Poverty & inequality don’t need protest marches – they need a riot: #ifihadahammer

48
2

B1FBPggCUAA_h0C

The global level of inequality continues to skyrocket…

Number of billionaires doubled since financial crisis
The number of billionaires has doubled since the start of the financial crisis, according to a major new report from anti-poverty campaigners.

According to Oxfam, the world’s rich are getting richer, leaving hundreds of millions of people facing a life “trapped in poverty” as global “inequality spirals out of control”.

The report found that the number of billionaires in the world has more than doubled to 1,646 since the financial crisis of 2009, and Oxfam says is evidence that the benefits of a return to economic growth are “not being shared with the vast majority”.

…and an interesting article asking if NZ’s poor will revolt…

Revolt of the poor unlikely in Godzone

Following our election American billionaire and prophet of doom Nick Hanauer could be on his way here, with a lot of his rich mates.

This country will be a bolt-hole for the super-rich, according to a lecture, The Pitchforks are coming for us Plutocrats, which Hanauer delivered to the influential TED Foundation earlier this year (the essay is available on politico.com).

Now widely re-published on the web, this article predicts blood in the streets unless wealth gets shared more fairly.

Hanauer says the divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse fast, and unless measures such as raising the minimum wage are introduced, the middle class could disappear.

“The more money workers make, the more opportunities people like me have,” says the Seattle venture capitalist.

“A real economy is just like the game of Monopoly – when one person has all the money, the game is over.”

His warning to the top 1 per cent, who now share about 20 per cent of America’s wealth, is that they may not be able to spot the inevitable revolution coming.

“Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, then suddenly . . . And then there’s no time for us to get on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand.”

It’s unclear why Hanauer chose New Zealand as an example of a reliable safe haven for the super-rich to flee to, but in any case he seems to have been bang on.

The New Zealand poor, some of whom rioted in 1932 and 1984, show few signs of activism – violent or otherwise – with union membership in the doldrums and near collapse of the political left at the last election.

Labour pointed out 40 per cent of the New Zealand children growing up in poverty are in working households. They promised to raise the minimum wage from $14.25 to $16.25 an hour by next year. But it was to no avail.

…the article makes the point that the political left is dead post the election and the level of disconnect between the haves and the have nots is so large that those have nots are simply too disillusioned with the political process to participate any longer. With no overarching ideological narrative to drive mass mobilisation, I don’t think a revolution is even remotely possible in NZ, but desperation driven by poverty could very well generate a riot.

Respected economist Brian Easton asks if NZ will be racked with civil disturbances by the angry poor…

A divided country?
The election demonstrated deep divisions. Will the next three years make them worse or help heal the rift? And where will the pressure points be?

Will we see New Zealanders marching in the streets during the next three years? I don’t mean protests in which the police, while behaving perfectly professionally, are smiling benignly in a sort of agreement. I’m wondering whether we’ll see civil disturbances. And I’m not the only person pondering such things – probably even John Key is. He has had a good parliamentary win, but the country seems intensely divided.

I don’t think there’ll be any addressing of inequality by the NZ political class until there is wide spread civil disobedience and news coverage beaming out angry people smashing up Queen street. Only then will the Government be forced to address the problem beyond their empty rhetoric and punitive policy.

Throughout our history, we have not moved on genuine policy to address poverty until there has been a sharp short shock to the current system, a riot is the exact sort of pressure valve that once blown can’t be ignored.

All a riot needs is desperation, an issue that resonates and a means to transmit the message.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Deepening poverty generates the desperation. Something like road tolls or more draconian welfare cuts could provide the issue and social media promoting a ‘riot against poverty’ event creates the means to transmit the message.

NZers will leave the sickles at home, but maybe they might pick up a hammer?

#ifihadahammer

48 COMMENTS

  1. I think people by and large simply accept their lot in life. There is a sort of tendency for a state consisting almost entirely of serfs and lords, and as long as the lords don’t push things too far, people are more than happy to labour for them. This stems directly from leadership in general – we actually LOVE being led, i.e. being told what to do, when to do it and how to do it. It’s just how the majority of people are. The structure, naturally, is largely upheld only by basic fear of the individual – fear of losing your job, your house, your partner, your children, your dignity, your self-esteem.

    • Agree absolutely, but the willingness of those happy to serve is being abused now, and is not sustainable. Serfs need to live somewhere, keep warm and eat if they are to continue serving, intelligent masters know this.

