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Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Ron Paul Legacy of Freedom: How people will govern themselves.







Future historians will debate the point. Historians being what they are there will doubtless be as many opinions as there are historians.


“ If the Ron Paul Campaign had been competent would we still have taken back America?”


They may hold conferences to consider the points, assay the individuals involved; there will be no disagreement that it was through the candidacy of Ron Paul that the world of political campaigns changed forever, moving into networking, as opposed to hierarchy; The real question will be the motives of those in charge of the official campaign. That is natural; the Ron Paul Campaign overturned that political hierarchy first.


Could the Campaign HQ in Arlington, Virginia have held politics on its previous course if it had been run competently, as the other presidential campaigns were run? What if they had possessed some modicum of experience? What if they had known that the media uses a Day Book, into which all campaigns enter their events? What if they had had a steering committee, standard for presidential campaigns? Lots of what ifs to be discussed by historians. We can be sure they will be.


Did those entrusted by Ron understand that for revolution to take place they must force activists to react against authority?


The formal campaign in Arlington, Virginia was from the first instance unable to do anything much but antagonize activists, forcing volunteers to work on their own. They refused to put up the Congressman's schedule; they refused to pay so Ron could participate in what proved to be the pivotal South Carolina debate until activists inundated them.


The historians will debate if those failures was intentional or sheer incompetence. Those details will interest only historians.


Those failures made it necessary for individual activists, moved by the words and principles of Ron Paul, to look about them and use what had been made available through the Internet to take the campaign into their own hands.


And so a new world of governance through persuasion and consensus was born.


The Internet erupted. Signs in yards, on the highways, and in the sky appeared from the pocketbooks and work of ordinary people. Graphics produced and shared online, with requests filled by volunteers became routine. Ron Paulists began monitoring ballot access; they learned how to conduct registration drives, how to do videos, how to organize; how to fund raise. They had to and they did so unburdened by anything but the need to promote their candidate.


Through its absolute failure, therefore the corporatized, official campaign made it necessary to reinvent the forms for political action to which we had become accustomed. As Jefferson said in the Declaration, “...all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”


The campaign flowed past Arlington, Virginia to make history by forging new tools of human action. That, history will note. The people had had enough of regular government and those who acted like one.


When you build new tools that work those tools get used.


Those same tools, decentralized strategies for broad social cooperation that lower the cost for accomplishing rapid change, are now being applied to all human action. The CorporaState will feel the impact like a sledge hammer to the side of the head.


Not to say it is going to be easy; but now it is impossible to stop. The people know how to do it. A taste of their own, individual power was all they needed.


Forget Blackwater; Erik Prince will return to playing with toy soldiers and conducting seminars for hunters once he gets out of prison. The War in Iraq will sputter to a halt. The debates on whether we should have gone will cease. Revolution is happening.


The continued ability of corporations and government to redirect our money into their pockets always depended on their cleverness in keeping a hierarchal social, political, and business structure in place. The Ron Paul Revolution changed the rules.


The change took place first in politics but is essentially spiritual, reaching into the minds and hearts of people across the world to whisper, “you are all One.”


If that sounds much too mystical to be relevant to politics, think again. We are spiritual beings in material form no matter what our faith. Today much of the Earth is Christian, not through preaching but through demonstrating the benefits of living out that truth; Christians believe we are One in Him. But the connection between us is understood by all faiths.


In his book, “The Rise of Christianity,” Rodney Stark demonstrated this using the staid tools of sociology. The words of Jesus said, “Whatsoever you do for another you do also for Me.” Those early Christians took that literally, reaching out to nurse the victims of plague, ignoring the religious affiliation of those they struggled to save. To each they granted through the truth of their actions the inborn autonomy of self-ownership. Women were free, a freedom they would enjoy until the Christian Church became hierarchal with Constantine.


Think of that early Church-State, the one that imposed a hierarchy where there had been freedom to live in brotherhood with all. Today we reverse direction.


Individual freedom, free choice, enforced by custom and law, enriches all of us in more ways than we can possibly imagine because the world so created shatters all of our own self-framed limitations and prejudices.


Now, this moment, the flow of time and power is moving away forever from the concentration of power in the hands of a few and towards the means each of us can use to realize our own personal power.


The invisible hand, all of us together, is flexing its muscles.


So today the Ron Paul Air Force takes to the air with banners and blimps to exclaim that all who read should, “Google Ron Paul;” an invitation for connection that transcends all boundaries. People are googling and finding ideas that make sense spoken by a man who demonstrably means what he says. That truth is ripping through the long winded and carefully manicured images delivered through corporate media.


The contrast is striking.


