Sitting on the floor leaning against the foot of the bed, Claudia sits in silence. Except the short time she was sick, she has been sitting like this at the beginning of each day for over a month. Her initial purpose for doing this was to meditate, yet she no longer feels comfortable referring to what she does as meditating.
Claudia thought meditation was a state in which you cleared your mind, or focused on one single object. Claudia found this nearly impossible to do for more than a few seconds and after repeated failures decided she would sit, rather than meditate. In her sittings Claudia slowed her breathing rate inducing her to enter a relaxed trance state. While calm and relaxed she would guide her mind to contemplate specific thoughts and topics, refocusing anytime she found her mind babbling over petty concerns or mundane plans.
Today she was contemplating the limits of living without being a consumer. Yet, the longer she thought about it the harder it became to imagine a life without consuming. While sitting in silence she came to realize that even while sleeping or being totally inactive she was still a consumer.
She came to the conclusion that though one could greatly reduce the amount one consumes, one could never even for a moment totally remove that role from one’s life. Silent and still she thought of the clocks in her home, and how their digital displays consumed electricity whether plugged in an outlet or using batteries. She also thought of the clothes she was wearing, and the fact that at some point she would need to consume water and soap to clean them. Even if she slept naked she would inevitably need to clean the sheets. One day, no matter how inactive she would remain, she still would have to purchase new sheets and clothes as the ones she currently used wore out.
She thought long on the many passive and active ways she was a consumer. She thought of how every moment she was being charged rent for her apartment, for health and home insurance, and for so many federal and local establishments including everything from post offices to public libraries. In her quiet inactive repose she thought of all the passive expenses she incurred just because she existed.
Even after death, she realized, a person consumes a small plot of land to be buried in or at least a vase if cremated. This says nothing of the funeral expenses ranging from caskets and funeral homes to church services and body preparations.
Claudia did not find these thoughts depressing. In fact, she found each observation to be an exciting revelation. Her conversation with Austin regarding changing the world had opened up her eyes to a new vision of possibility. Ever since the conversation she found herself energized by a new quest, a quest to help usher in a new society, an honest and just society.
Austin helped her see how the wealthy and powerful were vulnerable. Previously she had only considered how dependent the masses were on business, and never how business was dependent on the consumer. She was thrilled by the power of the masses, even if they were unaware of how they could change the world.
The more she thought of how free enterprise depended on almost every one of its citizens to be a consumer and producer the more pumped she became. She had little doubt the continued success of our economic system demanded increased consumption. Those in the know feared a decrease in consumption more than almost anything else. One could strongly make an argument that the greatest sin in our society was non-participation. Though this was extremely pronounced in a capitalistic society, Claudia came to the conclusion that the success of almost every society on earth has been dependent on the participation of its members.
A refusal to comply has always been a powerful tool. Many of the individuals who have been the agents for positive social change have accomplished this through passive resistance. People such as Christ, Ghandi and Martin Luther King have used passive resistance as their major means to defeat their oppressors.
Claudia, not liking violence, naturally preferred passive resistance to warfare. Yet, the more she thought about it, the more widespread and profound were the advantages non-participation had in comparison to fighting or battling for change.
When people resist through fighting it is easy for them to be viewed as dangerous or being labeled the enemy. Those killing the resisters could easily justify their behavior, and be viewed as heroes for defending their society. Yet, if the resistors stay passive it is hard for them to be viewed as anything but victims, and their persecutors as nothing more than heartless bullies.
Claudia remembered seeing old footage of the peace, civil rights and women’s movements in the 60′s. She had a new respect for the participants of those movements. She had always admired them for their courage in the face of beatings and their willingness to stand up for what was right. Yet, now she fully realized the success of the movements depended on their not fighting back. Fighting back would have made them worthy of being beaten, and the number of people injured or killed would have been far greater. By not fighting back they actually reduced the number of people who died or were disabled.
Claudia continued thinking these thoughts even after she opened her eyes and started to make breakfast. Standing at the stove, she wondered if she would ever be courageous enough to take a billy club to the head for a cause. She knew she wished she could, but she seriously doubted she would be so self-sacrificing.
