What the Worldwide Worker Protests Really Mean
On saviors and “benevolent kings” and why we don’t need them.
Gotta love Russell Brand. He makes about six hundred good points every ten seconds, stops to comedically asphyxiate you, then makes about six hundred more while you’re trying not to die. Being interviewed by him must be like trying to sip from an industrial pressure washer. Wielded by a grinning madman.
His guest, Kim Iversen, does a fair job. She sits through about a two-minute long “question” (really an exposition, which likely would have gone on longer had Russell’s producer not waved and reminded him he also had a guest on the program) the gist of which is:
There are massive protests of ordinary, working folk all around the world, we all know it, but the media wont cover it. Or, if they do cover it, they make sure to smear the protestors using all the damning labels of the day: “right-wing extremists”, “racists”, “Nazis”, “conspiracy theorists”, etc.
Yep, and Kim Iversen points out what should be obvious to anyone paying attention: the media have become the mouthpiece of the corporate elites and the political class, not of the people.
And this, by the way, is far, far worse than merely “media bias.”
Recently, a friend said to me: “What does it matter if the media takes a side? Do you really care if, say, Vanity Fair takes an editorial stance in favor of the sitting president?”
“Media bias isn’t the issue,” I said. “The media are supposed to function as a check on the power of the ruling class, and act as the means through which the people can question it. It’s supposed to function as a hedge against tyranny. Now, they’re functioning as its mouthpiece. That is tyranny.”
The only real way to understand “the ruling class” now is to understand that GovMediaCorp is a single, monolithic institution.
It’s fascism, pure and simple. A “bundling” of media and state that would make Mussolini and Goebbels giddy as a couple of kittens in a bathtub of cream.
So, yeah, of course the singular entity GovMediaCorp would not report on popular uprisings against itself. If the rest of the public got a hint, even a whiff, that there was something to be legitimately upset about, the protestors’ numbers would swell, and GovMediaCorp would be in some serious doo-doo.
So, on the point of the captured media Russell and Kim are right on.
But there’s two things I think they misunderstand about the protests:
1. Russell’s continual framing of the protests as a “populist” uprising against a “globalist agenda.”
Sure, some small subset of the protestors (probably Russell Brand viewers) might see things in these terms.
But I think most don’t, and we can state their motivations more simply (and broadly).
These are humans protesting against tyranny. Straight up.
The commonfolk of the world are understandably fed up, to the point of breaking, of being told that they and their loved ones and their way of life are wrong, that they must instead live in fear of perpetual crises, and that the singular solution to these supposed crises is surrendering their lives, freedoms, and even their means of eking out a living to the insane visions of people who have elected themselves humanity’s masters.
The protestors are simply saying: Sorry, assholes, but no. You’re not our masters. And we’re not going down that easy.
Actually, I think Russell understands it is this simple, but he’s fond of a lot of “isms” where none would do just fine.
The problem with labeling the protestors as “ists” of one kind or another is that it allows others to dismiss them as disgruntled members of a particular tribe—exactly the sort of “extremists” that the media would paint them as—rather than what they are: humans, fighting for all our humanity.
2. Kim’s rather surprising line that without the media “we have lost” and the people are now looking for “somebody big and powerful to come in and demand change.”
She believes the people are seeking “a big, hopefully benevolent person…” (she mentions Elon Musk and Trump, as examples 🙄) “like a benevolent king who can grant us our rights back.”
(She even says “grant us” with a little wand-waving gesture).
Just… NO NO NO NO NO.
On several points.
First of all, rights have to be understood as natural rights, or they are not “rights” at all, but bestowed privileges.
Rights are not a thing granted to us, by anyone. They’re ours by virtue of being alive, irrespective of the existence of laws or governments or kings or emporers. Hence the whole “endowed by the creator with unalienable rights…”.
“Unalienable” means inseparable from us. They’re like one of your organs. They are with you regardless of the tyrannical circumstances of the world. They do not cease to exist even when the Gestapo come to haul you away. You still have them and the Gestapo are in violation of them.
The philosophy of natural rights is why the U.S. Consitution, not the whims of any ruler, is considered the supreme law of the land, and the main task the president swears to (though rarely honors) upon entering office is to be subservient to it.
Of course, this puts the existence of the United States in direct conflict with the idea that a “benevolent king” need grant us anything. Which is exactly why this country is now under attack by people who see themselves as the masters of humanity. If they want that idea to stick, they have to get rid of that pesky country that rejects “masters” as part of its foundational principles.
Secondly, we are not “lost” without the media.
Clearly, we’ve performed a complete end-around on it.
Despite the massive propagandistic efforts of GovMediaCorp, we’re getting the word out anyway.
