This speech was given at the Democracy Convention by Ashley Anderson:
[youtube width=”600″ height=”475″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrKPczC50Q[/youtube]…a revolution because we do. There’s no other way around it. It’s going to happen, things are collapsing, civilization is coming to an end as we know it, business as usual is going to end. The economy is going to collapse, politics (the way they are structured now) is already collapsing. Gratitude and all these things we’ve been afriad to talk about ever since Reagan, like love and understanding and empathy and compassion and forgiveness and things like that, have to be in the center of what we create out of this. They have to hold onto those things and build something strong while we’re doing it.
It’s an honor to be speaking after the experienced speaker and I’ve heard some really good things. I didn’t realize there was a fight about who was going last. [Laughter] Maybe we shoul do some kind of uprising here and start it right now. Take something over – maybe we should. I heard some really great things. One was the anti-right economic analysis Rich [?] was talking about. That’s the center of where I’m coming from. I think life is trying to decide if it’s wiling to fight back and be realistic about it and what it’s going to take. I’m just pointing out some things I heard that I really liked. I live by the idea of [indistinct] economics, only I didn’t know it. Future generations are real. They’re real. You just unhitch yourself from time a little bit and and they’re right here and you have to look them in the eye. We are responsible for those people; for those human beings, and either you are dead inside and you can turn your back or you’re not and you realize there’s this tiny window to help them, to make any kind of difference. And you accept that responsibility.
And I hear a lot that it’s really dire, and that being alive right now, it’s so tough; that there’s going to be a lot of people who die. There is going to be a lot of suffering. But there is already. And to me, it’s a journey, well it’s a journey of heartbreak, at least it was for me. I — when I started out, I was a human rights and peace activist. I jumped on board with somebody who was working on Darfur, working on the problem of it and I didn’t care about climate change that much. I didn’t get it. I thought polar bears were awesome and everything, but they just didn’t get me up in the morning and make me want to go help. What got me up in the morning was the idea of children getting their eardrums blown out and not getting to hear music because they stepped on a landmine that some adult set up there that they had nothing to do with. That’s the kind of stuff that I can’t live with.
So I was looking into Darfur and it really broke my heart; people getting thrown into burning buildings, especially kids, because they didn’t want to waste bullets firing on them — and that stuff’s real. That’s just right over there. And I looked into it so deeply I spent two months trying to figure out where this came from and I think I stumbled upon the conclusion that it was resource scarcity, and people who didn’t like each other being forced to compete over those resources. And it was written down anywhere at that time (at least I couldn’t find it) and I was like “Oh my God, it’s climate change.” And there’s all these wars going on – if you want to stop a war, stop it before it starts because if climate change gets any worse it’s going to be war after war after war until we’re almost all gone, and it’s going to be a toxi wasteland here on this planet – the venus syndrome – and when he’s talking about the methane from when the boreal forest thaws out and all the permafrost thaws out…so I realized that I had to be into climate change so I looked at it a little further and I found out from James Hanson and those guys that there was just this tiny window of opportunity to do actually something.
Well, what else could we possibly try to do with our lives other than to embrace that gift? We can be relieved of that burden of not knowing what to do with ourselves now. [laughter] [indistinct] You know? We don’t have to…trying to figure out who’s the best next American Idol, or vote for politicians, or that kind of thing anymore. We can fight AS LIFE. As part of the great big force of life that knows what to do and that can sustain itself and that can BE, on this planet, on this little rock that’s out in space in this delicate situation, and all this beauty, and this thing that makes our hearts sing, and the music we hear in our heads and things like that. And so it came from that.
And I started looking into climate change. And I’ve been doing this a hell of a long time but I think I’m lacking the gene that makes me stop and be careful before I start doing stuff. It’s just like I’m don’t know what’s going to happen, kind of like this speech. [laughter] Go ahead: never let that stop you.
