28 Khwei

Life is just a ride, it goes up and down and round and round. The more riders we meet, the more obvious the arbitrariness of social conventions become. Among all that seems superficially different lye some fundamental similarities.

We get trained to accept the current society as necessary for our survival as species, and even more importantly, as 'nation'. The need for 'a leader' is hammered into our heads from multiple directions. We tend to forget that those moment in life that shaped it essentially, when we fell in love, when we witnessed birth or death, when we felt one with the universe, know no leader.

Life happens, within us and around us, and while we can pay attention to some events others evade us.  Luckily, a lot of interesting events require the participations of a large number of people. You have already missed out on a lot of fun (and some less fun) action if you didn't hang out with occupy yet, yet the evolution needs you as well.

Technology has created a wealth that can easily support every human being on this planet, although most of it found its origin in weapons research. War is still an accepted tool for inter-'national' relations, and a highly profitable area for the application of high tech. The abundance of technological achievements, especially fuelled by Open Source and Creative Commons, could mean an end of all toiling as wage slave.

Some people just do the things they consider beneficial to the well-being of their community. Mankind got mindfucked to believe that technological abundance would lead to a breed of couch potato imbeciles. Well, the experiment in social engineering succeeded to some degree.

The retaliation wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention Pakistan, were never declared, just started.  The same holds true for the war against the population of the Western World, which started in 2008 with the first so-called GFC. De facto, it opened the gates to legal economic slavery, just like the feudal system that plagued Europe for many centuries.

The Icelandic people understood that bowing to the IMF meant slavery to bail out the gambles of a feudalistic banking system. The Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and many other European citizens realise that they got sold out by their Goldman-Sachs appointed heads of state.

Let's minimise the use of 'war' money, and experiment with our own currencies. Why not design fancy notes and pay occupiers for the time they spend for the movement?

Evolutionary mathematics

How can a group of people bring about a fundamental shift in society? Can we analyse civil movements with mathematical metrics to improve the efficiency of strategies and the definition of goals?

The occupation in Melbourne is still in its Early Adaptor stage, although it seems to resonate enough with a potentially 'critical' mass that can bring things to a tipping point. Allow me to set out some hypothetical numbers while forgetting about ideological bullshit. Melbourne has roughly 4 million citizens, which means if 5% of the population constitute a 'critical mass', it would take 200.000 Melbournians to liberate this city from its oppressors (if the same thing happens globally).

200.000 sounds like a lot, it's probably more than the 'alternative' parties count as members in whole Australia. But occupy isn't a political party, it's more like a life style choice. So metrics from other areas of life might better reflect such a number can be achieved or not. For simplicity's sake and inspired by sometimes shaky optimism, I assume that theoretically 200,000 could be convinced to commit their alliance to the idea of leaderless, consensual direct democracy.

Between now and 200,000 Melbourne occupiers lies the growth of the movement. Growth happens cyclical, linear or exponential. Although most systems and structures based on exponential growth constitute a big part of the problem, a phase of exponential growth is required to save this planet before the greedy few have wrecked it entirely.

Time for some calculations. Let's take 100 people, committed to contribute to the growth of the movement. The goal for each of them is to find a single ally per week. Even for people with a daytime job this sounds like an achievable target. In a linear model, it takes 2,000 weeks (roughly 38 years) to get our magical 200,000 together. A job for a lifetime, a Sisyphus task. Farewell, Mother Earth, will be late for your rescue as we got sidetracked supporting the system of destruction.

Now let's bring some magic in, exponential growth. Our 100 people win allies, not consumers or subscribers, and show their alliance by doing the same. After a week there will 200 'members', after two weeks 400, and so on. Now guess how many weeks it'll take with this growth rate to get to 200,000. Don't peer ahead and spoil your fun. I happily distract you for a while - isn't distraction the real opium for the masses, be it sport, politics, porn, drugs, drama and media?

Already after two months the barrier to 10,000 allies is broken, and the numbers will jump within the next month (after 12 weeks) over the 200,000 mark. Even with only 10 people as starting point it would take a mere 19 weeks to grow to a number where even a 10% mobilisation rate would exceed the size of most rallyes that took place in recent history in Melbourne.

While this might sound like a pyramide scheme, there's an essential difference. In a flat hierarchy, everybody is allowed to take their share from the gains of the operation. The idea of property, especially of land, contradicts the common interest, especially in highly populated world. And alliance (or membership) wouldn't necessarily mean membership fees (do we really need money on an abundant planet?).

Before we can agree how to heal the planet and to evolve mankind the system of madness needs to be stopped. Dr. ABC, first of all, remove the danger. 200,000 people in Melbourne's streets would certainly bring many things to a stop, and initiate a wave of civil disobedience that potentially brings back justice into society.