Websites built by volunteers provide tools for action. People gather in their communities to sign the Revolution from bridges and sidewalks. The Granny Warriors take it on the road, uniting young and old in a voice that includes all ages and ethnicities.


You can see it.


You saw the disbelief on the faces of the 'other' Republican candidates while they listened to Ron say the simple truth as Ron has always done.


No one was more surprised than Ron himself at the reaction.


The Frame imposed by the 'debates' was the corporate – government - media attempt to limit our choices and so keep us on their grids; that frame is gone now, replaced by potentials that broaden and deepen every day. Breaking the framing of the CorporaState was the essential precondition for real change.


The people are now doing it themselves, demonstrating how a single, once marginalized, political campaign can change everything.


Soon they will discover that the possibilities are limitless even as they exercise their minds to make sure that they avoid the many attempts to redirect them and their resources into the pockets of those who scheme to build their own little empires. That was to be expected. Success attracts lots of hungry leeches.


Many who formerly thought of themselves as leftists or progressives are discovering that in the Ron Paul Revolution there is no left and right.


Ron Paul has committed himself to rolling back the Federal Government. The rest is up to the people. A people who govern themselves do it from their own homes, their own communities, using those too long overlooked tools of persuasion and consensus building.


All of us were on the corporate grids. In climbing off we will use the same tools, cooperation and innovation, sharing knowledge freely, those are the tools at the foundation of the Ron Paul Revolution.


Individuals are renting houses in New Hampshire to house volunteers who will work through the primary. Those volunteers, many of them professionals, will then move on to South Carolina and Florida. Individuals are putting their lives on hold; just as if there was a war going on.


That is how the Ron Paul Revolution happens. Individuals take responsibility. They ask for help where necessary and the people come, drawn together by that common vision.


Ron Paul will be president, if he lives long enough. Killing him would change nothing. The ideas that Ron speaks have sunk deep. Ron's death would simply put the Revolution into high gear.


Politics is only one of the arenas ordinary people will remake using those tools.


Soon we will climb off all the grids enforced for corporations by government. Energy will be generated at point of usage. It will be cheap. No more people will die because they cannot heat their homes in winter or cool them in summer. Those systems will soon be on the market, despite the Department of Energy that sucked trillions out of Americans.


As we do in energy, we will do in all other parts of our lives.


Big Oil, Big Farming, Big Government all used the same tool, government, to perpetuate profits.


Production will be much more local; craftsmanship and pride in work well done will return. Instead of one global village we will become a globe of villages.


Big Medicine, Big Pharma, Big Retail, Big Courts; each of these controls us for profit. Each is a problem the people will solve themselves. Healing can take unexpected forms; it must to work.


And history will look to the Ron Paul Campaign as the moment when the people discovered they did not need government.


We learn best by seeing and doing it for ourselves.

5 comments:

Stop Real ID Coalition said...

Very well said and so true to fact. As I compose this response, 50 college students are enthusiatically stuffing envelopes with caucus instructions headed to Iowa participants of our Jan 3rd caucus. Nobody forced these folks to spend their holiday here, nor to be working at midnight for Ron Paul; at the Iowa campaign headquarters. We can be thankful that the grassroots efforts and the desires of such Patriots is so intense and inspiring to us all. I presume we'll finish tonight's effort around 2am; it's 11:45pm now. Everyone is focused, talking, laughing, and producing; what more could any revolution ask for - well maybe for leadership, wisdom, and decisive planning. In any event, the first caucus is one week away; the lights are out in the Huckabee office which is next door to ours. They went home hours ago.

Sally Franz said...

Well said! I truly like the "globe of villages" concept. As a past director at UNICEF I saw first hand how change takes place. We export great thinking with the Heifer Project, Thrivent, etc. Give women the freedom to own land and produce for their families and entire villages become self-sufficient. Re-watch "The Mission" filmed at Iquazu, Brazil/Argentina and see how the church reacted to self-sufficiency. Or watch "Luther" and see how the church reacted to a Bible written in German so people could read for themselves what Jesus actually said.

Hey, get a RED-LETTER Bible for yourself if you are burned out on religion and just read the red parts, it's what Jesus said without everyone else's pontification on the matter.

Melinda, keep pushing! And thanks for the reminder that we are all expendable and we are all valuable!

Sally Franz

Anonymous said...

Wishful thinking those claims you make about the beautiful but historically, so far, miniscule Ron Paul movement's future are. For example, no. If he were to have an accident in the near future the movement would most likely fail almost immediately. You exaggerate it's robustness at this early juncture.

