Sing Out for Bernie

Andrew Romano thinks music may be the key to Bernie's Political Revolution.

In his Yahoo News article "How indie rock could help Bernie Sanders win the Nevada Caucuses" Romano discusses his frequent use of music and allied musicians in getting his message across.  The rapper Killer Mike has been supporting Bernie Sanders for some time, and held a joint concert along with Vampire Weekend before the Iowa Caucus.  A concert this past Friday night, before the Nevada caucuses, included many California based Indie bands, whose songs were largely in line with Sanders' populist message.  And while Bernie did not win Nevada, he remains a strong force this primary season.  Music has been, and should continue to be, a powerful force in the Revolution.

In my previous entry The Art of a Revolution, I linked to Makana's "The Fire is Ours," his moving Bernie anthem.  Now, The Color Bars have released a new music video entitled "The End of the Corporate Age."  It is a smooth, catchy tune, warning the corporate establishment that the people will not tolerate the status quo.

That's not all: The Bernie Blog has kept up with the contributions of Revolutionaries, who often include poetry, and in one case, a set of new lyrics to the tune of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from Les Miserables.

This kind of creative energy is exactly what the Political Revolution needs.  It is precisely why I am proposing "Sing Outs for Bernie."  Just what are sing outs?

Simply that: Singing.  These are events where people gather together and sing.  The songs need not be original creations; they need not be about Bernie Sanders; they don't even automatically have to include folk songs like "This Land" (a favorite of the senator's).  Everyone should be encouraged to sing, and to sing along.  This is about building a spirit of positive energy.  Uniting us through a mutual love of music.  Let's sing out for Bernie.  Let's sing out for the America we deserve.

Pledging Allegiance

A few years ago, a push to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance stirred up controversy relating to the relationship of church and state, and whether the technically-not-mandatory-but-do-what's-expected-of-you pledge in school was a violation of religious freedom.  Spoiler alert: they didn't take it out.

There is a bigger issue than the tacked-on "under God" in the rote recitation of the Pledge: the REST of the pledge.  Let's break it down.

"I pledge allegiance..."
The term allegiance is derived from its root word "liege," which Merriam-Webster defines as: "having the right to feudal allegiance or service" or "obligated to render feudal allegiance and service." Dictionary.com defines the noun liege as "a feudal lord entitled to allegiance and service" and the adjective form as "owing primary allegiance and service to a feudal lord."  Merriam Webster defines allegiance itself as "the obligation of a feudal vassal to his liege lord."

At least I'm not a serf.  Those guys are fucked!

The feudal system is antithetical to the principles of the American government.  The keeping of the people in serfdom by a king and his appointed lords and vassals constitutes a form of slavery which is thoroughly incompatible with the concept of liberty, and with the foundations of the United States of America.  The Declaration of Independence states that:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

The key phrase here is "from the consent of the governed."  It is the very basis of the American system that the government is only legitimate through the consent of the American people.  As a form of republican government, meaning that the vox populi is the true ruler of the state, and that is expressed by the people's chosen representatives, who rule in their name with with their voice.  If the people are displeased, they are within their rights and powers to remove that representative from office.  But if the people are "obligated to render feudal service" then they are not free citizens.  And to whom are they promising this service?

"...to the flag of the United States of America."

To the Flag.  Not the people, or even the nation itself, but the symbol of that nation.   An argument can be made that this is a usage of metonymy, and the flag stands in for, and even means the United States as a whole.  That is all well and good, but placing undo reverence on the symbol can lead to a distancing from the reality of the thing itself.

Symbols are used by those who understand their power.  Because we have invested so much energy into The Flag--every child in America has chanted their promise of service to it every morning at school for years and years and years--politicians use this fixation on the flag and can very easily confound and assail our senses by using this symbol as a shield to deflect suspicion.  You can see this in display when candidates for office wear prominent flag pins, or more extremely, by competing over who can display the most, or the biggest flags.

Do you think he's compensating for something?