Why I occupy

On the way to my Shiatsu course, on the pavement of Swanston Street, the police pushed me into the occupy movement. I stopped in front of a wall of police, and when I turned around, I got pushed forward, unaware of the fact that the police decided to herd anyone on the entire width in Melbourne's city centre towards north.



I got really angry, hurling abuse and demanding my right to go to the next tram station. I saw many rallies, but the experience of a human wall forcing everyone around them against their will into a specific direction was new and truly bizarre. I use my hands and my Ki when I practise Shiatsu, and felt incapable of doing my job after this invasion of arbitrary police violence into my life. I stayed in town and saw a crowd of people vanishing into Trades Hall, with the army of police it looked like a trap to me.



As I don't use TV or newspapers as primary source to stay 'informed', I researched a bit more what this global occupation movement is all about. The common global consent, so it seems to me, lays mainly in the commitment to non-violence. When people remember the process while they act within the movement, it opens the avenue to collective creativity, with the tastiest fruits harvested by consent.



Of course, within a growing movement the knowledge of and experience with the process, the ability to learn, accept and apply it, differs among individuals. I met enough people to convince me that the global thing happened also here in Melbourne. I joined the First Aid and Care work group, and benefit each time immensely from the wealth of different expertise coming together on a peaceful lawn in a peaceful park on a sunny sunday afternoon.



Don't get deluded, it's not a talk fest happening here – in a time of civil war against basic human rights like freedom of assembly and freedom of speech many casualties occur. It takes a lot to organise the safety and health needs of a community of sometimes hundreds of people, especially when even people wearing First-Aid vests get clubbed by police while trying to care for pepper-sprayed peaceful protestors.



Even those who only witnessed the police brutality have been left traumatised, often reliving in their minds the memories of a terrifying assault on their believe in justice. The more stories I hear while debriefing the victims of the ongoing psychological warfare against a peaceful movement, the more I feel outraged about the utter disrespect for human life that happens right now in the city of Melbourne.



I chose as my occupation to teach and heal people, after spending some time of my life working as IT specialist mainly for the banking industry. The absurdity of the situation, the constant harassment, nearly daily new eviction orders were issued and executed, means that our team needs to build up an external network to cope with the cases too severe to deal with safely within our capacity.



First Aid usually serves as some sort of insurance policy, good to have around, but depending on the circumstances, hardly ever needed. The circumstance for Occupy Melbourne... well, let's call them sub-optimal from a health care perspective. Melbourne City Council removed shelter from rain and sun, access to water and sometimes the kitchen from Treasury Garden, not only increasing the psychological pressure for the permanent occupiers, but also actively endangering their immediate health.



Some of the occupiers have special needs, like Brandon, whose poetry you can listen to on the frontpage of omdigest. Even Brandon got served an eviction notice and was moved the meat wagon of the police. Others have difficult family backgrounds, and feel safer from violence in the occupation than at home. Many are exhausted from their job as occupier, yet the smallest creature comforts bring with it the threat of immediate eviction.



The re-occurring raids of the police made the First Aid gear evaporate. Just being prepared and equipped for good-case scenarios (prevention material like sun-screen, insect repellent, ponchos and blankets) becomes a logistical challenge. Not even having a minimal sheltered space for treatments available makes our task even more difficult. No time for leadership debates available, and self-organisation provides a level of First Aid and Care that would cost a lot of money if sourced for a commercial event.



Why do I occupy? I want to live in a world where we respect each other, where we care for each other, for all of us. I feel this vision resonating when I collaborate with the occupy movement, and it's happening all over the world right now. Let's organise horizontally and see where it'll lead to.

Sprouting seeds


Day 6 of the New Era of Humanity shows positive signs. Non-violent resistance appears in dead-end situations, usually without much more than the call for justice and equality.

The failure of the systems of society to provide justice and equality became overtly apparent after the so-called Global Financial Crisis. However, it remains mainly a question of believe whether you trust in the current systems of society to fulfil a useful functions, or not.

Obviously, the occupants can't answer this question either. Politics finds its justification by spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. Politicians stopped promising a brighter future, they just promise to prevent everything not to get worse. And no matter how much worse any local situation gets, they can point the finger at some other country where it's much, much, mucho-macho more worse.

At the moment, there are some 'talking points' which could be understood as 'demands'. Transparency in politics, abolishment of the legal status as 'person' for corporations. Basically, it's is a re-negotiation of power structures on a global scale.

Finding consent in a large, diverse group proves difficult. Finding a common ground means a simplification of the rules in order to allow them to be flexible. So far, 'common ground' was rather enforced by law - in Victoria public swearing can be fined on the spot.

In an interesting chat with Dillon I heard some concerns about the penalising system. How should aberrant behaviour be dealt with, don't we have a 'natural need' to be policed. Yet even with an abundance of legislation defining what a society considers 'legal' or 'illegal', crime occurs as exemption from the average daily life.

