A CHAPTER OF JOOST VAN STEENIS' BOOK WITH WHICH i COMPLETELY AGREE


Why shouldn't WE change Our World.  The beginning of a New Era.

Amsterdam, September 15 2008

Dear reader, This is the 9^th Chapter of my new book Why shouldn't WE change Our World.  The beginning of a New Era.

Yours truly, Joost van Steenis

http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis

Chapter 9. Protest is not enough

The elite hardly listens

The elite reigned in the past and is in the present still on top. That has to change.

"Protest is not enough" is the title of my 88^th Letter of an Autonomous Thinker.

(http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter88.htm). The first sentences of this Letter are:

"The G8 meeting is over.

"Protests withered away.

"The situation in the world did not improve.

"Next year another G8 meeting.

"Next year another protest.

"Next year again nothing will change.

"Something different has to happen."

Protesters are only asking (begging?) leaders to change decisions. But all protests are absorbed by society. Leaders continue to take decisions in agreement with the elitist paradigm, they just go on with what they are doing. All protests remain within the framework set by the paradigm that the eliteworld must be preserved and extended and that Money, Power and Elitepersons must come first. Though some money maybe directed towards the massworld, neither power relations, the mind of leaders or the reasons why they take certain decisions change. 

Real change is not possible when power relations don't change.
Power relations don't change when the minds of people with power do not change.

Actions must be part of the clash between the old elitist paradigm and the new human paradigm.

People must stand central, not power, not money. The new paradigm demands that all people have equal status. Now decisions are in the first place taken by looking at the interest of a small part of the population, the elite.

There have been many actions of masspeople but powerful leaders always remained in their place and new decisions differed not much from attacked decisions. Activists sometimes claimed successes but it was often a double-edged success, there were some benefits for masspeople but at the same time the elite profited also.

The process of the abolition of slavery is often described as a success for people who found that black slaves were also human and that slavery was a violation of human rights as we should say nowadays. Abolition seemed a victory for humans who put the well-being of masspeople in front. The facts tell a different story.
In the struggle for abolition masspeople were hardly involved. Occasionally a rebellion of slaves demanded attention but these rebellions were mostly crushed with much violence. The struggle, that lasted a century, was led by middle class people supported by some elitepeople who saw that society could be more profitable without slavery. More and more the elite realised it needed abolition to advance society for their own benefit. That also some masspeople benefited did not matter, power relations were not changed.

After the French Revolution, probably as a result of the new paradigm Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood (Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité), slavery was abolished in France in 1794. But a few years later, the influence of the new paradigm was already weakening, Napoleon re-established slavery and a revolt of slaves in Haiti was bloodily crushed. Only fifty years later slavery was completely banned in France.

In the United States the abolition of slavery was also a long process. Around 1800 after the Revolutionary War slaveholders were "persuaded to free their slaves". The elite seldom attacks it own sons so slavery was not yet lawfully abolished. Ten percent of the slaveholders bowed to the arguments that were in complete agreement with the elitist paradigm. "Slaveholders were encouraged to abolish slavery because the economics of the area was changing. It was shifting from labour-intensive tobacco culture to mixed crop cultivation that did not need so many slaves" (not one word about the question of slaves were indeed also human).

Only in 1865 slavery was completely abolished. You may guess how much human misery was caused to masspeople in this half century. Slavery was only abolished because the elite from the North of the USA had a different kind of economy that needed more independent workers though they still "felt threatened as well because they were uneasy at the prospect of the sudden addition to the labour pool of a huge number of freed labourers who were used to work for very little and thus seen as willing to undercut prevailing wages" (again the money argument). "Northerners came to view slavery as the very antithesis of the good society, as well as a threat to the own fundamental values and interests". (quotes from Wikipedia).

The interests of an important part of the elite demanded the abolition of slavery and secondary was the idea that all humans had to be treated as humans. The human factor was small in comparison to the money and power factor, to the threat that slavery should undermine the eliteworld.

Most "improvements" in the massworld are carried through because the elite acknowledges that the economy is changing. They make new rules and the influence of organisations of masspeople on these decisions is negligible. The forty-hour week, abolition of child labour, rising salaries of workers, minimum wage, compulsory education, state pensions etceteras are first of all products of elitist think tanks. Masspeople benefited from these decisions but their influence on these decisions was minimal and the cleft between mass- and eliteworld remained very wide.  

