Manifest Resistance

Resist, its the American Way

By Q.V. McMurtry

Before we become too jaded by our modern world, before we scoff at the
protesters who once occupied Zuccotti Park or laugh with the left-leaning media spinning the Tea Party as tea-baggers, we should realize what is occurring is good old American resistance to power, authority and the status quo.

I remember when I was a young boy, my father and I were watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. As I watched the procession of each nation, athletes dressed to represent their homeland while marching in unison, single filed and locked stepped, I recall the announcer on the television broadcasting each nation just as the athletes greeted with cheers entered the stadium. But when the

Americans were announced, the crowd went wild.

Leading the American team was an older Olympian discuss thrower whom I idolized. At the time, I was a track and field athlete and the Olympics were my own personal Super Bowl and the only time track and field was prominently broadcast on television. Watching the American athletes enter the stadium was amazing; but something was off. My idol, the discuss thrower, held the flag in his fist and with one arm. The other nations flag bearers had neck straps and harnesses, whereas Al Oerter, the American, held the American flag as boldly as possible. The other American athletes followed, but not in single-filed or in John-Phillip-Sousa procession at all. The American athletes were a team of individuals, innately rebellious stepping-out-of-line and marching to a different beat. I remember asking my father, What are they doing and why are they not acting like everyone else? And he said, Because they are Americans

I tell you this story to illustrate my point. As Americans, we are resistors. Resistance is in our DNA - regardless of race or creed. Americans fight repression of the individual. Americans help the underdog and defy encroachment upon freedom and liberty. We resist.

Historically, the later might be flippantly rebutted if one does not separate the American government from the individual American. This article is not about the missteps of the American Government, past or present. And if you, the reader, are not fully aware of Americas revolutionary rebellious past, then I suggest you

get busy reading your American history.

Historical Rebellion

Any global resistor should at the very least be familiar with the first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution, better known as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is one of Americas many gifts to Western Civilization. Uniquely American, the Bill of Rights is focused on an individuals rights not the rights of a majority or a group. Vastly underappreciated in our post-modern era, these rights limit government and expand the responsibilities of the individual to resist and rebel.

The First Amendment states an individuals rights to the following:

A secular approach government. Freedom of speech. Freedom of the press. Right to assembly. Right to a redress of grievances.

In other words, Americans are Constitutionally guaranteed the means to resist.

Unfortunately, most Americans have lost this rebellious tradition and directive. Too easily are average Americans cajoled into complacency and the status quo. The word resistance has been spun and re-framed into a uncomfortable word a possible disruptive element to the marketplace or a fringe like nuisance to everyday existence. When in reality Americans should be protesting and resisting

more. Resisting is the American way constitutionally protected and historically relevant. Non-Collaboration My next point deals with non-collaboration. Frankly, theres too much of it. As Americans, we espouse the values of individualism. In our postmodern era of networked computers, networked relationships, team work and international markets, Americans are vulnerable to a collaborative lowering of standards compromises our values and permits our American corporations to basically have no national loyalty. Americans are trendsetters. We are leaders not followers. Yes, its brash, but its American. Thousands of years ago another great civilization thrived and defied the global trend ancient Greece. According to Yale Professor Donald Kagan ,. Ancient Greece, prior to 400 BC, was just another despotic nation ruled by kings and a landed elite. Greek goods traveled far and wide from Egypt to Assyria, from kingdom to kingdom and back again until something happened. For a period of time from an event either epidemic or cataclysmic, for a period of time, Greeks ceased to trade. Greek commerce and diplomatic relationships, more or less, vanished from the global network of ancient civilizations. Out of this isolation emerged something totally unique and revolutionary the Polis the Greek city-state. According to Donald Kagan, it was here in the Greek city-states surrounded by despots - democracy was born. Victor Davis Hanson states:

In contrast, Western civilization began with a very different ancient Greek idea of an autonomous citizen, not an indentured serf or subsistence peasant. The small, independent landowner if left to his own talents and if his success was protected by, and from, government would create new sources of wealth for everyone.
http://victorhanson.com/articles/hanson092710.html

In other words, the ancient Greeks were global resistors - anti-collaborating trendsetters. The same was true for Americans. As the world continues to globalize, spreading centralized bureaucracies, that strip our individuality and multinational corporations, that commoditize labor and seek only profit, Americans must relearn their rebellious ways. However, could it not be argued that this process of globalization is what America wants, a type of globally engineered obsolescence that produces products only to have them become obsolete, broken or replaced, inevitably inducing consumers to purchase and repurchase. If you view the link above, you might have a better idea of the product consumption cycle, but I would argue that this cycle of consumption is not profoundly American, nor is consumption what our Constitution guarantees. Instead our globalized economy is hijacking the American Dream. Bureaucratic and economic despotism now usurp our government and diminish our individual liberties. This is not the American Way. And, although this may cause many of you to wretch, the Tea Party and Occupy are both right. Perhaps their

approaches are different and many members are dubiously overzealous, their central arguments are fundamentally right. What to do? I dont know. But after you relearn your rebellious American past and become more aware of our need to remain uniquely American, decentralizing the federal government and global capitalism is a good place to begin. Decentralizing Too big to fail should ring a bell. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point, discusses what happens when organizations become too big. Gladwell explains that at a certain size an organization becomes dysfunctional. Calling it the 150 Rule and he states: "At a bigger size you have to impose complicated hierarchies and rules and regulations and formal measures to try to command loyalty and cohesion. But below 150...it is possible to achieve the same goals informally." (p.180) "When things get larger than that, people become strangers to one another." (p.181) As the world becomes more centralized, more networked and more intertwined, corporation and economies become too big to fail and governments to disconnected from their representational mandates. This is more than just a states rights issue or an antiquated federalist argument. No, this is much more serious, because these behemoths of commerce and

government directly destroy individuality. This globalizing process causes individuals to be categorized, numbered and segmented. Government and commerce become efficiency focused and rule bound. The bigger the government or corporations, the more hierarchical and pedantic are the bureaucracies charged with operating them. Although the U.S. is a representational democracy, our representation inevitably becomes corrupted by DC lobbying and fundraising - subsequently limiting true representation and cloaking legislative decision-making. What we end up with are legislative and executive decisions that are either too big to fail therefor moribund or too complicated to explain. Too big to fail our uber-economies and banks are now manipulated by transactions made in nanoseconds on computers located in server-like worlds of digital space. You may live in Anywhere, USA, but your economy is dependent and interconnected with Bangalore and Beijing. Open your refrigerator and you might realize that your strawberries come from Chile; your electronics from China and your electrical power might be generated from a thousand miles away via an interstate electrical grid. Traditionally, Americans are rugged individualists, descended from people who resisted the status quo and sought change. Americans are people who pride themselves on self-sufficiency, innovation and hutzpah. But now slowly we are becoming globally infected with inter-dependency. And this inter-dependency leads to behemoth bureaucracies, global markets and engineered obsolescence

that commoditize labor, limit innovation and force the loss of individuality. Know thyself. You are not a commodity, a spreadsheet or a proverbial cog-in-awheel. You are descended from innovators, rebels and global resistors. The globalized world needs you to comply, to go along with the markets, accept less and do more. But this is not you. You are more than just a face in the crowd. You are an American. You resist!