"...and to the Republic for which it stands..."
Oh right, there's actually a government!  So we are also pledging to serve the republic; the system of representative government meant to serve us.  Hey wait a minute...

Yes.  They've actually gotten us to turn it around in our heads so that instead of making the government promise to serve the American people, the people promise daily to serve the government.  And this happens on a daily basis throughout the nation at our schools, at an age when we are at our most malleable and impressionable.  Something sounds hinky.

Abby's on it!  McGee is there too.

"...one nation under God..."
Ok, so this one is divisive.  Some people like it and will bristle if you try to take it out.  Apparently these people represent a majority of some sort.  At least in government.  But while there isn't anything objectionable as such in "one nation," the phrase "under God" is another matter.  The phrase was added in 1954 by congressional legislation which is a violation of the First Amendment, which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."  Why does this violate the amendment?  Because it gives national respect to the idea of god which is present in many, but not all religions.  It imposes upon American patriotism a religious hue, and not just in general, but specifically monotheistic religion.  Furthermore, this is not simply stating the existence of such a god, but that the United States is a nation under that god; subservient to him.  If the nation was meant to be religious in nature, and meant to be second to the will of God there would have been some mention of god or religion somewhere in the US Constitution.  There isn't.  Don't believe me?  Go look for it.  I'll wait.

"...indivisible..."
Well...

Secession didn't work.  We had a whole Civil War about it.  Though technically if you have tens of thousands of Americans killing each other en masse over whether the nation can be divided or not, isn't the nation already divided?  So are we talking about legally here?  Because that's true-ish if you're assuming that the United States is eternal or something, but chances are that some day; years, centuries down the line, it will cease to be, and then all bets are off.

They certainly can't mean politically.  The whole basis of the US was so that there could be disagreement politically.  And while George Washington might have told us not to form political parties, we didn't listen.  Now Americans are SUPER divisible!  They divide along party lines, issues, and Donald Trump's hair.

You're responsible!  You're the one to blame!  It's YOUR FAULT!

"...with liberty and justice for all."
That's cute.  It's just not true.

It's incredibly naive to think, much less chant as a daily ritual, that everyone actually gets liberty and justice in America, just by virtue of the fact that this is America.  Regarding liberty, that is becoming questionable in the ever-more-police-state-looking modern day America.  Since the Patriot Act (at least) the government has been spying on us & accumulating information to determine whether we are good loyal citizens or not, and since the NDAA the Feds can hold you indefinitely and without charges on the suspicion of terrorism.  This is not to mention that the US leads the world in mass incarceration.  We have more prisons than colleges, and some for-profit prisons are now suing the government for not providing enough prisoners.  That's right, there is actually a demand for prisoners.  A whole industry around making sure that large numbers of citizens are locked up, and making sure that we have enough citizens locked up.  It's disgusting that we have an industry that creates this kind of demand for crime and punishment.

Don't get me started on justice!  Was there justice for Tamir Rice and his family?  Not only the the police officer shoot dead an innocent twelve year old boy on sight, but the state actually sued his family for the cost of the ambulance.  Insult to injury much?  And the officer involved was never even tried for the unnecessary killing.  Let me make sure that is understood: he wasn't found not guilty in court, he was never taken to court at all.  They just refused to investigate.  And that's just ONE of the many many cases of injustice throughout America, so to say that this is a land that achieves liberty and justice for everyone is just a lie.

So there is something problematic with almost every part of the Pledge, not just those two little words that have received so much of the attention, but we continue to, if not force then at least coerce, our students to repeat it day, after day, after day, often without really knowing why they are doing it, or what it is they are really pledging.  We need to rethink the pledge.  

Protesting the TPP

Going down to Rancho Mirage, CA today to protest the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would sell out not only our environment and economy, but even our own national sovereignty to the depredations of corporate greed.  This is a disaster of legislation that must not be allowed under any circumstances.