The elite brings change when it is needed – for its own paradigm. What the elite does is mostly compatible with this paradigm. Therefore society cannot change fundamentally by the kind of mass actions we have seen in the past.

The Vietnam War.

The war was part of a power struggle on a world scale between different elites.

Why was it stopped?

Because of the protests of many masspeople all over the world? Don't believe it. It was stopped because the interests of the American elite were undermined. The war was too costly, it undermined the grip on the own masses because of the 50000 dead American soldiers (not the millions of dead Vietnamese), trade with other countries was endangered by a growing anti-American feeling, etceteras. All these reasons had their origin in the danger that the dominant paradigm that the elite always has to be on top was losing its influence. 

Massive protests had hardly any influence but self-appointed mass leaders still continue to propagate that it is necessary to fight for improvements within the framework of the elitist paradigm. They ask elitepeople to improve the massworld while the elite is in the first place occupied by efforts to improve the own world. Its mind is directed on what happens in the eliteworld and not on what happens in the massworld. Actions that do not contribute to the change of mind of leaders should be ignored. But leaders of mass organisations still demand higher salaries (though the income of the elite rises faster), electric cars (though the interests of the oil elite is more important), no hunger in the world (though the agricultural elite may not be hurt), no more wars as in Vietnam (but the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan just go on and new wars (Iran etceteras) are already on the agenda.

Mass protests have hardly any influence. The elite does not change its indecent attitude. Wars and violence hurt in the first place masspeople and you can find them almost anywhere. In 2001 there was some kind of war in a third of all countries. That situation has not changed. (See the 8^th Letter of an Autonomous Thinker Too many Wars, http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter8.htm).

Maybe some problems will be solved and perhaps, perhaps mass actions contributed something positive but new problems arrive just because the world is built on the wrong paradigm that turns around money and not around people. 

Many masspeople realise that, they lose their fighting spirit and will not be involved anymore in political activities. They miss fundamental results they acknowledge that all change only occurs within the elitist boundaries.

Mass actions miss fundamental ideas because they are not built on an own paradigm. They are a reaction on what the elite is doing. Actions are not based on the creativity and autonomy of masspeople nor do they put pressure on elitepeople who take decisions. Moreover most actions take place in the own massworld and the centre of power that is deep in the eliteworld is not touched at all.

In my 90^th Letter of an Autonomous Thinker, Wrong kind of action (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter90.htm) I commented on a German action group who made some principal mistakes. I named six points, stay out of prison, do not overestimate yourself, behave like a fish in the water, aim to change the mind of leaders, do not destroy insured things, do hardly send messages to the media.

The new paradigm demands that persons have to stand in the centre.

- Carry out actions that are hardly punishable. In prison you can't do anything.
- Realise you are a fly and not a tiger and that you cannot change the world in one action.
- Do not be a professional activist but remain in touch with the people around you, remain on trusted grounds.
- Try to influence persons with power, put pressure on them and avoid fellow masspeople that defend the top.
- Do not attack buildings because damage will be repaired and the mind of leaders will not be influenced.
- Do not try to win the media for your message because most media are owned by people who are very close to the elite.

Remember that all what happens is done by people, people stand central, thus put pressure on people who do not consider that all people have equal status.

Most protests of the past were useless. I advise to stop doing things that have no result. Do not participate in actions thought of and led by others, you have to control your own situation, do not remain a secondary citizen in actions – you want to be a real human isn't it?

Last but not least, direct all your energy on those people who use the elitist paradigm to improve their own world. Use an own paradigm that will be in the interest of all people. When not all people get an equal status, all actions will be futile.

Some last remarks.
- I have disregarded activities of people who want a society that is built on a different system – be it communist, fundamentalist or something else. Not the system must change but the people. Societies built on new systems will be comparable with old societies, an elite on top and the masses down under.

- I have also disregarded activities of people who wait for the collapse of the present society, be it for political or for religious reasons. Most people who wait for a catastrophe, wait till heaven comes down on earth are not socially active, they withdraw in their own small group in which they discuss with each other how the new society must look like. They forget that a New Society never comes into being when the road to this society is not taken into consideration.

- I disregard also people who are socially active with the purpose to improve the present society within the existing power relations.
- I concentrate on people who are socially active in taking the road to a different kind of society, a society were the mind of leaders is changed in such a way that all people are considered to have equal status.