The US government has always been aware of the power of passive resistance. In the sixties the FBI and CIA used agents dressed as demonstrators at sit-ins and peace marches to incite riots so the public would not see the kids and blacks as victims, but as dangerous terrorists whose goal was insurrection.
The more she thought about it, the larger the role non-participation has played in American history. The government’s acknowledgement of the importance of the privileged role of the consumer in society is evident from the founding fathers to modern foreign policy.
Claudia smiled as she thought of how the American Revolution started over economic issues regarding consumption. The colonists refusal to accept taxes culminated in their refusal to consume English tea which led to the Boston Tea Party which helped ignite the Revolutionary War.
This country has always reacted very strongly to those they perceive as not willing or wanting to participate in our brand of free enterprise. Claudia thumbed through a short list in her mind which included the American Indians, Castro, communist economies, and the students of the sixties.
She thought about the distinction Austin made between the control freaks and the true capitalists and applied it to her current thoughts. Control freaks needing the status quo reacted against almost anything, while the capitalist leaders and planners channeled these reactions against those they feared most, the ones they viewed as non-participators.
Claudia felt assessing the interplay between controllers and planners would be very enlightening. She was certain their interaction formed the foundation of American foreign policy, and that studying this interaction would make many previously confusing policies and actions of American diplomats crystal clear. This detective work, she decided, would be even more beneficial than her and Austin’s old game of following the money.
She figured this interplay helped described apparent inconsistencies in foreign policy, and explained why some issues were quickly resolved while others could drag on for decades. The war America fought against blacks, women and students in the 60′s was generally a reaction by the paranoid control freaks. These groups threatened the status quo and not really the capitalists. The hippies did pose a threat to the capitalists on two levels. One they wanted to stop the lucrative war machine, and two they did rebel against many levels of consumerism.
In all three cases, the women, blacks and students were granted many new rights. In exchange, thousands of new products were created targeting these emerging consumer groups as their new hot markets. The pressure was taken off these groups to the degree they agreed to participate and fulfill their roles as producers and consumers.
American Indians, on the other hand, have stubbornly refused to participate in our society. Their determination to hang on to their culture, and keep themselves separate from American society has caused the government to maintain its stern and punishing stance towards the basically passive people. Government support is always available for Indians willing to become part of the capitalistic system. The most glaring example of this is in the number of Indian reservations which were allowed and encouraged to open legalized gambling casinos.
Claudia thought this newfound logic of hers easily explained the American foreign policy towards Castro. As far as dictators go Castro never seemed to be outstandingly brutal, and he was one of many dictators who claimed to be a communist. While the US accepted and tolerated much harsher communist dictators they reacted against Castro strongly and for many years.
Claudia figured this reaction could probably be best explained by his perpetual resistance to doing business with the US, with his unwillingness to participate. Our attitude towards every dictator, as well as every communist regime on the planet, seemed to be regulated by economics not by the magnitude of their atrocities.
When communist China and Russia refused to participate by limiting trade or icing us out of their economy, the media focused on their human rights violations and the American government escalated the cold war. Yet, the more open they were to do business with the US, the more tolerant the US became and foreign policy likewise softened.
The longer Claudia made the list of countries and dictators, the more she became convinced she had found the golden key which explained US foreign policy. Though the conservative control freaks felt differently, the planners were not so much interested in a country’s politics, but only in their willingness to do business with the US.
Despite this breakthrough one standard US foreign policy didn’t make sense. At first Claudia was confused why a country so afraid of non-participation would so quickly punish other nations by cutting off trade with them and enforcing economic sanctions. Claudia decided this ever pervasive policy made sense on two levels. First, it was only logical the US would try to punish another nation by what they perceived to be the harshest penalty, economic deprivation. Second, they would use this devise only on nations they were convinced would fold, or end up giving them a better deal than previously agreed upon.
This explanation fit most of the situations. Yet, it appeared to be at odds to the policy towards Castro and Cuba. For as far as Claudia knew economic sanctions of Cuba had reaped no significant economic benefits.
