To the editor:
Throughout history those with wealth and power have used their strength to dominate and oppress the rest of the populace. Many writers have proposed the existence of organizations — the Illuminati, Trilateral Commission, Masons or others — whose purpose is to carry out the goals of these powerful people. Whether it is literal or metaphorical, I think there truly is a “Dark Force” in the world, intent on the enslavement of the masses.
The Dark Force has historically consisted of the leadership of three groups: the wealthy (business/agricultural barons); those in political power; and the church. Ever since the time of the Egyptians these three groups have conspired — and sometimes fought each other — to enslave the people. Their methods were, respectively, to cultivate greed and competition, to instill the people with fear of each other and their neighbors, and (in the case of the church) to position themselves as the intermediary between individuals and a direct, personal relationship with the Creator.
Right now the Dark Force is battling a “perfect storm” consisting of a cross-cultural, worldwide failure of the greed-based capitalist economic system, a recognition of the failure of the democratic process to resist the corrupting power of the rich, the recognition of the people’s common interests worldwide, and the loss of influence of a centralized religion and a better understanding of our fundamental relationship with nature.
The Occupy movement is a very positive manifestation of this “perfect storm.” By participating and supporting this movement we are all uniting to defeat the efforts of the oppressor — the Dark Force, if you will — to enslave us. This is an epochal struggle and for the first time in millennia we have the combination of circumstances that might allow us to succeed. It is very important for us to work together now, because this advantage could be lost.
Right now technology is on our side, or at least equally shared between us and them. (Anonymous and its loosely affiliated group of socially-conscious hackers claims that it can or has achieved “digital supremacy” over the Dark Force.) But that could change — our access to the World Wide Web can be limited and controlled.
In the U.S., we have a system of laws that, at least on paper, supports freedom of speech, assembly and other freedoms essential to creating a social movement. This, too, could change. New laws can be passed (e.g. The USA Patriot Act), and the courts can rule against us (as in giving corporations the same rights as people).
At 7 billion people, the population may have reached a number that makes it harder to dominate, but the global climate crisis, for example, could kill the oceans, flood the coasts and create desert wastelands that could easily bring the population back down to a more manageable number within a few generations.
Join the movement. Stand in public. Demonstrate. Don’t be shy. Talk with your friends and relatives. Give them hope and help them overcome their apathy and depression. The Occupy movement is non-partisan, non-hierarchical and non-violent. It draws its power directly from the people, without intermediary structures. Let’s keep it that way. Do not allow any organization, however well-intentioned, to claim ownership of any part of the movement, because that will only weaken it.
Do you remember the social justice movement of the ’60s? This is bigger and more important even than that. In those days, the effort was to change the existing system to extend civil rights to a relatively small percentage of the population to whom these rights were denied. Today we recognize that we are all oppressed, and that this oppression is fundamental to the “corporatacracy” we live in. The capitalist economic system is working against us and our political system has sold us out.
We are the 99 percent! We have a brief moment when we can defeat, or at least unmask and set back, the Dark Force and provide an example for the generations to come. Let’s not waste it. To get on the Occupy Whidbey mailing list, email occupywhidbey@gmail.com. See the Facebook page at Occupy Whidbey, and visit the website at www.OccupyWhidbey.org.
JIM HYDE
Langley