Perhaps the big talk is necessary pep. I don't know. The truth is, this thing is as fragile as the little baby oak and hickory trees I planted in the yard last winter. Many of them have died from lack of tending. The only resemblence the seedlings to the several mighty giants nearby which they struggle lies in potential.

I don't wish to appear cynical. It's a beautiful and amazing thing that looks like it could possibly be about to happen. I almost didn't think a genuine grassroots movement was possible anymore. The hegemony of corporate interest in America and the West, despite occasional outbreaks of messiness and seeming anarchy, in recent decades have really seemed almost complete. On the one hand this breakout is terribly exciting. On the other, the way that the idealistically inspired movements of the sixties were so quickly co-opted by selfish and deep, deep-pocketed wealth preying on the average person's innate corruptibility, well, it makes me feel... wary.

Only with a great amount of faith and, especially, the hard work and persistence that accompanies genuine faith can this movement flourish beyond a few months. It's enemies will be more organized and focused on it's destruction than the benign and indifferent sun that burned my seedlings. They are expert with the weapons of corruption and co-option. They depend on the tendency of nearly everyone to focus on the immediate pressures on their daily lives, and tangible interests.

I have no right to say any of this, probably. I haven't done anything but observed, agape, like most. I just feel a need to point out that, really, nothing has happened, yet. I pray it will.

Melinda Pillsbury-Foster said...

You are wrong, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. But your opinion will change. Below are the responses to the recent Stang article, RON PAUL AWAKENS THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA. Google it.


1, I am 66, honorably discharged, and I concur with your assessment of what would happen if we move to assassination politics at this time. Dr. Paul has awakened the American Spirit of Liberty in all age groups across the nation. Many people would start voting with the little red dot. That is the one reason for the move in congress to remove the right for returning soldiers and marines to own weapons using battle fatigue as their lever. Thanks to the Internet these men and women now know that it is their own government who poisoned them through the use of depleted DU munitions in Iraq and in Afghanistan and in Bosnia. Thanks to the Internet they now know our president lied about the reasons for Gulf War 2 like his father lied in Gulf War 1.

I believe all the politicians and their handlers have reason to fear the little red dot in the hands of a man or woman who has been terminally infected with DU. This is one reason so many senior congress critters have and are resigning. They fear being held accountable by angry, hungry, unemployed black and white Americans who want our borders closed, and the illegals removed.

2, Ron Paul wins even if he loses. Yes Ron Paul wins. Remember the movie Braveheart. It was the Spirit of liberty that moved Wallace to act. It is the same Spirit that has entered into the passion of the Ron Paul movement. It is the same Spirit that will guide America through the coming economic crash and 3rd war on our soil.

3, This is an entirely different ball game! This time, we have THEIR number! Also, there are many thousands of very disenchanted young, badly injured servicemen, who realize who set them up for patsies in an extravagant blood-for-money racket! I sure would not like to be in any Bloody-Bilderberger’s shoes if anything happens to candidate Ron Paul! They got away with far too much with their fixed courts.

They trained thousands of now-enlightened soldiers how to "take-out" an enemy and now are finding the "real enemies" were playing bloody-chess, with their lives! The Bilderberger outfit should get wise and cash in their bloody hand, take their crooked earnings before they meet real fighters!

4, This next comment comes to us from Jim Schwiesow, a fellow commentator at newswithviews.com. Jim served in law enforcement for forty six years, including three years in the U.S. Army military police, fifteen years as an Iowa city cop and twenty-eight years as the elected sheriff of Sioux County, Iowa.

Dear Alan, I just read your latest article in re: The threat to Dr. Paul. I am county co-chair for Dr. Paul's campaign and a member of his Iowa Steering Committee. Last week he arrived in our county for an engagement at one of our colleges. I was scheduled to make remarks prior to his program, and when I arrived I was totally shocked at the lack of security. He could have been assassinated with ease and the assassins would have gotten away. He had only one security man with his entourage, ONE! I spoke to this man and asked about the security. He explained that he was it and that they did not have a security staff other than him. He stated that they depended upon the local police in the various communities to help provide security. At this event there was one local police officer present. This is serious and I cannot understand the lack of concern for Dr. Paul's safety. I am going to stress vigorously the need for adequate protection. His candidacy is rapidly gaining ground and the establishment elite are getting panicky; they will soon be at a point where they will do anything to stop him from gaining the presidency and that includes killing him. Thanks for the article pointing up the seriousness of this situation. If something happens to Dr. Paul there are going to be a lot of sorry S.O.B.s in this country.