If you are near the area, I urge you to join us.  President Obama and leaders from Southeast Asia will be present to discuss getting the deal ratified.  Let's show them that we don't want any part of this corporate coup.

The Art of a Revolution

There's no denying that Senator Bernie Sanders has his proponents fired up.  Many are now "feeling the Bern," including the award-winning musician Makana, who recently released to YouTube and Boing Boing his new Bernie loving anthem, The Fire is Ours.  It speaks to the frustration with a corrupt and dishonest political system, and praise for the only one who seems to stand out, complete with a blazing upright piano that taking "feeling the Bern" a bit literally.

It's clearly the work of a talented musician and songwriter, in that he makes unsubtle political language actually sound good from a musical standpoint.  It's a catchy tune that, with luck, will start getting stuck in people's heads.  No revolution is complete without music.  Or dancing.

Plus, I don't see any other candidate with their own theme song.  Well, at least not one they didn't write themselves...

But this isn't the only thing going out there in the world of Bernie-themed art.  HVW8 Gallery recently hosted a whole exhibition of Bernie art.  The Art of a Political Revolution - Artists for Bernie Sanders just wrapped up in Los Angeles, CA, and has moved to Austin, Texas, where it will open TONIGHT at 7pm!

It features the works of some sixteen artists.  They may not be Diego Rivera, but they show a variety of engaging styles, powerful imagery, and creative energy.  I think this one is my personal favorite:

I like the non-traditional color scheme.  Red, white, and blue is by now overused in political materials to the point where it has become meaningless.  Going with an unusual scheme of orange and green is fresh, earthy, and warm.  In line with him are at least three people of color, along with a man of indeterminate heritage.  These figures are in silhouette, so we can only identify them by their profile, and need to read into the details.  The woman next to Bernie stands out because she is orange, whereas the rest of those standing "Together" with Bernie are in shades of green, and because her Afro hairstyle marks her as Black.  The silhouettes, by lacking much of the traditional facial features we look for in a face, demand that we project ourselves onto them, and read into them, building up some of their identity for ourselves.  This is a reflection of what we always do with life in general (we see the world not as IT is, but as WE are) and with minorities especially, but by putting a bit of ourselves into them, it is also a call to empathy, linking back to the title concept that we are all in this "together."  The Revolution is for all of us.

New Hampshire is on fire!

New Hampshire is Feeling the Bern!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead.

I know, it's a bit of a cliche at this point, but I stand by it.  Most, if not all, serious change has been brought about by a plucky group of devoted individuals.  The colonial Americans had a comparatively tiny army, compared to imperial Britain, but they won.  A small group of determined and indefatigable protesters drove the civil rights movement.  We can do this.  In Iowa and New Hampshire it has already started.

With 60.4% of the vote, Bernie Sanders has won the state by one of the widest margins in history.  The early race is looking like America is ready for a revolution.  Revolutions are never easy or unanimous, and we will certainly have a hard road ahead of us, but we must carry this momentum forward, and work to forge the America we all deserve.  

They tell us that things can't change.  They tell us this to stop us, and count on us to believe it, and spread the lie.  But the world has already changed.  It's changed in all of us.  America is fed up with politicians who govern for the rich and for corporate interests instead of their constituents.  We just need to make manifest the change that's already happening inside, and bring it out to our daily lives.

Keep track of Bernie News and the awesome Bernie supporters over at The Bernie Blog! 

Bread and Circuses

Today's the big day!  The Super Bowl!  A titanic struggle of champions for glory and the adoration and adulation of the masses.  A test of skill, teamwork, and spirit to determine once and for all, or at least a year, who is the greatest of them all.  That is the premise of the event.  But we all know that the Super Bowl is really about the commercials.  It is the one time of year where we actually WANT to watch the commercials, maybe more than the actual event.  This time, the companies make it their special mission to entertain us as much as market to us.  This day we forget our troubles.  This day we gather and consume, and revel in team spirit and merchandising.  