    • “…fear of losing your job, your house, your partner, your children, your dignity, your self-esteem…”

      Hmm, I wonder how fear of death will trump those now there is no basis for breaks at work. The bill was passed, and effectively, it appears to be the National Party trying to fire the entire working class of NZ. Fear of losing job or death by exhaustion? Fear of losing partner, or losing partner through death by exhaustion? Death will trump those other concerns.

      If someone came to me and said, “Yeah sorry mate, no compromise, you can’t have a break you have to keep working till you expire”, I’d have two choices. 1) leave immediately (see Nats attempting to fire entire working class of NZ) or 2) recognise it as an attempted murder by a serial killer and kill them first, in self defence. The National Party and supporters should be considered “Shoot on Sight”.

      • Well someone’s been drinking the union kool-aid haven’t they! Yeah, all over NZ, workers have been forced to work through what used to be their tea breaks and lunchtimes totally unpaid while evil employers wine and dine in their boardrooms and raise multiple toasts to John Key. Utter BS; the legislation DOES NOT take away a worker’s right to tea and lunch breaks, it just stops them being compulsory – i.e tea break time is 10.00 to 10.15 and you cannot have it at any other time – gone. Or “Boss, is it OK if I leave 50 minutes early today if I work through tea breaks and lunch?” – “Yep, fine by me” – all the legislation does is give FLEXIBILITY around tea and lunch breaks.

        “Working to death by exhaustion out of fear of losing a job” – really? Labour and its supporters are so far out of touch with NZer’s who work and their employers that its a miracle they made it to 24%.

        And the Chidl Poverty figures are being spun into similar BS sob stories

      • You’d like to kill a third of the voting age population?

        Not only are you bitter and bloodthirsty in the extreme, but your leaps of logic make an antelope look Danny de Vito.

        I think an argument has really jumped the shark, when we’ve gone in the space of one paragraph from bemoaning new employment laws, to accusations of mass attempted murder by both employers and the government.

        In short, your grip on reality is very tenuous.

        As an aside, how many NZ’ers work in manual labour, and are not self-employed as of 2014?

    • Yes, as a fledgling nation we had the chance to build a society that rejected the poverty and class structures that caused so many to flee 19th Century Britain.

      We almost succeeded.

      Over my life time I’ve watched the wealth of the commons that four or five generations built and passed on to their children almost totally plundered as we have raced headlong into rebuilding the aristocracy and forging chains for our children’s ankles.

  2. “With no overarching ideological narrative to drive mass mobilisation…”

    There’s the Babylon narrative, of the state of confusion brought about by assuming pre-eminence or sovereignty in society. It describes the replacement of natural philosophy with scientism and deity with secular order. It tells the story of Rome and its philosophy of vanity, which seeks the fulfillment of the ambitions of the day at the expense of future generations.

    It is the narrative of the apocalypse, of the disclosure of information which leads to the end of the civil state. The information is not new, and it is found within the language of history as much as from the unfolding events themselves. It represents the rediscovery of the natural world, a world of consciousness rather than a world of atoms of no intelligible purpose.

  3. Once upon a day there was a “Queen Street Riot”, I think it was in 1983 or 1984 or so. It was not so much political, but it was an explosion of anger and frustrations of many, as I can remember. It started with some minor bit of scuffles and so at a concert, I vaguely remember, and then groups of people went on a rampage. It was a disaster, a mess, and the army was even called in.

    With the way things are going, we could have something similar happen again not too far in the future. Let the economy weaken, let the government come with more tax cuts for the better off and cuts in services and also benefits on the other side of the ledger, and it may lead to tensions unseen for years.

    But as we have so many docile, desperate, rather subservient and adaptable workers and those not able to work, I do honestly not see anything of such sorts of things happen all that soon.

    People have been intimidated, pressured and put into virtual slave like dependence, they are too damned scared to challenge any authority. We know what happened to those individuals that dared to express their anger towards WINZ staff over recent weeks. One by one they get taken out and put under lockup.

    What a shocking state of affairs. But on the other side, the middle class are clinging to their lifestyles, and the working poor to their last straws, and they rather do all to disassociate themselves from ones even worse off.

    A massive challenge lies ahead, to inform, alert and mobilise people, so they can get the courage and networks to take action. The MSM is one of the biggest barriers, as they still wield too much power in the information business.

    I long for some light at the end of a dark tunnel, that seems to be ahead, for at least 3 more years.