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5, We, the “Legion,” have worried about this possibility from the beginning of Dr No's candidacy. For this reason we are ready to ramp up production of a high tech Guillotine if the need should ever arise. Sniff the air, there is a new scent wafting about from the Proletariat. Politicians can't seem to smell it. Neither can Bankers.

6, Congratulations on your excellent letter, which I received through News with Views, here in Australia, regarding Dr. Ron Paul, and the risk of his possible assassination. Very good, and one which we have been concerned about now for some time. We pray for his safety, and his success. America needs him, as there does not appear to be anyone else. As far as the enemy is concerned, it is our firm belief that they need to be removed from the top. I mean the very top. By that we mean the very, very, top, top. Do we make ourselves clear?

Does anyone know what these good folks Down Under, and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. Secret Service, are talking about? The “very top?” I’m confused. There could be some error in translation. Remember, they are Australians. G’dye, Myte!

7, It needed to be said and you used the perfect choice of words to say it. You are so right. If they do a hit on Ron Paul we will take apart the elite’s power structure like a massive school of Piranha attacks a bird that falls into the water. It will be fast, furious, and there will be no place to hide.

Your indirect threats to the power structure were pure genius. Somebody needs to stand up to these a--holes and tell them that although they may have the financial backing, and security, nothing will stop the idea and message. It will look like a scene from a Frankenstein movie

8, I am a Vietnam vet, out of shape, overweight, and at 62 physically incapable of running five feet without a great deal of pain, own no firearms, BUT have the ability to cause more serious damage to the new world order than what you suggest in your article. These people have no clue what is in store for them should anything happen to Ron Paul. I don't advocate any degree of violence because it would only fuel the rapidity of their martial law scenario. I will use my knowledge and abilities to do whatever it takes. How ever long it takes. With whatever effort it takes. Spend whatever money is required to get this country back. I pray for people like you and their talent to keep Ron Paul safe. Sometimes it is safer being in the open then behind closed doors.

9, I too have spoken to both serving and retired military personnel and while they have used different words, they all tell me the same thing. If Ron Paul dies, the gloves come off.

10, Thank you, Mr. Stang, for a wonderful Christmas present. You have the courage to put into words what I have been feeling all along. I have set up Ron Paul booths at gun shows and I have talked at length with the attendees. There is a large group of militia men in this country simmering under the radar. As the foreclosures rise and unemployment gets worse, their recruitment figures will skyrocket. The first gun show I ever went to, I was amazed, the line to get in was 5 abreast and 1/4 mile long. Wow! They try to stop the purchases of assault rifles and handguns by registration and waiting periods. Only fools register guns and cash is king.

We can replace Dr Paul in an instant; it’s not the man, it’s the message. His son, Rand, can step into his shoes without missing a step. I would prefer a younger leader, perhaps with a bigger, ruthless streak. I would prefer that we prosecute the criminals that stole our country and murdered millions.

Maybe, our answer to them should be what the African-Americans did to get their attention, a Million Man March. We should make a slight change, and do a Million Gun March. The only problem would be to limit it to a million because I, for one, would probably carry about 5. These guns would be loaded, although the chamber should be empty. Any resistance to the march will be met with overwhelming force kind of like holding back a tsunami. The NRA Lobby building could be our target similar to the Bastille in the French Revolution. We would get their attention. Thanks again and Merry Christmas.

11, I just saw Bill Kristol on Fox and he called Dr. Paul a crank and every other anti- American thing he could think of. It was the most vicious attack I ever heard on TV against anyone. You are right; the “Chain of Command for Treason” is really scared.

12, Sir: I always enjoy your writings, but this one is beyond anything I have read in a long, long time. I certainly hope our "elites" and their useful idiots read this and attempt to comprehend it. If they kill Dr. Paul, or if he has a “heart attack,” or a fatal accident, they will open up a can of whup-axx that they cannot imagine in their wildest nightmares. There are not enough traitors in Blackwood or whatever-the-hell these mercenaries call themselves to save even one of these elitists. Like you said, we know who they are, who their family members are, and where they live. All the money in the world will not be able to save them. The Six-Pack-of-S--t that they will open will begin with .50, yes. But it will also begin with .45, .40 and .223. Is Dr. Paul our last hope? I along with Millions of others fervently believe so. There are 80 or so MILLION Americans that are armed, and I'll bet that 50% support Dr. Paul. I don't normally use language like this, but I did this time to simply underscore my feelings about this. Keep up the great work and pray for the continued health of our man. Regards

13, YOU’D BETTER BELIEVE THEY’D HAVE A PROBLEM ON THEIR HANDS. There’s a lot of fat axxed really old men who can still hit a man sized target at 400 yards with iron sights with a .308 or .30-06 – add another 200 or so with a scope. And plenty of them can do head shots at 400 with their 7mm and .30 magnums. How much armor do these elitists think they can put around themselves, particularly when a .50, for example, gets lobbed in at close to a 40 degree angle at 1500 – 2000 yards, right over the heads of their “guards” and related personnel! Yassir, I think they just might have a serious shooting revolution on their hands! Particularly since an awful lot of those old farxts will be dead of natural causes before the gov’t can get them executed!