In the days of Imperial Rome, the ways the upper class (Patricians) kept the lower classes (Plebians) in check was a system known as "bread and circuses." By giving them enough to not starve to death, and something to keep them entertained, they largely prevented the masses from rising up to overthrow their oppressive overlords.  "Circuses" in those days, by and large, meant gladiatorial combat.  Throughout history, even today, nations have provided "circuses" as means for people to let off steam, so they forget they are under control.  At no time is the parallel more apparent than in a game of football, and none more so than the Super Bowl.  A team of men charging at each other in mock military patterns, slamming violently into one another, often resulting in injury, these are America's gladiators.  

The problem is, that by going along with this, we are playing into the hands of a system meant to keep us in check.  The corporations who own this country are especially strong today, and will make us love them, if only for a day, and convince us to keep consuming.  Buy buy buy, spend money you don't have on shit you don't need.  It's something you've been conditioned to do, and we're made to love the occasions that reinforce this behavior the most.  

I'm sure this message will be upsetting to many people, because you may love the super bowl.  You may love the game, or just the commercials.  And that's actually ok.  Enjoy the game.  But be aware of its roll.  Why is it this such a big deal?  Because it gives you something to rally behind instead of a real cause.  It gives you a distraction, a place to spend your emotions, so that you continue to be apathetic to the way the corporations and the government are screwing you over.  We all need distractions now and then, or else we'd go mad.  Just make sure you don't forget what you're being distracted from.  

Humanist Manifesto III

Following is the Humanist Manifesto III

It is revised from the first humanist manifesto, penned in 1933.  I do not own this.  Humanist Manifesto is a trademark of the American Humanist Association-© 2003 American Humanist Association

Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
The lifestance of Humanism—guided by reason, inspired by compassion, and informed by experience—encourages us to live life well and fully. It evolved through the ages and continues to develop through the efforts of thoughtful people who recognize that values and ideals, however carefully wrought, are subject to change as our knowledge and understandings advance.
This document is part of an ongoing effort to manifest in clear and positive terms the conceptual boundaries of Humanism, not what we must believe but a consensus of what we do believe. It is in this sense that we affirm the following:

• Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. Humanists find that science is the best method for determining this knowledge as well as for solving problems and developing beneficial technologies. We also recognize the value of new departures in thought, the arts, and inner experience—each subject to analysis by critical intelligence.
• Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change. Humanists recognize nature as self-existing. We accept our life as all and enough, distinguishing things as they are from things as we might wish or imagine them to be. We welcome the challenges of the future, and are drawn to and undaunted by the yet to be known.
• Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience. Humanists ground values in human welfare shaped by human circumstances, interests, and concerns and extended to the global ecosystem and beyond. We are committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity, and to making informed choices in a context of freedom consonant with responsibility.
• Life's fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of humane ideals. We aim for our fullest possible development and animate our lives with a deep sense of purpose, finding wonder and awe in the joys and beauties of human existence, its challenges and tragedies, and even in the inevitability and finality of death. Humanists rely on the rich heritage of human culture and the lifestance of Humanism to provide comfort in times of want and encouragement in times of plenty.
• Humans are social by nature and find meaning in relationships. Humanists long for and strive toward a world of mutual care and concern, free of cruelty and its consequences, where differences are resolved cooperatively without resorting to violence. The joining of individuality with interdependence enriches our lives, encourages us to enrich the lives of others, and inspires hope of attaining peace, justice, and opportunity for all.
• Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness. Progressive cultures have worked to free humanity from the brutalities of mere survival and to reduce suffering, improve society, and develop global community. We seek to minimize the inequities of circumstance and ability, and we support a just distribution of nature's resources and the fruits of human effort so that as many as possible can enjoy a good life.