Unless, of course, the crime is institutionalised. The cops beating up occupants 'just did their jobs', protecting an outdated system violently. Historically, police got away with a lot of violence, although Australian police won't get the nomination of the Biggest Beater in Uniform for October's reality-internet coverage of global affairs.

I hope the Melbourne police doesn't change their ambitions to make Melbourne 'Queen-friendly'. The royal wedding in London showed the disrespect for democracy quite clearly. I don't mind so-called royal families providing some spectacle for their fans. But they still can force everyone to finance their follies, not only those you wish to support them.

I consider human beings generally quite supportive. Especially Australia lives to an amazingly large extend its stereotype to 'give generously for a good cause'. I can even discover something positive in the outrage about free-loaders, I simply disagree about who the 'free-loaders' are.

An escalation of violence would only attract more people to join this peaceful way to resist to be transformed into a piece of corporately owned life-stock. The internet helps to bring abuse of power into the public sphere, and undecided citizens can judge for themselves whether they want to pay with their taxes for a violent and oppressive government in bed with the corporate world, or whether to find new systems of cooperation to organise co-existence of 7 billion people in peaceful ways.

History in the making

The only thing human beings know for sure is their own history, at least if you follow along the ideas of Giambattista Vico. History needs the luxury of culture, a feature of humanity reinvented in many parts of the planet for millennia. The roots of civilisation date further and further back. Each of them deployed our inventive consciousness to create technological progress and an increase of available resources for their inhabitants.

Until lately, civilisations barely had the means to cooperate on larger scales. Few decided over the fate of many, creating the mess we witness today. Profit-driven wars rage, profit-driven paranoia sells stupid security measures, and thousands starve daily on this planet that can feed every human being. When natural disasters devastated the livelihoods of other people, a global wave of helpers emerge. Statistically, there are much more people willing to help than those who want to harm, society functions only by cooperation. 

History does not contain 'facts', merely narratives. September 1st 1939 does not tell us anything about the chains of connections and events that led to the second World War. We can learn about patsies, false-flag operation and propaganda that typically appear as side-effect in preparation for pre-emptive warfare by investigating the memetic structure of the surviving artefacts of any given period of the past. History taught in schools and universities serves only as propaganda to protect the inane power structures governing the majority of people against their best interests. 

Now we don't need to watch any BBC documentary about WW2 anymore to understand how governments operate to make money out of war and violence. We can witness the conspiration happening with international diplomacy wikileaking into the public domain. It's no longer a conspiracy that governments conspire behind the back of their citizens, it's happening right here and right now on this very planet.

Democracy can not just base on trust into its representatives. Democracy needs transparency up to the highest levels. Whenever 'secret' documents from the distant past were unveiled, abuses of power became known. Each government comments fast that these wrong-doings are a thing of the past. In the light of wikileaks the continuity of nefarious activities of democratically elected governments becomes obvious. Control of government failed until now, only a truly open government suits democracy.

Wikileaks has provided a glimpse of transparency, so we can experience history in the making. Its founder Julian Assange made himself the target of malevolent governments, and the empire strikes back.  Charged with dubios allegations, chased by police throughout Europe, held for a couple of days in isolation, Assange walks in the steps of Rosa Parks. 

On a very short term notice, you might want to join the rally in Melbourne today 5:30 pm at the State Library. Let's document history in making from as many perspectives as possible, to prevent state propaganda ruining our minds.

"My choices, believe me, are infinite, easy.
Exciting and mystical choices before me.
They tell me my life is a journey in no government."

Nicolette dares to dream about a time with no government, while this thought alone suffices to induce night mares and fear reaction in most people. However, would really so much change without government?

The promises of Certainty and Stability lure a lot of people into the firm belief in the necessity of government. The only certainty government brings is taxes, death comes for free. Stability is an illusion that contradicts human experience - again, death is the only 'stabilizing' factor in human experience.

Of course, people will die with no government as well. Building and maintaining communal infrastructure doesn't come for free either, but that's not an issue. Most people don't mind contributing to their community, unfortunately they trust governments to use their money wisely. Using the infrastructure built by taxes often costs extra: You still pay for Medicare, public transport, education and pension.

Many deaths could be avoided, though. Most obviously, those caused by the temporary insanity of governments called war. But governments have no power to shape society (unless they aim for fascism), they are just pawns of the global corporations. The legal systems of this planet empowered corporations to act in sheer self-interest, literally allowing them to walk over dead bodies.

Yet, no battle can and will bring down the sinister partnership of government and corporations. Only the desire for freedom opens the eyes for the uselessness of government. It doesn't take the saviour to dispel evil, it takes the will to responsibility from citizens to stop financing the useless and cruel game of party politics.

Any government that hides anything can not be trusted with anything. Do you rather trust your neighbor or a set of conventions to enslave the majority of people?