opinions. Talk things out, rely on democracy to set the direction. Inclusion is welcomed with open arms.
Vitriol against each other is the ploy created to divide us. Opening ourselves to constructive discussion - and respecting everyone’s right to be heard - is our countervailing tactic that we will deploy to neutralize it.
CHAPTER 14: FORCING DEMOCRACY ON POLITICIANS
This chapter will outline an actionable strategy and detailed tactics to directly enforce our democratic authority over our federal politicians.
How do we unify? We unify the power of the people. We gather the people together to monitor and hold our elected representatives to account. We will demand what we expect our representative to do for us …we will set the agenda.
Our political representative works for us. They have to understand that simple basic rule. It is how democracy works. The people are in charge.
We will be organizing the power of our vote regardless of formal election cycles. We will hold our own discussions through town hall forums, through social media events, through email dialogues. We will select and endorse someone to represent us. If our incumbent is not rising up to the challenge … if the alternative candidates offered by the established political parties do not accommodate our demands, we will select our own candidate well before the formal election cycle. We can - and will - hold elections among ourselves for who our support goes to. This is completely allowed. There is no reason whatsoever to wait for the formal election cycles. We can gather our voting powers today - and that way we have power ready to go when election days come around.
338 Canadian federal riding districts. 435 US federal Congressional districts. Each one of them will have its own local community-based action. We will grow the power of our voting blocks. We will engage the power of labor by actively organizing and supporting organizing efforts in our local workplaces. This will be a full time effort and will not be influenced by political parties or driven by the timing of formal election cycles.
Ralph Nader has presented an action plan for this. We will adopt it because it makes complete sense. With some modifications, it presents our working action plan.
Our messaging is clear: Freedom, liberty, self-determination.
That is ours because democracy gives it to us. We just need to assert the powers we have been given. It is funny - the words freedom and liberty are the 2 key words even used by the right wing leaning folks. We are casting a wide open net. We have to because we need to unify ourselves - not divide ourselves.
CHAPTER 15: ENGAGING OUR LABOR RIGHTS
This chapter will focus on organizing our labor rights to capitalize on the superpower of our labor. Working in conjunction with our democratic rights - and those actions in the previous chapter, this chapter will call for us to unite our labor to ignite our power. The two powers we have each become stronger by working them both!
This chapter will delve into new structures of workplaces for the future. It will discuss workplace cooperatives as viable alternatives to the status quo to ensure workplaces are not only equitable but that work itself becomes empowering to all workers and vibrant additions to our communities.
Examples of cooperative forms of workplaces are already yielding positive results across various countries in Europe as well as in North America. This chapter will propose the possibilities available to us as we contemplate our new vision for our communities and societies.
CHAPTER 16: RISK FACTORS
This chapter will be a call to action for everyone to awaken and rise up. It will outline our biggest risk of failure - which is our own apathy. The very cause of our current malaise and the risk we face of losing our democracy is our own apathy - our own failure to provide the care-and-feeding that a healthy democracy requires. It is such a potential point-of-failure that it demands a chapter within our blueprint for action. Apathy is our weak point and we need to address it.
We can still turn back the scourge that has infested our democracy and that threatens our lives - but we need to rise up now. Our democracy is in critical shape. This could represent our final call to restore the health of our democracy - and to retain our powers - before all is irretrievably lost.
CHAPTER 17: THE NEW WORLD ORDER (the 99% version)
This chapter is designed to be a further call to action. To have the reader join in. To have the reader share this vision with others so the movement grows virally and quickly. That is what this is all about. This chapter ties it all together - what we have to do becomes a clear path. Where we are going becomes a clear destination. That is what we want to see: Where we are going and how we get ourselves there!
This chapter will outline our New World Order (the 99% version). It anticipates the removal of the 1% scourge over our lives and it presents us with a blank slate to redesign our societies and communities that balances compassion, fairness, justice and equity for every one of us.
This chapter will present a vision of how our new world looks like. This chapter will detail what our efforts to restore our democracy back to health will give us: It will give us a new blank canvas to determine our futures. It will demonstrate what a free and liberated society has - a future that we can design among ourselves.
Community-driven self-determination. Time to meet your neighbours and decide what kind of community you want among each other.
Citizen Assemblies. Local leadership and priorities. Banding with other communities across the country where national level consensus flourishes. Global engagement as well.
A new world. A good engaging world free from incompetence and corruption. People working with people. The new world order - harmony, peaceful, equitable, and just.
People rule. Corporations do not. The 1% does not. Political parties do not. People do.
The 99% of us are the majority and that gives us the power and the authority to decide our lives.
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