Claudia realized her newfound theory was little more than a detective’s tool. The world being so complex could not be fully explained by any dictum such as follow the money, or a society’s need for economic participation. Yet, she felt such insights into human nature went a long way into unravelling the mystery of modern life.
Her goal had always been to be a good person and to do whatever she could to make the world a better place. She now felt she was uncovering the social mechanisms and developing the insights needed to begin to design a better world. She felt as if she was Dorothy who had finally seen behind the wizard’s curtain in the Wizard of Oz. Our social planners, like the wizard, are not necessarily evil, but are purposely deceiving the public by misrepresenting themselves and their powers.
Endeared by the image, Claudia took the Wizard of Oz analogy a step further. She thought that like the wizard the planners control the public through deceptive practices designed to insure the public peace in, they tell themselves, the public’s own best interest. The US, through it’s assorted forms of propaganda, has created it’s own Oz, replete with Emerald Cities, a yellow brick road or two, not to mention legions of flying apes and wicked witches who without our military’s protection would certainly destroy us.
It appeared to Claudia that in the olden days engaging in passive resistance meant certain death. History was filled with stories of martyrs who sacrificed their lives for a cause or to keep their personal dignity. Those in power seemed to relish the opportunity to publicly execute any pacifist. Leaders in religion and government would kill philosophers, scientists, artists and even magicians who refused to recant their ideas, inventions and beliefs.
Yet, in recent times the abuse directed towards pacifists has greatly improved. Sure, some modern pacifists and peaceful demonstrators have been killed or beaten up, but many have been dealt with far less harshly. While Martin Luther King was murdered, pacifists such as Rosa Parks, Joseph Mandella, and Mohammed Ali have fared much better. Even though the possibility of being killed, tortured or imprisoned still existed, Claudia felt the odds of a modern pacifist remaining free and healthy were greatly improving.
Ever since her conversation with Austin, Claudia had spent a great deal of her time considering the possibility of organizing a nationwide wildcat strike. Though she still had to agree with Austin that such a strike was impractical and unrealistic, she did feel it important to also admit it was theoretically possible.
Over the last few days she had been trying to imagine some of the events and circumstances which would make the forming of a wildcat strike more likely. Even though she made little progress in this area, she remained optimistic a solution would be found by someone, if not by her.
Though Claudia made no breakthroughs, she did feel proud of some of the ideas she had expanding on Austin’s view of a wildcat strike. Her favorite idea involved coupling a passive consumer strike with an active strike on the banks and stock market. In her plan every person on the consumer strike would draw out all the money they had in banks and the stock market.
Claudia figured this strategy would greatly quicken the process of a corporate implosion. The consumer strike would greatly reduce money coming into the system, and the money being withdrawn would take away all the funds corporate America stores in reserve. Only a small fraction of the money people place in banks and stocks is kept liquid, the bulk of it is used and invested by the businesses to acquire more wealth.
Therefore, in a matter of days or even hours corporate America would find itself unable to pay back the money of the individual investors cashing out their accounts. This would cause a cash crisis placing most businesses into a state of bankruptcy. The government would most likely intervene and put a stop on all requests for withdrawals, but with no money coming in due to the wildcat strike, the intervention would not end the economic crisis.
Claudia smiled as she once again mulled over her plan. She couldn’t understand how she could have been so blind, and had viewed the free enterprise system as an impenetrable fortress. Yet, she also knew her thoughts regarding a wildcat strike were still in their infancy. Even if they showed promise, her ideas were still a long way from being practical and realistic.
Having a vision of how things could change, made it less important for Claudia that things actually do change. Before her conversation with Austin, Claudia had been very discontent and felt social change a necessity. Yet with her growing vision of possibility, Claudia felt more content and patient. She looked at the world with relaxed eyes, ones that saw the goodness and bounty of the planet as well as the damage we inflict on the environment and its inhabitants. Claudia felt lighter than she had in years, and looked forward to each day with optimism and determination.
Spring was in the air and in her heart. Claudia felt herself flowering and growing with each breath she took, and each idea she thought.