More information can be found in the following articles published in the series Letter of an Autonomous Thinker:

1. Leftist actions are not effective (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter1.htm)

18. Is the Movement dead? (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter18.htm)

19. The Movement moves again (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter19.htm)

20. The end of demonstrations? (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter20.htm)

40. The road to the future (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter40.htm)

41. Change not improvement (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter41.htm)

47. The future is needed in actions (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter47.htm)

88. Protest is not enough (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter88.htm)

90. Wrong kind of action (http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/letter90.htm)

Amsterdam, September 30 2008

Dear reader,

I have decided to insert a new chapter two in my new book, Why shouldn't WE change Our World, the Beginning of a New Era.
The European Trade Union Congress just said that the capitalism is on the brink of collapse.

Maybe but do they have any idea what to do after the collapse? I don't think so, they are just an integrated part of our society and will only propose something that fits the framework of the present dominating ideas (the elitist paradigm) that regulate our society. More control, more regulation of the financial sector, thus less freedom.
They have no idea that society only can change on the basis of new ideas, new paradigms. Without new ideas people continue to grope around in the dark and the old elite will come back, just as happened after WWI, 1929 and WWII. The "democratic" opposition does not have an alternative that gives masspeople a say in society.

Therefore I started in the first chapter of my book with some horrendous facts and in this second chapter I emphasize the importance of paradigms, the necessity to replace the elitist paradigm that turns around Money, Power and Elitepeople by a new paradigm that emphasizes that all people have equal status.
Only with a new paradigm WE can Change Our World!

Chapter 2New. The Power of the Paradigm

                        Humans have brains.

I do not want to change political systems, I want another paradigm, a guideline with which we can built a better future!

You cannot get change by only criticizing what is wrong in the world. You have to give an idea of a new paradigm that opens the way to a world with different relations that are based on the assumption that all people have the same status.

There is no solution for the present financial crisis within the realm of the elitist paradigm. The proposed solutions are more of the same, you only have to wait for the next crisis.

Most money will still be channelled to the top and what happens with masspeople is not important. The people at the top of the (financial) world still get huge salaries, big bonuses (also when they are removed from their positions) and a life in 5-star hotels, with expensive diners and other meetings, very luxurious work places, the benefit of huge amounts of money that are thrown away in sponsoring sports or arts, the possibility to spend billions of dollars on charity for the poor that cannot escape from their wretched life just because of the politics of the top of the world, the excessive money spent on safety (maybe someone indeed will attack them for their anti-human policies)  etceteras. They continue to live in their separate and prosperous eliteworld. Everything continues to turn around money, in the first place spent on the already privileged life of the Happy Few. The tax money that will be used to bail out incapable leaders is just another proof that the top keeps what it wants, more money than anyone else. 

The elite is driven by the dominating elitist paradigm that the elite was, is and shall be the leading force in the world. The Holy Trinity of Elitepersons, Power and Money in which elitepersons have the power to get more money than anyone else is the dominating idea in our society.

I will later illustrate in many examples the effect of this paradigm which makes living common people inferior to dead money.

In the course of time the elitist paradigm has taken over the minds of all people and it is now hardly under discussion. Change has become difficult because of the paradigm paralysis, the inability or refusal to see beyond the current models of thinking. To change the world it is imperative that the elitist paradigm is replaced by a human paradigm that puts humans central, it is imperative that the pivotal function of money is replaced by a central place for people who should all be considered as having equal status. But in our time all is dominated by the elitist paradigm. Products are made because you can earn money with them, not because they are needed for the people. All what is written in the media turns around money and not around people. Do realise that and you will get an aversion against what is happening and maybe the need for change will also grow in your brain.

The old and the new paradigm are not compatible, you cannot have some of the one and some of the other. Solutions for problems will be fundamentally different, so do not throw away your precious time by concentrating on criticising proposed solutions. Maybe you can change something, maybe not 800 billion but 600 billion of your money is spent to correct the greedy wrongdoings of the top but the next greedy people are already coming forward. Just as J. Pierpont Morgan profited from the crisis in 1929 other Morgans will now profit from the present crisis – and how masspeople live is not important in their circles.
 

