The Playbook for a People's Victory? We Are One

This is our path to victory.

There are descriptions everywhere of how rich and powerful the Koch brothers are, and how difficult, nay impossible, it will be to defeat them. People are giving themselves longshot odds at best, and if we lose that will be the reason. We don’t understand how things work.

I don’t deny that they are incredibly wealthy, powerful beyond our imaginations, but if you’re looking at that you’ll never win. This isn’t impossible, however legendary Chinese warrior Sun Tzu would say it’s essential to understand your enemy’s weaknesses. They are there to be exploited.

The strategy dates back at least 2000 years, probably further, however it requires something of each of us that many people have become unwilling to give over the past few decades. If we overcome our reticence, the world is ours.

It begs the question, how can the people surmount such seemingly long odds and emerge victorious in this ages old class warfare struggle?

Certainly many of you have had this experience. You’re driving down the highway, when you realize that you’re precariously close to running off the pavement. You repeat to yourself over and over, “Don’t go off the shoulder, don’t go off the shoulder.” The next thing you know, both of your passenger-side tires drop off the pavement, and you have to make a serious course correction to get back on the road.

Why does it happen? You got what it is that you were concentrating on the most, which is going off the road. I know, you’ll say you were concentrating on NOT going off road, but your mind doesn’t understand negatives. All it knew is that you were concentrating on going off the road.

The next time that this happens, simply shift your gaze to the stripe in the middle of the road, and the next thing you know you’ll be back in your lane. We get what we think about most in this world, and right now most people are thinking, “We can’t let them win, we can’t let them win.” Keep thinking that way, and they’re going to win.

Around 1919, a young metaphysicist named James Allen wrote a booklet, As a Man Thinketh, which spells it out. He makes two startling claims in it. “They themselves are makers of themselves,” and “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” Your thoughts determine your fate.

So instead of thinking “We can’t let them win,” change that to, “Me and my millions of friends will win this one easily.” What’s that you say, you don’t have millions of friends? I beg to differ, and that’s the problem.

Divide and conquer is the guiding principle by which the elites rule, and that’s our fault. We allow them to make us afraid of people who are just like us, no actually are us, and we isolate ourselves away from our power. The signs at rallies that you see which say, “We Are One,” are not metaphorical, but metaphysical. We ARE one, and a formidable opponent. We are legion.

In the time of feudalism, the serfs and slaves lived outside the castle walls, but they didn’t run off. Why not? Because the king had planted stories about dragons in the forest that would eat them should they try to escape, and they believed them. They allowed prisons to be built inside their own minds that kept them from acting in their own best interest, and we are no different.

So how do we break out of these prisons of isolation we’ve allowed them to build in our minds?

It’s time to reconnect and reclaim our rightful status. A few thousand are able to control billions because they’ve effectively convinced this of our separateness, so in order to win we need to reconnect with our fellows, and there’s the rub. It means putting ourselves out there where the dragons live.

For decades the TV news has conspired with the ultra-wealthy to convince us that danger was everywhere, maybe even living next door to us. In fact, probably living next door to us, and we believe them. Most people don’t know their neighbors, and barely know the people with whom they work or go to church. It’s a winning strategy as long as we allow it, but we can change it anytime.

So how do we change it? The first thing you do is reintroduce yourself to all those people in your daily lives. Everybody from the cashier at the grocery store to your postman and the woman that grooms your dogs. Shake their hands and ask them questions about themselves. Get to know them, and you’ll be amazed at how much they are just like you, and not the evil bogeyman the nightly news depicts.

When I was a boy we knew everyone on our block by name, and we knew most of the people on the blocks adjacent to us. People would stop and chat, or at least say hello and call you by name, and you understood you were part of the community and not alone. When you had difficulties, there was always someone willing to help.

In order to win the most effective thing any individual might do is have a block party. You heard me right, an old-fashioned block party where you shut down your street and have all the neighbors out for a picnic/barbecue. Come to understand your neighbor is just like you, and it will be far easier to stand up for him when his way of life is under attack.

If the number of applications for block parties this year went up five, 10 or even 25 times what they were last year, it would strike terror into the hearts of those ruling elite. More importantly, we would realize that we’re not alone against these elites, rather we stand with millions who are just like us. Also we would understand that right is on our side, and according to Sun Tzu the army with right on its side always wins.

It’s simple, but it’s not easy. Reaching out to another is one of the riskiest things you can never do, but it also bears the sweetest fruit. As we create a global neural network and recognize our connection, we’ll be able to demand and receive the justice to which we are entitled.

When I was a boy, mom always said there’s strength in numbers, and she was right. Be a revolutionary. Shake five new hands a day and set the world on its ear. If you believe you can do it, you can.

THE VICTOR by C.W. Longenecker

If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don’t
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t
it’s almost certain you won’t

If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost
For out of the world we find
Success begins with a fellows will -
It’s all a state of mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are
You’ve got to think high to rise
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battle don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.