  4. The richest man in the world, spending $1 million a day, will take 220 years to spend the lot. The top 85 richest people in the world own more than the bottom half of the planet. None of that makes me want to riot. It makes me want to stop playing. Did you vote? Why? Are you in a job that pays starvation wages? Why? Just stop playing their stupid bloody game. Be prepared to lay down and die in the gutter like dogs, if that’s what you think will happen. Just stop playing their stupid bloody game because, as Ray says, the game’s over anyway. Stop playing their stupid bloody game and when you do, I’ll bet you a million bucks for the next 220 years that none of the bad things you think will happen will happen.

    • My hubby recently saw a movie, (not sure what it’s called), but basically the PTB, in order to control the masses, released a chemical to accentuate apathy in all humans. It backfired though, because it worked too well. People gave up caring about each other, their system and themselves. They would do absolutely nothing. Quite thought provoking.

  5. Understandable frustrations bubbling to the surface. As much as I share the sentiments expressed I have to caution against any action involving violence. Civil disobedience, absolutely. Riot, no way.

    Here’s why.

    That ol’ favourite of those in power the Hegelian Dialectic, Problem, Reaction, Solution.

    If there were to be rioting that would be the Problem. The Reaction would be horror from Joe Public and a crying out for the Problem to be eliminated. Unfortunately, the powers that be wouldn’t chose a sensible approach like addressing inequality. They would chose the Solution. Give more power to the Government and the Police in the form of legislating away more civil liberties like the freedom to assemble, freedom of speech, the right to legal advice, little stuff like that.

    Much better to resist non-violently. Fight irrationality with logical arguments. Fight propaganda with facts. But whatever else, just keep fighting.

  6. My hubby recently saw a movie, (not sure what it’s called), but basically the PTB, in order to control the masses, released a chemical to accentuate apathy in all humans. It backfired though, because it worked too well. People gave up caring about each other, the system and themselves. They would do absolutely nothing. Quite thought provoking.

    • I think it’s called ‘ alcohol ‘ and it’s freely available in most supermarkets .
      Oh , and a key player ( Pardon the pun ) who lobbied to put it there was ron brierly . Remember him ?
      Anxiety causes apathy and the so called ‘ cure ‘ for anxiety with it’s bastard cousin ; depression are SSRI’s which also cause apathy .

      Having said that , the most dangerous drug , the one that causes the most damage , can spread viruses and disease , can ruin lives and destroy homes , causes global apathy , depression and anxiety is … television .

      Listen to this carefully . And rememeber ? What drug , drugged our Nation and gave National 48 % of the vote .

      Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, the – Television, The Drug Of The Nation

      http://youtu.be/hD9pJzZ1XGI

  7. Back in the “dark ages” the church was able to control the masses with the promise of heaven. It didn’t matter that their life here on earth was terrible because a wonderful afterlife awaited them.
    It will be interesting to see what shinny illusions FJK will come up with to keep us all compliant. A lovely new flag? Fear of terrorism? A repeat Iraq war? Living vicariously with All Black glory? Spending enough to win the America’s Cup again? A new public holiday? I better stop before I give him any ideas!

    • The tools for that control are already well in place…

      Casinos, Lotto, commercial television (reality, DIY and cooking shows, very little else), compliant and vacuous news media, cheap imported consumer goods from a red warehouse….welcome to the machine

  8. I think many of you mean well , and have some very good perspectives. I think we all don’t like the thought of jail and – negative consequences. And that’s fair enough.

    And you are all probably very right about about there being no tangible revolution ….here.

    The dismantling and servitude of the middle classes is when this will happen. As it stands…we have a scapegoat – the working poor and the unemployed.

    And people dont care. Its easy to spout platitudes at the barbie about ‘ oh , so many out there are doing it hard’. And all the while advising their kids ‘to look after themselves ‘cos their mates wont be around when their older’…and turn around and castigate those on the bottom rungs of the employment ladder…indirectly of course…

    But they have been inured from any real concern. Too many 30 second sound bites …a bit like the ‘dollar a day ‘ ads…

    Look…your best to look at overseas examples…tangible social upheavals do not happen until there are extremes…it has to reach a critical mass point.

    Yes…a riot or two perhaps…but genuine revolution?…that will probably be relegated to the future generations…our grandchildren…or beyond. And typically we wont care because we will most probably be long expired.