Humans are not mechanical entities, they are not machines or robots, they are very special animals that can use their brains to find new ways to live. The life of other animals is to a great height regulated by instinct, by biological rhythms, by the necessity to care for shelter, food and families. These items are also important for humans but the human brain makes it possible to act independently of the Forces of Nature.

By using their brains humans can achieve change. All activities to change society must therefore be concentrated in the first place on the way how people are thinking, how brains are used.

What happens in our brain is in our society indissolubly connected with what happens in our world, practice and theory are two sides of the same thing. Most of what we are doing is guided by what happens in our brain and all change must start in the thought world, must start with what occurs in the brain. You must first wonder why people in leading positions do what they are doing. Then you will arrive at the conclusion that most if not all of their activities are inspired and directed by the dominating paradigm that influences all processes in the brain.

What happens in the mind dominates any action.

People are driven by what they think. There it happens, all practical activities are a reflection of the processes in the brain.  All actions should be directed on influencing the mind. When there is no change in the mind (of leaders) all efforts to change the world will be in vain.

A new paradigm is needed for change, a paradigm shift has to occur. The new paradigm will provide new ideas and guidelines for the practical behaviour of people.
Because any paradigm is always linked to practical results of human activities based on this paradigm it is for change needed that the new paradigm gives new and promising results and that the results of actions built on the old paradigm are dwindling.

In other words it is needed that the elite will find it more and more difficult to continue to live in its separated, prosperous and privileged eliteworld and that masspeople realise that the new paradigm gives them more possibilities in governing their own life. They must become conscious of the fact that the new paradigm is better for them than the old paradigm.

It is not so important how society is organised. The system (be it anarchism, capitalism, communism, fascism, free market, fundamentalism, socialism etceteras) is inferior to the leading ideas behind the system. The organisation of the present society is only vulnerable to ideas that go beyond the ideas that regulate the organisation of our society. In all past and present systems power is concentrated in the Happy Few and the majority of people plays a secondary role. There have been and there still are some experiments in which other ideas are tried out but these experiments only attract a few good-willing people. Such experiments cannot cause a world-wide change because the leading paradigm is not challenged.  

An experiment with a cooperative association in Holland (in the beginning of the twentieth century), started by the writer Frederick van Eeden, lasted for about ten years. The commune was called Walden after the famous book of Henry David Thoreau. It failed because the influence of the outside world (the elitist paradigm that puts money central) penetrated into the colony and the idealistic paradigm of Van Eeden based on the idea that people should work as they could and take what they needed could not be realised. In the end the colony went down because the debts to outside parties became too big – money was indeed the ultimate reason that the colony could not continue to exist.

It is senseless to discuss if Indian capitalism is better or worse than Chinese communism (regarding masspeople) because then you discuss slightly different paradigms that are both part of the elitist idea that the top must have more than the basis. Our sympathy should go to that system that is most compatible with the idea that all people should have equal status, compatible with a paradigm in which people stand central. But although China is giving masspeople more changes to be educated than India both systems are in the first place deeply influenced by the long-existing elitist paradigm that puts a special part of the population in first place. .

In the present situation many masspeople attack the effects of the elitist paradigm. They try with a few dollars to diminish hunger, unnecessary deaths and curable illnesses but they still work under the influence of money. Such actions help some very poor people and make the effects of the elitist paradigm more visible. It gives some arguments that something is very wrong. But society will not change by charity, it will at the most make the life of some poor people a little less horrendous.

And though some other people attack the lucrative effects of the elitist paradigm for elitepeople this will at the best only make differences in income slightly smaller.

These activities hardly penetrate into the brains of elitepeople. The cause of the effects is never attacked, only when the cause is attacked real change is possible. It is imperative that in any action of masspeople the leading paradigm is undermined and the new paradigm emphasized.

When we conclude that paradigms are living in the brains of people and that the dominating paradigm gives power to elitepeople than the power of elitepeople can be undermined by influencing the brain of elitepeople.

In other words, masspeople have to take care that elitepeople are prevented to profit from the for masspeople disadvantageous ideas in their heads. They must be prevented to live their exclusive life that is built on the elitist paradigm, they must be prevented to profit anymore from the existence of the for them favourable paradigm.

At the same time a new paradigm must gain ground that offers masspeople hope on an equal status. Otherwise we remain in the quagmire in which masspeople suddenly can go down and never can reach great heights.