[CRNMC] Fw: [Occupymendocino] A really good read.

[Lanny Cotler]

The difference Shannon points to is crucial. Understanding it is necessary and important; but buying into it is even more useful if we're to change fundamentally the society we're bequeathing to our immediate and distant descendants. 

Until my wife, Karina, made me take a serious look at the premises of the Community Rights Movement, I had little to no hope that reform was possible: the System was rotten and terminal and had passed the point of redemption or being fixed. In fact, I don't see the CRM as reform at all; I see it as a quiet revolution, since it turns the current paradigm upside down: grassroots rule rather than the Oligarchy. And once the CRM takes hold, I suggest it won't be so "quiet" after all. 

The Forces of Greed, the Power Elite, the Global Corporatocracy…will attack us once they see us as a real threat. That's not a clever prophecy; that's a realpolitik necessity. Our species has created and then allowed to grow a System—predatory capitalism—that has become an almost sentient force to perpetuate itself (a-la The Terminator).

Zoning laws are a type of reform. Growing home rule, however, is a systemic change at the molecular level; i.e., a revolution. We would be more than naive to assume that this revolution will not engender a counter-revolution.

Thus, I feel comfortable now sharing with you all a few short videos I've made over the past few years. They can be found at www.youtube.com/classwarfilms. If you check them out, please start with "Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine", our foundational expression.

To steal from Abraham Lincoln, I see the CRM as "the last best hope for humankind."

Lanny Cotler




ClassWarFilms.com 

ClassWarFilms exists to unpack and demystify the dense and deceitful narrative sold to Americans in the form of the Exceptionalist Myth. 

Our manifesto, Let Your Life Be A Friction To Stop The Machine, exposes and elucidates the creation and perpetuation of that devastatingly damaging masterwork of cynical propaganda for the many Americans who know that so much is wrong in our country but can't understand why, providing the facts they need to explain it.

Check out our website and videos here: www.classwarfilms.com

On Apr 30, 2014, at 10:47 AM, Shannon Biggs <shannon at globalexchange.org> wrote:

> I know Helen.  Zoning laws and home rule are different in NY, and certainly lots of folks have chosen to try to use zoning laws to ban, many are also in court (many are not).  
> 
>  I think the difference between the approach we’re using is that we’re seeing the problem differently. We say Fracking itself isn’t the real problem, the problem is deeper than that someone else who doesn’t live in Mendocino is deciding whether or not fracking comes our way. The work we’re doing is about addressing the structure of law that says we’re up for grabs to corporate profit and changing the law to put decision making in the hands of the community.  We’re laying the groundwork for saying no not just to fracking, but to the idea that someone else can make these decisions for us. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 4/30/14 10:39 AM, "karinajoy" <karinacotler at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Thanks for this article. Very interesting. The more ways we learn to take back our system, the better!
>> 
>> This was Barry's suggestion for having a simple anti-fracking ordinance, thru the zoning laws.
>> But we wanted a community bill of rights, too.
>> Karina
>> 
>> 
>> On Apr 30, 2014, at 6:57 AM, Michael St. John wrote:
>> 
>>> This article describes a different method by which communities in New York state have been banning fracking - thus far with apparent success.  It is interesting to know that the zoning method is being used elsewhere, and that it has survived in the courts thus far.  MStJ.
>>>  
>>> Michael St. John 
>>> St. John & Associates 
>>> Berkeley Office 
>>> 510-845-8928 
>>> North Coast Office 
>>> 707-937-3711 
>>> fax: 510-845-1813 
>>> www.stjohnandassociates.net <http://www.stjohnandassociates.net> 
>>>  
>>>  
>>> 
>>>   On Tuesday, April 29, 2014 8:31 PM, Mark Safron <marksafron at att.net> wrote:
>>>   
>>>   
>>> One very good reason for being a Charter County. M.S.
>>> The real secret to beating the Koch brothers: How our broken political system can still be won
>>> A duo of activists has quietly bested the energy lobby, helping ban fracking in 172 towns. Here's how they did it
>>> http://www.salon.com/2014/04/29/the_real_secret_to_beating_the_koch_brothers_how_our_broken_political_system_can_still_be_overcome/
>>> 
>>> 
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