Paradigm Shift 2– The Great Opt Out

Well, after writing my first blog “Election 2012 – Shift the Paradigm” on the tzmnetwork and TZM Blog, posting my poll “Who thinks challenging the political structure during this upcoming election is necessary/could be an opportune chance to effect change and engage the planet on a mass scale?”, and reading many other excellent blogs/polls/questions – it is clear many of us are ready to do some things now to effect change and work with others who generally agree with the train of thought. I now have a couple new ideas I’d like to propose to all of you to get a sense of how to go about approaching these concepts.

First – Challenging the Political system with an underground, web-based clicktavist type of e-petition/vote to “opt out” of the current system. This is something I would probably need help with as my field is visual communications and not programming/web construction. This would be a worldwide poll asking the general question, “Would you be interested in voting for an idea outside of the current structure, and more in line with the needs of humanity?” We could state several general basic statistics and trends of where the current system has gotten us, and present the ideas of the Zeitgeist Movement, Venus Project and others as a train of thought, not necessarily one option. If we could start pooling together various organizations with a “Common Ground Project”, we could at least BEGIN this huge movement in the real world, not just as an idea. I’ve been working with the phrase Paradigm Shift, because that is exactly what we’re trying to do.

I do realize there are much more education and awareness efforts that need to be made to reach more people, but I think challenging the political establishment and the system in general would do just that. This is going to have to be something put together by the people. The world is expecting the same old routine this next election, but given the current state of the planet and the worsening conditions, giving the “99%” another option would in the very least attract a lot of interest. The first thing people would do is question what we are proposing and how it would help their situation. From there we just present all of the information the movement has acquired until now to really reach out to everyone on the planet to say: we are all in this together; we feel everyone’s pain; it is time for us to put aside exhausted separating mechanisms that have divided us in so many ways, and move beyond ideas that concentrate wealth and well-being. It truly is the masses' collaboration that will bring down the established wall, because as soon as the masses stop supporting the mechanisms that hold it together it falls – and falls hard. It is a bottom-up erosion, not top-down.

In my experience of speaking with people in the general public, it is very easy to get people to see the inefficiencies in society. I don’t necessarily get into the movement and intellectual dialog right away, I just try to gauge what the general thought is on certain issues. Even if you are met with a typical “conditioned” response, I’ve been finding it easier for people to see alternatives. The main pushback that I hear is, “You would need everybody to do it, and not everyone is trying to think that way,” etc. The funny thing is, all of these people are saying that very same thing, so they all DO feel the same way, and could come to agreements on many broad issues if they are approached with outside-the-box, more naturalistic thinking. They just don’t seem to realize that many out there are on common ground with them. If a platform is put out there that touches the minds of all of these various people from around the globe, in a very down to earth manner, I think we could in the least create change in pockets. In all honesty, I don’t think we need to have everyone on board initially. We would just need enough people to say, “We are opting out of this system; it is not working for us – by the power of the people, we are moving onto something better for humanity and the environment.” If entire counties, or states, or even countries began making the establishment irrelevant, I feel many others would follow suit simply because we put people first.

So the idea is to create this petition for the 99% - who either power the upper 1% with their labor and consumption or are an unfortunate victim of impoverishment – to come together on a new pact that states something like, “For this next election, we vote for none of the candidates or their ideas for society. We vote to remove this structure so that all may experience the necessities of life and we may begin building an infrastructure that will take care of us all and bring stability to the environment.” If we can get the establishment-voting number turnout to record lows, start building and growing locally within communities, stop supporting big businesses/banks/political parties, start watching independent media instead of MSM, show love to everyone, and make the public aware of how beautiful and abundant the world can be, perhaps we can start planting those seed regions that will shift us into the new paradigm and begin opening minds across the globe. I want to include everyone on the planet who has access to the Internet because it truly is a global movement, not just American. Allowing the world to vote in our election (at least those who have access to computers and the Internet) could be a huge sign of reaching out.

I’m sure many are saying the establishment won’t allow this, and of course they might try everything to make it disappear. The key is to constantly spotlight that activity at every instant. The public should be made aware of what people in dominant power positions will do to quiet dissent. If everyone thinks they live in a free country and a democracy – watching the actions of the establishment should be setting off alarms everywhere when they use actions to shut the people up. If people protest peacefully against actions they don’t feel are just, and in turn are maced/pepper sprayed, beaten, shot, jailed, and slandered – we need to make this a dominant topic in any town halls, radio addresses and independent media that would work with us. We need to police the police in a sense. If we really think about it, we should be doing everything the establishment does to police us - within our community – to police them and monitor their actions. I’ve actually thought about contacting RT and a few other independent media companies to be an exclusive outlet for us to address the people periodically about our progress, updates, and any issues to highlight. Maybe we need our own group of techies to make sure our site can’t be brought down.

In the end, though, I am just one person, a relayer of information working with a train of thought, like others in the movement. I need help creating a petition that we all can agree on, help contacting everyone worth contacting, and just any additional ideas that could help. We are all in this together, we want the same thing, we left Facebook alone to create a community that wants to spread awareness and effect change. Let’s start putting some of these ideas into practice. I do realize that mass awareness is essential, but we can also do what we can to take action now. I just think about it as – every day of supporting this system and its structure is another day of starving, dying people, fraudulent, artificial desires at the expense of others, criminal financial schemes, street crime, pollution and waste, further stratification, more lost talent, and wasted, dumbed-down minds. At least an idea of real change for everyone may start to swing these inefficiencies in a positive direction.

A last measure I thought about should the Democrat/Republican election go on as usual, would be a massive lawsuit. Basically this same group of people who want REAL change could formulate the largest suit in history to sue the government for pretty much all of their actions that result in human detriment. That would be a pretty huge list. There was a brief Tedx presentation by Peter Joseph, called “The Big Question” and it really shows how everything we do is the inverse of what is efficient and sustainable. The only way that would be possible would be to have a governing body which makes this possible. If all else fails, we need to remove this structure by underground vote or my mass non-participation. The easiest way to bring down huge financial powers seems to be so stop their flow of income.

For now however, the election has yet to be decided and we have time to put a petition together for the people's vote. Please, feel free to add ideas to help further this effort. The TZM Network isn't just another Facebook – it was created so that people who are passionate about these issues can communicate, so we can take action!

Coming Next – Paradigm Shift 3 - Transition Towns…