    And so we leave it again for someone else..a true indictment of the REAL mentality of this current generation and its shortsightedness.

    But you will see it coming. For better or for worse…once the middle class is emaciated…decimated…then , their children , their parents will move.

    And all so needless when it could have been arrested NOW.

    • The problem with inciting a riot isthat it has been tried recently and failed, if I remember correctly. Wasn’t it a year or two ago in London that they had riots (shops ransacked etc… I dont remember what the trigger was). The riots were put down and David Cameron, PM, ignored all reference to the causes and simply blamed the participants.
      The only outcome seemed to be that the polls over the period showed more support for the government. Going back through English history there have been quite a few riots and the outcome has always been more misery for the rioters and more support for the government. Would we do any better?

  9. It’s all about the new world order, see link below.

    FJK is steering us towards this as a reality, and has rubbed shoulders with the richest global elitists already don’t you know?

    KJK has been attending several secret meetings at the Bilderberg Group, who are according to the article one of the principal Strategist’s of this new world order run by the richest global elite.

    We are already being “mind controlled by the MSM who is heavily controlled by Elitists and Government in partnership so we wont get any help there.

    Until some high flying individual with Government turned rouge finally comes out of the closet and blows the whistle on these strategies to control the masses after seeing what is happening even to this individuals own family members we will be ever more forced with compliance methodology.

    http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/what-is-the-new-world-order/

    Enjoy reading the article above as it is already a reality and agree with Martyn on this one, we cannot afford to wait any longer, as my father couldn’t when he was involved in the 1951 wharf strike that were dealt with a form of (black listed) which caused those who were involved in the strike to be banned from working in the Auckland region.

    He was forced to take his family and flee to the heartland of NZ to find a job after the wharf strike was over.

    He fought for our future and it is payback time folks.

    http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/what-is-the-new-world-order/

  10. I watched the TED talk and read the article that riots won’t happen here, and all the rich will move to N.Z when it all falls over in America. But what I keep thinking is this is the great FLAW in the human race, this is our massive undoing, GREED and stupidity. I was watching Ray Mears on Choice T.V talking about the buffaloes on the Great Plains, they numbered around 60 million and were slaughtered by cowboys right down to about 1000 left or something horrendous like that. The bleached bones made the Plains look like it had snowed until they were all collected and made into fertiliser. Nothing has changed, and to make my point Rodeos seem to have become popular again, our mentality is mean spirited, ignorant and greedy. Our species is fucked in the head! We have more or less no empathy. We will destroy the biosphere our whole life support system for money as long as we have our ignorant heads entertained. We are the stupidest species on this planet and maybe the whole universe, how utterly embarrassing. This whole system is just so out dated, it won’t change and we will eat ourselves out of house and home. The riots will happen when we have starvation due to massive crop failure (just like it has happened in the past in Africa) and god knows what climate change will throw at us, and it will all be too late to do anything about it , we are sleep walking off the edge. The lizards PTB just don’t think our biosphere matters. I agree with ROSS stop playing the game. Everything needs to change now, or we will have the front row seats to watch the end of all beautiful life on earth, we will eat each other. We need to eat local food from the farmers markets, we need to get out of our cars, we need to stop shitting into toilets with fresh water in them and wasting that fertiliser, we need to make our own individual solar or wind power and share that on a community level (fuck the power companies they are thieves), everyone should collect rain water and use that before using the water system, grow your own garden, don’t spoil your kids rotten, wash nappies, all of this is common sense, we are not ‘above’ animals, we need to live sustainably. The so called modern systems do nothing other than take your money unnecessarily we are sucked into this greedy thievery. It is just laziness and we hate change. And no matter how bloody rich you are and living under your dome when the crap hits the fan you can’t eat money. We need to grow up as a species right now and get our shit together. Riot for the planets biodiversity/biosphere, if you have kids you must be on the front lines on this. And Eat the rich first, they will taste the best marinated or smoked, haha. Or do nothing and stick our heads in the sand, same old same old, as we go off the cliff.

  11. “…news coverage beaming out angry people smashing up Queen street. Only then will the Government be forced to address the problem beyond their empty rhetoric and punitive policy”.

    I doubt it. The news will certain cover angry people smashing up Queen street, but only to say “look, these people are scary and dangerous!”. And that will be the main story, not poverty.

  12. What a load of bollocks, Bomber. You are dreaming and fantasising, as usual.
    Take a trip to Africa to see what poverty is. What you have in NZ is a group of feral people not qualified to be parents, who simply breed to get dole money.

