Brian's Sharebook 

It is never a good thing to look forward to a revolution; innocent people also get swept away in the tide of violence. Why is it so difficult for Americans to embrace the truly revolutionary principles of Gandhi? We need non-violent, noncooperation with evil. Fighting a violent system with more violence only perpetuates that system. That's why revolutionary regimes commit crimes against humanity just as bad or worse than the regimes they replaced. By the way, the demise of a civilization is only useful to the extent that it is replaced by a more humane civilization. Civilization is the only reason why our population is as healthy as it is or why it lives as long as it does. Who really wants the constant tribal warfare, not to mention the threat of famine and plague, that characterized life before civilization? Do you really want a world where the average lifespan is 27? That's what existed on this planet before civilization. Yes, civilization has done evil things in order primarily to secure resources including "living space." But as harsh and hard as life is for many of us, it would be all but impossible for most of us to exist in a world without civilization. To pretend otherwise is to participate in self-delusion.

Occupy is not a revolution; it is not even a reform. What it is is a political action based upon the First Amendment's guarantee that citizens are entitled to assemble to seek redress of grievances from the government. That is all it is. If we want to really make a better world; it is far better to change the system from within, nonviolently. Having to rebuild from scratch only wastes time that we do not have.

Now, for something a little different. These protests, such as the Arab Spring, are not about democracy or liberty or any other high-minded intellectual content; most people around the world are protesting the lack of work and the rising prices of food. Occupy, to the extent that it is such a protest,  is a symptom of a much larger crisis. Due to climate change, crop failures are increasing in frequency. Likewise, droughts, famines, and disease pandemics are also increasing. Devastation from weather disasters is becoming more common. As conditions continue to worsen social disruption and protest will increase.  Wars are already being fought over dwindling resources. This is what a mass extinction event looks like to the human primate. Occupy is just a symptom of a cascading event that is rapidly spiraling beyond our control. Save civilization? Most of the human population is already as good as dead. We should start planning how to save even a small percentage of our species.

The Occupy Movement needs to demonstrate its economic power. What if everyone took every single one dollar, five, ten, twenty, or other bill and wrote, "WE ARE THE 99%" AND "OCCUPY THIS" as well as Enter this @ wheresgeorge.com? Can one even do such a thing? If it were legal and possible, then it would be important to enter the bills at Where's George before entering them into circulation, so that all could see just how far and wide our money travels throughout this nation.

We can't fix the machine until we have brought it to a halt. We have to transfer our money from big corporate banks and into credit unions...or socks under the bed. We should make as many of our transactions cash-only that way the 1% doesn't know what each of us personally has or what we are doing with it. We desperately need to limit ourselves to a cash-only personal economy: the 1% calls it an Underground Economy because they have no way of controlling it themselves. Ditch the institutions. Cash only. Better yet, when and where possible, we should make use of barter to conduct transactions between ourselves and others. What the 1% doesn't know doesn't hurt anyone. What they do know only hurts us, the 99%. Read more at:

Move Our Money: Will You Do It? Why? Why Not?

To summarize: we need to ditch the electronic economy because it only makes the 1% wealthier. We should do as many transactions as possible in cash or in the form of barter. The Undergound Economy is what the 99% need. We are the 99%.

UPDATE 11-07-11 Dan W. has commented elsewhere, "Defacing US Currency is a violation of Federal law."

Thanks Dan, we certainly wouldn't want anyone violating federal law nor would we want anyone to think that this article advocates, implies, or intends such a crazy thing. One does have to wonder if anyone has told the folks at Where's George . Go to Where's George , and decide for yourself.