So I started looking into climate change and I said “Well, what’s going on? How can we fix this? We don’t even have time.” I mean, the UN – I’ll raise money for myself, and I’ll go to Copenhagen. So I go to Copenhagen and I say “Is this going to work? Is this going to happen?” And I was like, “Okay, who’s working on this part with the G-70?” And so I talked to Ben and…no one was in charge. If you’ll pardon my language, it was a total shit-show.
Copenhagen – it was a joke. Noone there who had good ideas had any authority whatsoever. And it was industry. And that was my second heartbreak. I remember I walked around Copenhagen I got to the Copenhagen Square at night one time and I was by myself, I was all cold, and they had cleaned up for the night an they had all these signs about Copenhagen and the thing was going nowhere and it was obvious that the people — that it was all just a show to make it look like somehting was going on and that something was happening. And this little paper blew accross my feet and I looked out and I thought about all those future generations. And I looked accross the square and there was noone there and I started crying and I know I’ve teared up twice [here], but it’s my own passionate subject and I cry a lot and I realized…I realized there was nothing protecting them. At all.
Our world is completely upside down. It used to be that when we were living in tribes as a species selfish weirdos, sociopathic people got kicked out. [laughter] I mean, they didn’t work, it didn’t make sense to have them around. They were going to steal your stuff and push people out of the way; it was like “Yeah, hit the road, I don’t care.” [laughter]
Somehow, over the last twelve thousand years or however long it’s been, it’s completely flipped. And now we celebrate them. I mean, we actually – we have parades for the people who are most selfish now. I mean, it’s incredible. It blows my mind.
And so by recognizing that – these are the people who are in charge, who have worked their way to the top, and there’s not very many of them. There aren’t very many enemies. And I know that a lot of people in this room might disagree with me on that, but like those mine workers that quit their jobs, there are people who are lost in this subverted system. They’re doing their best to shuffle thing around or they’re trying to work for their family or “hell, everyone else is doing it” or their parents taught them that or it’s deep inside us, the sickness, the mental illness – but I don’t think there are very many bad people. And it’s a matter of developing our compassion, and taking on the lessons that have been taught so many times in the past about having developed a passion and understanding and try to develop and try to communicate what has to be part of the replanting of power in my idea because we do have to overthrow this stuff. I mean it’s not working for us, it’s done. It’s going to fall apart on its own.
There are a lot of good plans coming out of people today, and people that are taking charge and everything. But I think that part of — there have been a lot of revolutions in the past — you know, you’re brought in by the tens of thousands and maybe people get shut down but they go in and they drag Antonio Scalia out and throw him in a “people’s prison” [laughter] — that wouldn’t be a bad idea, but even theoretically — then what, you know? Get empowered and take action and then…you’re justifying the way the system was before. That’s something that we have a danger of doing as economic disparity gets worse and worse and resource scarcity and suddenly food disappears off of grocery shelves and society really stars to fall apart…we have a natural tendency to – it’s almost this very aggressive male energy thing where you take over and you’ve got the gun and the cool hat with the star or whatever you’ve got on there, and [laughter]…I know I’ve got at least one person there…but we really do, we have to take seriously the developing of our compassion and love, and community, and our humanity, and recognizing that our priorities are all wack, and that the things that make us actually happy and worth living for are community, are being heard and having your own voice, and knowing that somebody understands you, knowing where your shoes come from.
Those type of things that actually excite us, that make us feel good and that we’re part of life. Like growing our own food: crucial. huge part of it. I don’t think there’s any other part of it than the whole food thing, the whole organic food, growing back together… to me that’s the most important thing. I heard somebody say that our next revolution requires that we become more human human beings, and create more democratic institutions. And that’s the challenge ahead of us as things really do fall apart. And there are things coming up – there are opportunities, Ad I don’t have all the answers, and you have said so many things that I would have loved to say, so you’ve got to manage more [indistinct] and I’m so glad for the work you’ve done.