Humanists are concerned for the well being of all, are committed to diversity, and respect those of differing yet humane views. We work to uphold the equal enjoyment of human rights and civil liberties in an open, secular society and maintain it is a civic duty to participate in the democratic process and a planetary duty to protect nature's integrity, diversity, and beauty in a secure, sustainable manner.
Thus engaged in the flow of life, we aspire to this vision with the informed conviction that humanity has the ability to progress toward its highest ideals. The responsibility for our lives and the kind of world in which we live is ours and ours alone.

Education Revolution

Growing up in Oregon, going to a teeny tiny, making-it-through-by-the-skin-of-its-teeth private school, I never knew why kids on TV complained about going to school.  Then I moved, and started attending a public middle school in 8th grade, and got my first taste of what everyone was talking about.  It wasn't until much later, though, when I got a job as a substitute teacher, and got to see the public school system at every level, from kindergarten all the way through high school, that I really understood.

The public school system has its roots in the 1830s, when Horace Mann brought back the system of the Prussian Empire in order to prepare children en masse for factory work in the midst of the Industrial Revolution.  The advantage of the system was that it was quite effective at instilling literacy in large numbers of children very quickly; however, the real reasons for the system's staying power may be much more insidious.

The Obedience Factory

There are many, including author John Taylor Gatto, who was awarded multiple Teacher of the Year prizes during his 30+ years as a teacher in New York City, who have come to realize and write very openly about the negative effects of our school system.  In his article"How public education cripples our kids, and why" Gatto points to several corrupt facets of the education system, evidenced by the 1918 writings of Alexander Inglis, in which are listed the six key functions of compulsory public education.  Paraphrased, these are:

1. To condition automatic responses to authority, so that obedience is not a choice.
2. To homogenize students and increase conformity.
3. To determine each student's role in life after school.
4. To prepare them for that role.
5. To weed out those students who cannot or will not conform to the above expectations.
6. To establish an elite group to control the others, and perpetuate the system.

This is to make people susceptible to manipulation by corporate bosses and the politicians who are in their pockets, and render the society docile, predictable, and complacent.  It was established to limit the potential effect of democracy in America, and make the masses pliable to the will of their corporate owners.  Schools are complicit in this, functioning as factories producing  a product in demand by corporations.  And as if this wasn’t awful enough, it’s even losing some of its relevance, as the biggest and most powerful corporations have so changed the industrial process that droves of obedient American workers are no longer required.  Most major corporations outsource most of their production process to other countries, where labor can be paid inhumanly low wages.  Those companies that do produce in the United States are largely mechanized, meaning that humans are largely irrelevant at many stages of production.  So now, not only are millions of children being indoctrinated to be obedient workers, but they are being prepared for lives and careers that aren’t even there.

So the system has from the very beginning been designed to control you, and make you roll over to the whims and mind-control of the corporation owners.  But even this does not give the full picture of just how fucked up the system is, and just how badly education in America has gone wrong.  The Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union represented a colossal standoff of superpowers, with the entire world at stake.  The United States could not afford to lose.  So the capitalist masters pushed the schools to focus their studies on English Language and Mathematics, to produce large numbers of high-quality spokesmen for capitalism and engineers and rocket scientists to win the Space and Arms Races.  This made sense at the time, but the Cold War ended over twenty years ago, and yet we focus on English and Mathematics with more fevered intensity and exclusivity than ever.  Why haven't we reverted from this outdated policy?

Part of it can be traced to the Reagan administrations 1983 report "A Nation at Risk" which due to a mathematical error misrepresented public school performance on standardized tests measuring math and English skills.  Though performance had improved for each demographic group (divided by income levels) the larger size of the low-income demographic, which consistently has lower average test scores than higher-income demographics, skewed the data to appear that performance had dropped, and schools were failing.   YES!  Magazine goes into detail on this.

So, while America played chicken with Soviet Union in its final years, at home, our education policies doubled down on the policy of focusing on English and Math, and over the past thirty years have put steadily more pressure on schools to perform in these areas, as they are what the standardized tests measure.  This was worsened by No Child Left Behind and the adoption of Common Core curriculum in recent years.  So now schools have gradually cut programs to focus with tunnel-visioned exclusivity on only two criteria that are now being used to define success.

