I was having a conversation just now (see here) about this idea of taking matters into our own hands and how frankly, the temperature in our country is simply not hot enough yet to expect hard working, freedom loving Americans with nice paying jobs, mortgages, and families to support to take to the streets the way the Brazilians have and it got me to thinking...what if there are other ways, besides voting and sounding the warning bell on social media, that we could "take to the streets" so to speak, and "take matters into our own hands?"
Ghandi understood that to force change you have to force the system's hand, by putting strain on the system. Truckers learned they could disrupt the system by shutting down the roads. Not sure we could do that here but where is our locus of power? Where do we hold the reigns of power that we could twist to our liking?
Any takers?
I had one idea. Might be a stupid one, but it was the first idea that popped into my head. Maybe it's the wrong idea but maybe something like it would do the trick.
Well...we all have mortgages, right?
What if we set a date and got enough people on board before that date to refuse to pay their mortgages? A mortgage strike of sorts? What if we all committed to buying a certain amount of gold and/or silver with our credit cards with the publicly stated intention of not paying the cards back? They threaten us with ruining our credit...but if enough people said to the system "fuck it, I don't need your credit. I'm buying gold and silver, not paying back my loans, and getting rich off the crash we cause?"
Gold will destroy the Fed, right?
Could this be a way to push that prophecy into reality?
Push the money lenders to the brink?
Just spitballing here, but because we all know we aren't going to be taking to the streets like the Brazilians anytime, and we all know the system is on the brink of hyperinflation anyway, why not save the money you're paying to your mortgage to buy gold and silver and let the old system shrivel and die?
Happy to have you shoot holes in the idea. Just seeing if we can start some critical thinking on this topic.
What are non-violent ways we can protest?
This is what I mean. In order to crack a system, you have to be willing to risk what you have, but you’re only going to be willing to do that if you know enough other people are going to be willing to do it too. You see, if a critical mass of people commit to doing it, they can wreck all our credit but their losses would be so great it would force the issue. It would make the problem too large. You alone not paying your mortgage is nothing. It’s easy to handle. It’a easy to foreclose and evict you. If millions of us did it, and evoked squatters rights and refused to leave our homes and backed up our neighbors too, they’d be powerless.
I’m aware that people wouldn’t want to do it. Black people didn’t want to walk rather than take the bus. Indians didn’t want to walk to the ocean to get their own salt. It’s inconvenient and scary but this is how India freed themselves from British rule. If we don’t want to pick up arms and start shooting then we need to find other non-violent ways of fighting back. We need an action, a start date, and a critical mass of volunteers in order for it to matter.
But maybe we’re not there yet.