14, I personally, would be very, very, very angry if something “happens” to this particular American. The “elite” might be better off to put up with his presidency for four years ... rather than initiate a WORLD-WIDE “Turner's Diaries” situation. As you and I (and many others) know, there are too many people with hatred that, even now, simmers just barely beneath the surface for the various world governments to contain them in any fashion. Thanks for your “black flag” warning.

15, I think it is too late. . . . The B-52 incident at Barksdale proved that the powers that be are too few to push our military or intelligence services. . . . Honestly, if the average human could blame all of their misery on one group of rich, old, ugly white men there wouldn't be enough Blackwaters to help. I know these men are scared, but, I think they missed their chance. I don't think turning Dr. Paul into a martyr is on their agenda.

There are literally 10's of millions of people in the United States who would unify in the event of an attempt on the doc. Millions of Americans already know that any problem with the doc can be instantly traced to the bad guys. This will increase the amount of scrutiny on the bad guys by a factor of 100 . . . not a good thing for the bad guys.

This would be the end of the handful of crazies who sit on top of the world. These men are driven by fear. Every decision they make is trying to make the illusion of control real. . . . The tipping point has been reached. Dr. Paul was merely the focal point. Millions are unified now and the bad guys will have to work out plan B and pray.

One thing researchers of the NWO never include in their Orwellian treatise. The NWO is about 2 or 3 thousand men and 10 or 20 thousand paid lackeys. This group is badly outnumbered, Mr. Stang. The cause for martial law was lost this summer thank God and it is getting “loster” every moment.

Since March at least 1 to 2 million Americans have learned the nature of the political system from the internet. The genius Bilderbergers missed that one didn't they? They need malinformed apathetic people to ignore the man behind the curtain. Millions of bloodthirsty, well informed, authority hating Americans backed by 60,000,000 constitution toting gun owners are communicating with each other every second. Spreading the truth, candidate or not. If they hurt Dr. Paul it will be the end of them. It will unify the already unified and reinforce them by a factor of ten. They are better off letting him win and trying to stop him when he is in office. They need all of us to calm down so they can get back to pulling the strings.

No, Mr. Stang, the bad guys had their chance. They guessed wrong. They really had no idea that people would fight to the death for freedom and there are too many fighters for them to win this war.

16, I have friends who are sleeping in tents and their cars, leasing a blimp, etc. because RON MUST WIN or else the republic is an idea whose time has come and gone. I was moved by your article and hope all my friends in DC, NH, and SC read this. I advocate Dr. Paul pick his VP now and his VP pick his VP ahead of time should that be necessary. The only difference between u.s. and a banana republic is that we don’t export bananas only arms and war.

17, Very well written, very well put, and so very true. There are "bubbas" in Arkansas that can drop a ten point buck at a half mile with a .22 magnum, so a shot like that with a .300 mag or a .308 would be a piece of cake at three quarters of a mile to a mile. The death of Dr. Paul would open up hunting season.

18, Bravo on your latest Ron Paul article. Hopefully they would not dare go through with killing Dr. Paul. Your article is spot on as to what would happen if they tried. Most people, however, do not get it. Dr. Paul is not the revolution – freedom is! This movement is bigger than Dr. Paul. It has awakened something in all of us that has been sleeping for far too long. Dr. Paul is just the face of it – not the heart of it. They can kill him but they will only make a martyr out of him and help the movement grow even larger. They should be scared. Their days are numbered. Liberty or death!

BJ Lawson said...

Melinda -- Thanks for an inspirational piece. This post was the right message, at the right time.

I am a newly-declared Ron Paul Republican Congressional candidate in North Carolina's 4th District. Carrying the message of freedom is a challenge, and it took me a while to push "Publish" on today's Campaign Blog post:

http://blog.lawsonforcongress.com/2008/01/01/open-letter-to-newt-gingrich/

But deep down, I know that every great societal revolution is accompanied by a communication revolution. Hello, Internet. And at this point at our nation's history, honest dialog and truth is the ONLY option.

Also, I am in 100% agreement that the solution to our problem lies in economic freedom:

http://blog.lawsonforcongress.com/category/economic-freedom/

Thanks again.

In liberty,

BJ Lawson