And faith in legacy media is rapidly dwindling, as are their viewing and financial numbers.
They’ve overplayed their hand, failing in their role as the mouthpiece of the people, and so have lost the people’s trust.
Maybe it would be more accurate to say: “When people blindly trust the media, we have lost the battle.”
But that isn’t happening. The blind trust is dwindling.
Third, the very existence of these protests is proof that people are not waiting around for a savior figure.
They’ve realized no one is coming to save them. They’re taking matters into their own hands.
“Unless we the people get together and demand the change…” Kim says.
Right, and that is what these protests are: people who are sick of experts and authorities telling them what to do, and telling them what to do for a change.
As I wrote in The Real War is Within, looking for a savior is an attempt to evade responsibility. Somebody else is to blame. Somebody else will save me.
Internalized fear tells us we’re inadequate and can’t make a difference and that we need someone to save us. But, when people are up against a wall, they act. And when that action reveals that all the supposed authority was an illusion all along, the power structures become flimsy and collapse.
Our assent to authority is what gives it power.
Remove it, power disappears.
This is what’s happening.
In his intro, Russell says:
“Ordinary people, all over the world, are not happy. People are starting to wake up. People are starting to realize the government is not your friend, Big Media is not your friend, Big Agriculture is not your friend…”
(Big Pharma is a pretty big omission, if you’re gonna list “Bigs” we should no longer trust. But, yes.)
In each of these cases, there’s an old guard, a dying, centralized institution that wants to keep you in fear, and keep you doubting that you could possibly know better than they, so that you’ll go on blindly giving your assent to them.
What those institutions fear is a courageous populace that awakens to their own power, and to the superfluousness of those institutions. They fear a populace that, instead of defaulting to authorities and experts and saviors, uses their God-given grey matter to think for themselves, and that creates their own decentralized institutions which serve them instead of enslaving them.
The raison d’etre of power is to stay in power. Nothing else. And power is something that we give them, by assenting to it.
“I don’t know what we do,” Kim says, emoting despair.
Well, Russell already told us what we do, in his intro:
“Continue to cultivate the light within you. The truth that you need, the support that you need, the power that you need is already within.”
“Become individually awakened and then collectively active, and then we can achieve something akin to true democracy, real power, and real freedom.”
Amen.
Consider, the so-called “ordinary folk” of the world could see a monolith of tyranny and slavery and control and respond with despair and cowering.
But that’s not what they’re doing.
These are not protests of despair (though they are prompted by a certain degree of suffering).
They’re a middle finger.
They’re an act of defiance against their would-be masters.
These are not people who need a savior or a benevolent king. They are people who are figuring out that we are our own saviors, and withdrawing their assent to authority.
The sleeping giant has been awakened.
If the elites have escape pods and space stations, they better start getting them warmed up.
Agree! If people are waiting for someone to save them they are in big trouble. It's us! We the People that have to do this. We are a little late but many of us have arrived. Get involved locally! School board meeting, town meetings, contact your representatives, support groups that are making a difference and more than anything else keep speaking out and speaking truth. No matter what! You see what's happened with Covid?? It's all coming around! It's how more people snap out of their trance! We are in the biggest fight of our lives! You will get uncomfortable but that's a good thing. That means you are part of the solution. We outnumber them by a lot! 💪 I haven't given up hope. I truly believe we can do this if we stick together and make efforts!
Agree.”
The Revolution will not be televised “
Gil Scott-Heron 1970.
You will not be able to stay home, brother
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and drop out
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip
Skip out for beer during commercials
Because the revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruption
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
Blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John Mitchell
General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
Hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will be brought to you by the Schaefer Award Theatre and
will not star Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
Thinner, because The revolution will not be televised, Brother
There will be no pictures of you and Willie Mays
Pushing that cart down the block on the dead run
Or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance
NBC will not predict the winner at 8:32or the count from 29 districts
The revolution will not be televised
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
Brothers in the instant replay
There will be no pictures of young being
Run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process
There will be no slow motion or still life of
Roy Wilkens strolling through Watts in a red, black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the right occasion
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and
Hooterville Junction will no longer be so damned relevant
and Women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day
The revolution will not be televised
There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock News
and no pictures of hairy armed women Liberationists and
Jackie Onassis blowing her nose
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb, Francis Scott Key
nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash
Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be right back after a message
About a whitetornado, white lightning, or white people
You will not have to worry about a germ on your Bedroom
a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl
The revolution will not go better with Coke
The revolution will not fight the germs that cause bad breath
The revolution WILL put you in the driver's seat
The revolution will not be televised
WILL not be televised, WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
The revolution will be no re-run brothers
The revolution will be live