    Open your eyes, comrade.

    • Just because people in Africa live in huts doesn’t make all NZ homes warm and dry, does it? We live in a first world country and our standards should be compared to those of a first world country. How about you compare us to Finland instead?

      Everyone can live under a bridge, yet only those who belong to the homeless club “choose” to live there. How cold hearted one has to be to believe people choose to live in poverty.

    • @ Rational
      Jesus ! What a lonely life you must lead . You have no idea of the human condition so I can only conclude that you are either very lonely and in desperate need of a hug from anything other than perhaps the long suffering budgie you share your small flat with … Or . Or you are an unfeeling alien with a penchant for missing the human point . Weird I know , but that is aliens for you .

      My guess is that you are neither . I’d be amazed if you’ve ever travelled further than the beach . And then I bet you’d complained about the sand in your socks . If you have been to Africa , you’d not be using the misery of others to drive your ego over . You’d come back ever more human . You’d see the most astounding things that show how wondrous and extraordinary we humans are , then you’d factor in the differences between NZ and Africa then make a calculation based upon your experiences , both here and there and you’d not write the above gibberish you have written to out yourself as a slipper wearing , milo drinking , angry idiot . IMO .

  13. I doubt it. The news will certain cover angry people smashing up Queen street, but only to say “look, these people are scary and dangerous!”. And that will be the main story, not poverty.

  14. ” All a riot needs is desperation, an issue that resonates and a means to transmit the message.”
    We have the desperation based upon the above resonating issue and the means to transmit the message because it’s here isn’t it ?
    All we need now is an actor to rouse the ragged rabble !
    All our good politicians are dead . All our good people have been discredited by the disgraceful . The cops are a new generation of uniformed thugs and sociopaths kissing up Corporate Arse holes . We have 30 year old baby-havers who can’t remember a NZ before neoliberalism and don’t care consequently because … like , ya know ‘an stuff
    We have no leader of anything . Cunliffe was as successful a Leader as that one armed , blind idiot with Parkinson’s disease pushing a pound of butter into a tigers ear with a hot needle was .
    We do indeed need and actor but then … who are ‘we ‘ anyway ? Who are we here ?
    At the Daily Blog ? Who are ‘ we ‘ ? Perhaps ‘ we ‘ need to find out and have a The Daily Blog Rally ? And gather about is our Brothers and Sisters for a bit of ‘ how’s your father ‘ because honestly ?
    Old NZ wasn’t equal for all , it had it’s misogyny and it’s sexism and racism etc but at least it was Human and it felt ‘ real ‘ . Not this shit . This isn’t human . Hungry kids in a land of more than enough is something else altogether and we owe it to those others less stellar in their thinky skills to fix this shit up .
    So lets do it !
    Never mind the inquiries and dissection . Lets DO !
    We need a plan . We need a place , a time , a date and a title . How about a ‘ Bring a Brick Picnic ‘ ? We could amass and throw a brick for Jesus . The Flying Bricks of Love , love-in ? National Tar and Feather Day ? Fuck halloween ! The Paula Bennet Sausage Sizzle … sausages made from Paula Bennett . One arse cheek could feed five hundred kids alone .
    In all seriousness .
    We must , sooner or later , show our metal and say enough of this shit . We must do that .
    I would do that . I swear to God I would do that . I’m just stuck in the middle of fuck knows where at the moment trying to sell my amazing albeit worthless house on the edge of reason in Cow Smells Country . Where it’s Blue as and the men/femmes go Arp . Or Narp .
    Great Post Martyn . Brave and honest . Superb .

  15. You should be charged with treason. Your left-wing irresponsible poison is no better than the filth spouted by Islam. You are a disgrace to humanity. The only poverty in NZ is in the minds of lazy, good for nothing losers, who only breed for the money they derive from taxpayer-paid benefits.

    • @IGM – you know something? The worst poverty of all is poverty of spirit, something you have in bucket loads! I associate that with losers!

    • While Bomber is pretty stupid calling for a riot, I think you could make a better case for Key to be charged with treason. Please take your hatred and bitterness to the grave without infecting others.

    • Do you object to giving to the needy, IGM?

      They ask you, [O Muhammad], what they should spend. Say, “Whatever you spend of good is [to be] for parents and relatives and orphans and the needy and the traveler. And whatever you do of good – indeed, Allah is Knowing of it.”

