On The General Strike Revolution and human nature. What we are doing and what we are not

I can’t change human nature. I don’t know why it needs to be said, but I am not a god. I can’t snap my fingers and make a utopian society. That’s not where I put my energy. People can spend a lifetime trying to educate, rationalize and debate away bigotry and hatred. I am not one of those people. I respect the effort but I have no interest in trying to reason with unreasonable people.  Ignorance and bigotry is a switch in your mind and no amount of logic or appeals to reason can change it. It might light a spark but it is always a personal action. A bigot can hear a thousand stories of decent people in whatever group they hate but it means nothing to them. One person in that group being kind to them personally or defying their stereotypes might not change their mind but it can light that spark. For those who wish to dedicate their lives to educating and reaching out to the ignorant I salute you, but it’s not for me. I’ve talked to enough fools in my life that I don’t see the value in wasting my time in that pursuit.

What I put my efforts into is not changing minds but changing actions. If you are a racist, war monger, polluter, fascist or any other person destroying people and planet then my focus is on what you do not what you believe. You can have a million dumb thoughts in your head, I don’t care because I’m not your friend. I don’t want to associate with you. At all. When your actions hurt others or me then I care, because that’s something I can control. If you hate women there probably isn’t any argument I can make in a speech, novel, song, video or essay that will change your mind. However if you want to act out that hatred then you can be sure I will act to stop you. 

Humans have been around for a million years and men have been hating women for most of them. A speech won’t change that. One in five men are child rapists right now. That is based on data from the number of female child brides that exist in the world today. So that is one in five male pedophiles, just among heterosexuals and just what is sanctioned by the state. One in three women are raped in their lifetime so it’s safe to say that at the very least 1 in 4 men are rapists, possibly as high as 1 in 3. I don’t believe in some fairy tale utopia, where if we have a better economic system or new laws or better education that this won’t exist anymore. I can no more say we can eliminate evil then I can say we can eliminate the spinning of the earth. I believe human beings have the means to do terrible things as well as great things. 

Looking at those numbers of male rapists can make you lose all hope in humans or at the very least a good chunk of them. Or you could look at it and say 2 out of 3 men are decent, but if you were being fair you’d have to contend with murder, slavery, racism, exploitation, violence and every other evil we do to each other. So let’s say it’s a 50/50 split amounts men and probably a 5th or 4th of women who are in the same violent hate filled category. Seems astronomically high until you think about history and how people will go along with evil acts because of their upbringing, place in history or even their opportunity for it. So yes, educate and reason with people to try and break that cycle, but never forget that human nature exists. Utopia is a fantasy word for a reason. 

I know people are corruptible. I know that are hate filled. I know they rationalize monstrous behavior all the time. This isn’t an essay about all the beautiful wondrous things people can do and have done. This is about material reality. You can make a law eliminating slavery but not the impulse people have to enslave others. We see this in every society that has eliminated slavery, there wasn’t a magical moment where everyone realized their mistakes. No, those same sadists tried to keep going, either illegally or by altering the laws so it was legal again. So we put in every action to counter that from happening again. That means penalties. That means vigilance. That means not accepting any of their rationale for why they did it. It means only caring about the humanity of those they tried to steal it from. I am not one of those "there but for fortune" people when it comes to the indefensible. There is no justification for slavery, murder, rape, child molestation or war.  None. 

If you posioned hundreds of peoples drinking water so you could make a profit, I don’t give a crap about any excuse you give. You robbed people of their autonomy so yours is forfeit. Everyone has the right to water, food, shelter, clothing, education, mobility, income, security, recreation and freedom. Once someone says that no, they don’t, for whatever dumb reason, be it religion, racism or regionalism then they have vacated their own claim to the same. If you don’t respect anyone else’s rights then no one should respect yours. 

So when people ask me to change human nature with a new constitution, either by eliminating bigotry or selfishness I look at them like they are delusional. I am not a god. I live in the world where nearly 40% of all people will do things I would never forgive them for. Now I am safe because of my region and my appearance. Nearly all the horrors I mentioned earlier won’t ever befall me. Doesn’t mater. Every death diminishes me. Every bit of suffering scars my soul because no one deserves any of it. And I don’t even feel it as deeply as others. Ones who are closer to it or just better people with more empathy still wake up to this chaotic world trying to make sense of it. I do not think life is fair, and there are ways it can never be just because no amount of restitution can undo genocide, slavery, rape or murder. But we can try.

There will never be a perfect world. There will never be a human nature that isn’t violent. Because we are animals and all animals are violent. What separates us from other creatures is our ability to reason. We can’t eliminate our nature but we can transcend it over time. Now the focus is on the reality of circumstance  affecting people, not the logic or lack thereof that drives it. I might not be able to change the minds of a parent who disowned their child for being gay. That is a long project, but not an impossible one. All hate was taught and can be untaught. The urgency is on the child right now. Make sure they aren’t living on the street, make sure they are feed, make sure they are still educated and still have a network in place to help them through. In a perfect world that child would never have to go through that but wishing for it won’t make it true. So let’s make sure we help them now in the real world with tangibles.

A lot of people who identify as leftwing on social issues are quite often extremely rightwing on economic issues. There is a whole political party in the US that fits this description. So you can say you aren’t racist toward foreigners of different religions or ethnicity but if you are fine with their economic exploitation or their destruction by your war machine in order to steal their resources for your benefit then I think you are a hate filled liar. I don’t care what’s in your heart I care about your actions. Material reality is what matters. The person who hates another but does no physical harm to them is never as horrible then the one who holds no ill will in their heart but will destroy that person’s life.

