Gary ‘Z’ McGee, Staff Writer
Waking Times

“If you vote, you have no right to complain.” –George Carlin

First, let’s admit something to ourselves: this is not a representative democracy, like most people think; it’s not even a constitutional republic, like a few people hope. It is masked aristocracy and plutocracy. The aristocracy is wearing a plutocratic mask which is wearing a democratic mask which is wearing the mask of a constitutional republic.

The fact that the average person knows very little about the mechanisms of these systems, nor the meaning of the words used to explain them, is evidence that they are working. The fact that the average person doesn’t realize that elections have been transformed into auctions, is evidence that plutocracy is working. And it’s all working at the expense of “we the people,” at the expense of our environment and precious ecosystems, and at the expense of freedom itself.

To elect means “to choose or make a decision.” The problem is our choices seem to be limited and our decisions seem to be “vote” or “not vote.” This idea is perpetuated by state manipulation, cultural conditioning, and bipartisan political propaganda with corrupt lobbying that creates divisiveness. But there is a third option. We can “elect” to think outside the ballot box. We can “elect” to take money out of politics. We can “elect” to have a complete system reboot, to include, especially, the electoral system.

As would-be proactive citizens, it is our amoral duty to tear the plethora of masks from the corrupt face of this system, and reveal the fact that the wizard hiding behind the curtain is nothing more than a scared imbecile bully who wants to stay in power at all costs. Even at the cost of human lives. Even at the cost of human flourishing. Even at the cost of a healthy connection between nature and the human soul.

Our response to this should be to realize that different types of freedoms will always be in conflict and to have the perspicuity and the acumen to decipher the difference between healthy and unhealthy freedom. If conflicting freedoms are healthy, then compassion and compromise is in order. But if conflicting freedoms are unhealthy, then ruthless questioning and interrogative infiltration (even counting coup) are in order, despite, and sometimes even in spite of, a nations voting structure or entrenched electoral process.As it stands, we are more like a virus or a cancer on the planet than even a parasite or symbiotic leach. Humankind is facing an absolutely unprecedented existential crisis. The main culprits are deep-rooted power structures and overly-fixed modes of oppressive human governance; which voting just perpetuates, because the voting system is built into the corrupt system and is therefore corrupt itself. Like George Bernard Shaw put it, “Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.” And the unhealthy, unsustainable, unjust, unfair, and immoral cycle continues. Unless we stop it. Unless we personally “vote” it out.

This type of voting is voting with our feet. This type of voting is voting with our courage. This type of voting is voting with our heart. This type of voting is voting with our life. It requires nothing short of everything. It requires putting it all on the line. It requires being all in. When you’re voting with your life, you’re voting with your soul. You’re declaring –balls-to-bones, ovaries-to-marrow– to the corrupt powers that be: “I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.” –Henry David Thoreau

“Nobody for President in 2016” is a wakeup call of the first order. It’s an alarm clock named Freedom blasting in an overly-indulgent room of conspicuous consumption. It’s a nose sniffing out smoke in a straw house. It’s a guillotine in a room full of godheads. It’s a passionate connection in a wasteland of disconnection. It’s a healthy heart in an otherwise wounded body. It is Mother Nature teaching us how to love authentically: with neither pity nor rancor, but with providence and interdependence. It is the words of Krishnamurti, “You are the world, and the world is on fire.”

“Nobody for President in 2016” is a hero’s call par excellence. It’s a call to adventure, true adventure. Not the pseudo-adventures portrayed in movies and popular literature, but the real adventure of your own living, breathing life. It’s a double-dog-dare to have the courage to become your own leader. It’s a triple-dog-dare to have the audacity to turn the tables on the Pavlovian knee-jerk reaction to vote within the system, and instead, to vote with your feet, to vote through civil disobedience, through proactive, non-violent protest against an unhealthy, unsustainable system. It’s Benjamin Franklin (or whoever) rising up and declaring, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding on what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”

Here’s the thing: men in power should NOT be writing the rules of power. This is because power almost always seeks to keep itself in power. This is because of a firm rule built into the human condition: power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Monkey see, monkey do? Well then: Sheeple see, sheeple vote. In order not to be a monkey or sheeple, we need to be proactive, insurgent citizens. We need to upset the applecart of the monkey’s status quo. We need to count coup on the sheeple’s sense of “order.” Indeed, civil disobedience is how the disenfranchised lobby congress. Have no illusions, the majority of us are disenfranchised to a sickening and oppressive degree. Like Joel Gold said, “Sometimes in order to progress, you need to regress.” Yes, sometimes in order to discover a moral mode of human governance, you have to amorally act-out and destroy the current immoral mode of human governance.

If rebellion is a dish best served warm, then civil disobedience is a dish best served in a variety of temperatures: from Femen, to the UK’s Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, to the Occupy movement, to the Zeitgeist movement, and everything in between. The typical bipartisan-puppet probably prudishly grinds their teeth at such antics. Oh well! The true activist who is practicing civil disobedience and non-violence, could give two blue shits about the typical pandering voter’s delicate sensibilities. Healthy, progressive evolution is on the line. The health of our planet is on the line. Whiny-ass, status-quo junkies be damned.

“Civil disobedience is a natural response to a world like ours; it means refusing to be a bystander to the apparent trajectory of the social order. We don’t think twice about the direct action of stopping traffic to protect a child who wandered into it unknowingly; we would practice civil disobedience any day in situations like that, never thinking of standing by or waiting for a majority vote. The same is true in our movement. We know this system is broken, we know it doesn’t have to be this way and we know there is an alternative. So we stop traffic. The question is not whether we should use civil disobedience as part of our movement’s arsenal — but how, for what, and when.” –Yotam Marom

“Nobody for President in 2016” is just the first domino in a long line of dominos that needs to fall. It’s the first seed in a long line of seeds that needs to be planted. “Nobody for President in 2020” will more than likely also be necessary. As will 2024 and 2028, and so on and so forth. Revolutions never happen overnight. They take time. They are usually not completed by the generation that began them. Like Michel de Montaigne wrote, “Those who give the first check to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin. Fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another’s net.” Let’s dare to be the “first mover.” Let’s have the courage and the compassion to “beat the water” for a future fisherman’s net. Like the famous Greek Proverb says, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” Let’s be great. Let’s be wise. Let’s sow some amoral revolution so that future generations can reap some moral evolution.

Read more articles from Gary ‘Z’ McGee.

About the Author

Gary ‘Z’ McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide awake view of the modern world.

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