      The Quran, surah 2:215

  16. The French have a saying, which goes something like this –
    ‘people must never fear government. Instead it is government which must fear the people’!

    The French aren’t afraid to make a stand against their government if the need arises and in no uncertain terms either! I guess it comes from their revolutionary history, a surviving strong, proud, fighting spirit which has been carried through to the present time and will go forward with future generations.

    It’s our responsibility to convey that same ‘people’ message to government, in any way possible if necessary, if we are to claim back something resembling a strong and decent nation, where every Kiwi is valued and fairly treated.

    I have always held strong to the belief that it’s possible change can be achieved through the vote. However given the (suspect?) results of the last election and the present arrogant demeanour of this corrupt third term National government, reality has made me think differently now. Because while john Key remains the cultist ‘one man band’ leader of National, the ballot box sure isn’t going to to it for us ordinary citizens anymore!

    Kiwis need a revolutionary spark to work as a united front to bring about necessary change, aimed at accomplishing cleaner government and a fairer society for every NZer.

  17. Replace the word ‘ Americans ‘ with New Zealanders and you get the picture .

    Dark Money .
    http://boingboing.net/2014/10/30/millions-in-dark-money-via-u-s.html

    Now watch this ;

    Financialisation .
    http://youtu.be/7WHTYTvFNRU

    Then check out the infographic above .

    Angry yet ?

    Still want to be a bystander ?

    We are innocents in the trenches being tyronised by the Banks and their mates , The Big Businesses that were once our resources but thanks to roger douglas and his ilk , they are now our enemy . Rorting us , lying to us , dominating us . Stealing our lives away as we work ever harder for their profits ?

    Gotta Brick ? Yes ! Then you now know where to throw it .

  18. CountryBoy said: “It isn’t human.” I am at the point of taking this thought seriously or putting it all down to some form of neurological virus from which some of us are yet imune.
    The time has certainly come for something other than online discussion.

  19. If the poor rise up, the government will use “law and order” as an excuse for a vicious crack down, probably by smearing everyone involved as “terrorists” or some shit like that. New Zealand is morally corrupt.

  20. The 260,000 children out of 1.2M in NZ live in poverty I don’t quite get. My CYFs ward is presumably one of them – but certainly doesn’t suffer the slightest hint of financial poverty (CYFs drivers will drive them anywhere in the country for free). Googling the UNICEF poverty it appears to be a relative measure such that you can have every need met and more, but still be living ‘in poverty’. So it’s more a measure of inequality than lack of food, shelter or anything. Increasing inequality is terrible, but I don’t look at my ‘living in poverty’ foster kid and have the slightest motivation to vandalise the premises of small business owners (or even large ones) sorry.

    • AA
      so you farm children and wish to take the moral high ground?
      No doubt we will see you on the news before long, CYFs responsible for the death of hundreds of kiwi children but hey youre getting paid so it’s all good 🙂

  21. The Left and Labour Party may’be been both badly beaten at the election – but a riot is a creature without planning; without a “head”; and with no conscious ideology. It is an expression of unleashed, unfocused anger.

    For hard-line leftwing revolutionaries to try to capture and direct such a beast would be like trying to capture a swarm of really, really, really angry wasps.

    What happens afterward, when the rioters’ adrenaline has been processed from their bodies, people have left the debris-strewn streets, calm returns, and the clean-up begins – that will be the important time.

  22. “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.” –Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, Jan 30 1787.

    “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

  23. “YOU NEVER CHANGE THINGS BY FIGHTING AGAINST THE EXISTING REALITY. TO CHANGE SOMETHING, BUILD A NEW MODEL THAT MAKES THE EXISTING SYSTEM OBSOLETE” Buckminster Fuller.

    It is times like these that I remind myself of the above quote. NZ, together with rest of the planet, face many uncertainties in the future with very little progress being made by global representatives to address the issues. One global grassroots response is the Transition Movement – to build inclusive resilient local communities – and that is where I am putting my energy. It takes the focus off the negative.

  24. Is this the lesson you learned from the election – that achieving change via the ballot box is not going to happen due to voter apathy and the left need to provoke mayhem in the streets? You need to think again!

    People aren’t as stupid or as apathetic as you think – the vast majority know its an imperfect and unequal world, and anyone with an ounce of sense knows that burning down the house doesn’t keep you warm and dry for very long.

Comments are closed.