The State of Things

As a substitute, here is what I have observed about the curriculum offered at each level of public education:

Elementary School: Elementary school is where the above is most pronounced of all.  From grades 2 to 6 English and Math are virtually the only subjects taught.  Students are being urged to learn basic algebra in third grade; something I never learned until middle school; and I went on to take calculus, so I'm no slouch in mathematics.  Per the Common Core, teachers all across the district teach from the same set of books, and are expected to teach the same lesson on the same day.  Once or twice a week, students receive PE, and once a week, they have computer lab, in which they learn...English and Math.  Art classes are nonexistent.  Music is nonexistent, with the possible exception of a Christmas concert.  Dance is nonexistent.  Theater is nonexistent, except for one or two optional after school plays a year.  If you don't care about the arts (which you should) then you should at least care that students are hardly taught a thing about history or science, and when they are, they are taught poorly.  These subjects are taught as lists of facts for students to memorize, rather than skills and perspectives for them to apply and take with them.  This leads to student boredom and disengagement.  Many students are burning out by the end of 6th grade.

Middle School: From a teaching standpoint there are ways that Middle School is the worst of the worst.  I have seen droves of students who have absolutely no regard for learning or their education.  Many students who come from disadvantaged families are only interested in escaping from a bad home life, so are much more interested in chatting with friends than learning anything.  However, when they are quiet enough to learn, it is because they are cowed and afraid of reprisal or punishment.  In my district, there are no Art or dance programs, and the Drama programs are present in name alone.  The Drama class is not given in a conducive environment, and the students are not interested in it.  It is taken on the assumption that it is an "easy" class.  Music fares rather better, at least.  But by and large, students by this time have had drudgery beaten into them, and have lost any appreciation for the arts.  They have already had the creative spirit amputated, and seem incapable of forming original thoughts.

High School: High School is marginally better.  Though many of the behavioral issues in certain students have been amplified, the presence of actual science, history, and a variety of arts classes make a difference.  However, due to the effect of the system, these are still often taught poorly, and do not encourage student engagement or excitement, and students are more jaded and disaffected than ever.  Several are starting to become acutely aware that this system is not meant to be interesting or helpful to them.  Even now, despite the actual existence of history, science, art, and theater classes, none of these matter, per se, as the High School Exit Exam, the SATs, the ACTs, and virtually all other measures of how well a student has done in school, still measure only their abilities in English and Math.  By the time they graduate, they will be able to describe the inside of a leaf, use the quadratic equation, and identify a synecdoche, but they will not know how to pay their taxes, apply for a mortgage, or balance a budget.  They will not have any valuable job skills, as each level of education they've gone through has prepared them for nothing but the next level of education, and most of that consists of knowing how to take a test. 

Revolution!

A series of incremental and gradual reforms will not do.  American society has for over a century been dominated by a system that encourages sameness, and has entrenched us in a culture of indolence and complacence, where we may complain about the problems, but never do anything about them.  Instead we trust our elected officials to handle things, which they never do, because they are in the pockets of the corporations, and the corporations don't want that.  We must stand up for ourselves and for our children!

We must change the way we teach our kids.  Throw off an oppressive system and prove to kids that we appreciate their differences, creative talents, and their passionate endeavors. Give them the opportunity to express themselves, and to find the joy in learning.  Teach them to experiment and discover, instead of replicate.  We must save them from a system that will break them, and inure them against individual thought or innovation; make them fear the unique, the creative, and the different; and hamstring their ability for critical thinking.

This system has entrenched us in partisan politics, where we blindly follow our chosen party down the road to oblivion as we swallow their lies again and again, and choose awful candidates on the premise that they are better than the alternative.  You have been tricked into accepting this false dichotomy and to believe these authority figures when they tell you that this is the way it is, and it cannot change, but it can.  All it needs is your action.  It needs all of our action.  So step forward and do it.  Do it today.