How people identify politically, socially, spiritually, doesn’t matter. It only matters what they do. Call yourself anything you want but how do you live your life? Do you want a better world? Do you want to improve your life and others lives too? Then you are my ally in this struggle for freedom and for a future. Don’t agree with me on everything, maybe on next to nothing other then change is what is needed and the way we outline on how to get it. The truth about human nature is that if you give some people a gun and no accountability they will do whatever they want to whomever they want because they are selfish and full of hate. Some can spend their whole lives doing no harm until they are given the opportunity and then rationalize it to themselves. The other side of human nature is that if you give the rest of people a gun and no accountability they wouldn’t even think of doing any of those horrible things. It wouldn’t occur to them.

The struggle is the decent humans stopping those who would hurt others at first chance. That means understanding a slim majority are good but far more then we ever want to admit are bad and only by excusing them or burying our heads in the sand will it continue. Don’t give people a chance to do those horrible things. Accept they are corruptible. Accept they are prejudiced. Accept they are ignorant. Accept they are selfish. Just as you must accept that humans are also selfless, honorable, loving, empathetic, compassionate and peaceful.

Most leaders in the world fall into the sociopathic category. There are many reasons for this, greed and ego is the biggest factor. Will we make it so the only people that gravitate towards positions of authority are all decent and compassionate after the revolution? No. That’s not realistic but we can limit them as much as possible. All power must be questioned and restrained. No one ever makes themselves the villain in their own story. Every creep throughout history lied to themselves. Telling themselves that they were doing what they did for the greater good or that their victims deserved it.

I am not a god and I don’t want to be one because I wouldn’t trust myself with that power. And If I wouldn’t trust myself with that power I sure don’t trust anyone else with it. No one person should make decisions for everyone else. The fate of the world should not be in the hands of a few people, usually mentally unstable types who are given the nuke codes to eliminate all life on earth. I don’t want that power for anyone. No kings, no emperors, no self proclaimed deities dictating everyone else’s life. The only true way to eliminate evil is to eliminate free thought and choice. Every madman throughout history went in with this mindset. All believing that they knew best. 

So when I devised this plan and demands I didn’t put my own wants front and center. I put what I knew was possible in this country. What would get the numbers needed to win. What others were asking for now. What has worked before or works now in other parts of the world. And what I knew it would take to make sure that it wasn’t undone in a coup a year or two later. We need the numbers in order for this to work but also to have the mandate.  A revolution with only 3.5% means most aren’t in favor and the only way to maintain it afterwards is oppression. Also 3.5% is easy to raise up on the opposing side. Dueling revolutions & coups is nothing people want.

Yes maintaining this will be hard after we win. But if we want it to succeed then scraping everything that exists and starting anew will just lead to turmoil and another coup. That’s why we amend the constitution.  We don’t have decades to change hearts and minds and we don’t have decades to give over 300 million people a new political education. Especially after 250 years of indoctrination. What we can do is show improvements on their material reality. That’s what keeps this going. Show people tangibles. If lives don’t drastically improve then it will be undone because the consent of the governed will be revoked just as we are revoking it with this action. 

Steps always have to be taken in order succeed. We don’t have time for failed experiments or purity tests.  Understanding that everyone lives in their own bubble is key to realizing what it will take in order to win. We can’t change a prejudiced person’s mind about another race, sexuality or religion but if we can feed them and improve their day to day lives we can bring them in. And maybe just maybe flick that switch in their brain so when the people who do the hard work of changing hearts and minds with outreach have an easier time.

So I can’t change human nature with this revolution. I can’t make it so everyone will agree with you on everything or even most things. That is not how life works. So for anyone asking me what can we do about narcissism or apathy or selfishness with this strike, you are looking for the wrong thing. You can talk about how people are more cooperative in other parts of the world and that’s true. In America we have had two and a half centuries of rugged individualism beaten into our heads so we have to work with what we got. That means appealing to peoples selfish nature and their wanting more autonomy and less surveillance & exploitation. No one wants less freedom everyone wants more. And real freedom means no hunger and no poverty.

It’s a hard sell in a country that blames the individual for everything and makes the state take no accountability for actions here and abroad. But that’s what we must do. Our advantage comes from everyone hating the government. A functioning democracy wouldn’t have lead us and this planet to this point. So in order to get people to listen to what we have to say just ask them: "Do you think you are paid what you are worth at your job? Do you want more of a say at your job? Do you think the government has your best intent in mind based on their actions? Do you want more opportunities to travel, get paid more, retire earlier and not have to worry about education or healthcare?” Host of other demands we have that we can get specific with but this gets most people on board, unlike a questionnaire to make sure they would vote the same as you on all the issues. 

Finally just talk to people about how it will work. Everyone agrees the status quo is terrible but they don’t know how to change it. Show them the way. Invite questions, if you don’t know, say so and tell them you will get back to them or you could use their help with figuring it out. I won’t lie and say I don’t wish I could just snap my fingers and be done with it. Just get to the good stuff and not have to do any of the work. But that’s not how life is. So we carry on until it’s done. The tenacity and struggle to survive is the part of human nature I feel more and more everyday. And no matter how bleak of defeatist I see people becoming from time to time, they can’t change that part of about themselves either. We will win.