And everyone here has contributed a lot, in your own stories and your own ways. There are some things coming up; I’m on the planning committee for September 17th, Occupy Wall Street and if it works out, maybe with your help it will be a full-fledged occupation of Wall Street. They’re doing an online poll to see what the one demand will be, and so far revoking corporate personhood is stil I’m hoping in the lead, the number one demand. Now, how that actually will happen we’ll see. But it’s a step in the right direction, it’s people actually acting out on a good idea. They could use some more experience and some more guidance. Of course there’s October 6th that’s going on, maybe some people in here are involved with it, I’m not sure. I know that some of my people have been on the advisory committee – I would like to see that turn into something very real instead of just a bunch of people getting arrested and getting hauled out [indistinct] or whatever happens, but it’s an escallation, right?
And one thing I’ve heard about in the last couple of weeks that I’m excited about is the People’s Congress next spring in Washington, where actually people will be getting together electing or appointing our own representatives, passing laws out on the mall and taking them in to Congress and – that situation can be – there’s a lot of potential that I see where it goes in to play a part in that. So it isn’t as though there’s nowhere to start plugging in.
And sure, none of these things are crucial but you never know what you’re doing on something like this. You can plan it, and you can get these great ideas, like the Common Wealth and Common Health or that our new government should protect and expand rights – I love that – and the – is it the six Ds? – the six Ds – Decarbonize, decentralize, demilitarize, detoxify, decriminalize, and derevolutionize. People have good plans. We could do this. We could take back power, build a new system of taking care of ourselves, or having localized…we could do all these things, one thing we do have – and we need to end – but one thing we do have is numeric superiority, and we have a collective conscience that IS right.
Most people don’t like Congress. Most people want things like a price on carbon, most people want a world where their children can grow up witout tumors on their faces. Most people want these things. Most people are progressives, I think. There are a couple of problems in this country. One is that our votes don’t really count because voter fraud is hugely rampant and I’ve been learing more and more about that in the last few days but I’ve also learned that there is a huge resistance in the progressive movement, and I’m curious why. With all the evidence that you’re trying to elect the right people to be our leaders, when the right people don’t really stand a chance of getting elected because corporations count the ballots. Does that sound like crazy talk or something? I don’t know why that isn’t the main issue, I mean it’s common sense, right? Corporations count the ballots and there’s no oversight, really, how they count them. I mean maybe local election are – that used to be a big deal! We need to pick that torch up and put it out front. What’s the point of doing all this, of yammering about getting the right politiciansn and spending trillions of people-hours knocking on doors and raising money and contributing and feeling good about ourselves because we worked on some kind of campaign and our whole voting system doesn’t actually mean anything when there’s a really easy solution – just have hand-counted ballots. It’s not very complicated. That seriously needs to be a part of it.
I’ll end with my little journey back to another thing. When I was like “climate change this” and “climate change that” – Copenhagen failed because the US Senate ruined it. There’s a lot of reasons but it all kind of comes down to that one thing – no other nation would even talk about it because if the USA wasn’t going to do something about it, pass on a bill or whatever, it was just a chance to get together and hang out in Copenhagen. And that happened because our politics is run by corporations instead of us. We live in an occupied country – we’re under occupation – and we have, what’s that syndrome? [murmurs] Stockholm Syndrome. So again we need to take power back, and we need to create a world worth living in. And I think that if we do focus on these few things, develop these few plans, and then stop being afraid and embrace and be grateful for the chance to live a life that’s so full of meaning, and to honor the heritage that we’re inheriting – I’m 32, and a lot of people I work with are in their 20s or even in their teens – and we’re not reinventing the wheel or something. It’s been set up by a lot of people whove done a lot of things in the past, and made great sacrafices and put their ass on the line out there and got in the line of fire and I personally honored that every day when I work with people but we’ve got to go again – we HAVE to go again, BIG. And we’re going to. It just depends: right now we have the chance to step and to decide what it’s going to look like. We’re going to make a cleaner, greener version of the world we have now, which is a bunch of crap, and build a better world that we’d actually want to live in, that we would leave to [indistinct] generation. It’s been an honor to talk to you guys, and I look forward to working with you for the rest of our lives. [Applause]
Leave a Reply