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Manifest Resistance Resist, it’s 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

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 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 America’s revolutionary rebellious past, then I suggest you

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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. TheBill

of Rights is one of America’s many gifts to Western Civilization. Uniquely 

 American, the Bill of Rights is focused on an individual’s 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 individual’s 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

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more. Resisting is the American way – constitutionally protected and historically 

relevant.

Non-Collaboration

My next point deals with non-collaboration. Frankly, there’s 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, it’s brash, but it’s 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:

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 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

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approaches are different and many members are dubiously overzealous, their

central arguments are fundamentally right.

 What to do? I don’t 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

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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

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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-a-

 wheel. 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!

 

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