Progressive Change Management Strategies in a Time of War

Progressive Change Management Strategies in a Time of War
By Thom Fowler

March 27, 2003

The first thing I want to say that will put the rest of what you are about to read in the proper perspective is - People get into position of mainstream authority or visibility by doing what is expected by them and by doing what they are told. With this selection model filtering people into positions of power, it is obvious that those of us with the same experience and ability and a contrary point of view will have to take a different approach in order to take those positions.

We must act. So few of us understand the tools and strategies we have available to us to create social change. The immediate response by protestors around the world to the Bush regime’s most grievous foreign policy continues to illustrate the anger shared by millions. The first thing we must do is to survive the Bush Regime’s attempt to create a military state engaged in perpetual warfare. We must not throw up our hands or self-destruct in anger and powerlessness. We can counteract the process begun by the Bush regime. We must engage with the private and public institutions that embody the principals of a regime of perpetual warfare in order to transform them. We must get involved with our Schools, Churches, Corporations, and Local, State and Federal governments and apply steady pressure to create policy change. This is a process and each of us will find our own special area where we want to implement change and our own unique abilities to create that change. Determine your field of influence and act within it.

The Bush Administration and everything it represents has gone too far and we must not stop until it is stopped.

War Coverage

Watching the American coverage of the War on Iraq is infuriating me. My body is clenched up all the time from the unexpressed rage. I am taking extra good care of my nervous system. I’m not eating sugar. Instead, I am eating protein for long-term, sustained energy. The time for the fun quick sugar high and the nervousness and inflammation that comes from that has passed on. It is now time for the slow, responsible, nurturing, sustainable energy my body derives from protein.

I’m certainly not drinking alcohol. I’ve cut down on coffee and stepped up all the nervous system nutrients, like oats and calcium/magnesium. I am taking moments in the day to look at the sky, enjoy the onset of spring and watch the grass grow. I have to disengage several times during the day because when I re-engage with the reality of what George Bush Jr has created I become livid all over again.

I’m taking this anger and turning it into a private protest instead of a public one. I have been working in the garden. I’m using organic soil conditioners and no pesticides. I am giving back, making healthier. I am transforming the soil of potentiality into fragrant, healing herbs and beautiful flowers and life-sustaining vegetables. This work is nourishing my soul and if I keep practicing compassion and align myself with a life principal and do something that is nurturing, and life affirming and creative I am counteracting the insanity of the world and my sense of powerlessness.

We couldn’t have stopped this thing if we wanted to. When we didn’t vote George Bush Jr into office, he got in there anyway.

I'm so annoyed with the way the media is handling the war as if it were a high-drama series and everyone is out for ratings. I swear they must have story editors working with journalists. It's the worst kind of "selling the sensation" which has its place in fiction, but this is not dinner theatre and I don't think the media should be displaying the war so pornographically OR just have conservative supporters of the war effort and Pentagon and military analysts as "expert" commentators.

As if a peace activist doesn’t understand war.

5 days into this fiasco, the buzz kill set in and even those who were most enthusiastic for a ring side seat to Bombs Over Baghdad, like CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, that useless shill, have taken on a new tone as the reality of what they helped create smacks them dead across the face.

Thank you, American Media for fanning the flames of war and feeding our nation’s paranoia to involve us in an irresolvable war. Weapons of Mass Destruction indeed. The truth is as the truth was, Saddam Hussein was a horrible tyrant but he was not a direct threat to the United States. AND he was complying with all the restrictions placed on him, even ones that are in appropriate to demand of an autonomous nation.

The Big Lie

My feeling is that the troops were told the Iraqi people would welcome them with open arms because they are desperate to be liberated. They may have been told this to keep the morale of the troops high and to get their buy in as the CANNON FODDER for George Bush Jr’s private little corporate scandal.

And then they show up and realize that the US aren’t a bunch of cowboys. They aren’t the hero. All the bravado shown by the war planners – people who right now are still in their nice, comfortable homes and offices finding new ways to kill young people who felt like they had few options in life and the military was a way to take care of themselves for a few years- is going to collapse when US Troops realize how they’ve been lied to and asked to sacrifice their lives for DEFENSE CONTRACTS for George Bush Jr and his friends. You can’t go AWOL in a foreign country. And you don’t want to turn-coat. So what’s a soldier to do? Follow orders?

This war has sharpened my resolve to keep living my life the way I think I should and to keep encouraging dialogue on all sides of this war and to keep reminding people that there is still the "something else that's not really being talked about."

I've also noticed that the people who support this war often talk about it as if they are watching a football game and all the reality is just on the playing field and its all about scoring more hits than the other team.

No wonder why those people think if you are not rooting for the home team, then you are allied with the opponent, rather than taking a critical stance on the premise of the game itself. I’m neither for this team, or that team, I’m against the game itself.

I'm also afraid that the anti-war protesters will forget that their real concern is a broader platform than "Bush is Evil.” It is too easy to join a mob. And Bush is just this years American Poster Child for All That is Wrong In The World. His father is most likely much more culpable as the source for this deeply embedded conspiracy of control.

It is easy to yell in the streets. It is much harder to do what we must be doing now - continuing to work for progressive social change under the principles of freedom and democracy and ecological sustainability and find creative, personal ways to adapt our life to our ideals.

In spite of the futility of doing of civil disruption to create policy change, It is important that people keep drawing attention to their dissatisfaction by engaging in acts of civil disobedience and disruption if necessary,

None of our screaming in the streets, blocking traffic or burning effigies is going to matter if, at election time, nothing changes in the legislature because we don’t either support a candidate, work to get elected or most importantly, VOTE!

And if this war ever ends - and we have to go back to dealing with all the economic and environmental issues and corporate and government scandal, what will people do when history reveals the truth and they find out the enemy is either themselves, or the government.

Why does democracy and good citizenship have to be so much work, so complicated and fraught with difficulty? And how was it so easy for George Bush Jr. to sidestep democracy and good citizenship?

George Bush Jr is an appalling example of what America is supposed to be about.

The Post-Vietnam generation

Where we are now is our generation's starting point and we have a heavy
task ahead of us. We can't rely on or trust the established corporate,
social and political structures. And yet we have to work within those
limits and with the established power brokers while we advocate for
positive change, with the well-being of all in mind to prevent any more
damage, to expose and stop corporate and government corruption and to find ways in our own lives to put our life-affirming, ecologically responsible values into practice.

Ah yes, I'm feeling that giddy rush felt by every generation
during their moment of historic importance. We have to really mean it
though, or its just Enron, Rigged Elections, and Manipulated Markets and pointless wars over and over again.

I think our generation is lucky to have grown up in the shadow of the
self-help movement because collectively we understand the phrase,
"breaking the cycle."

We were expected to create a peaceful, sane society based on the principles of health, freedom, conservation and balance. Instead we are being hacked to death to enable USA Inc. to control for a very short time the last remaining stands of crude oil and dole out tax payers money to their friends to clean up the mess they made (and paid for with tax revenue).

This Is Not Our War. These Are Not Our Priorities

So far, none of these alleged, unspecified, weapons of mass destruction have been found. “We expect to find WMD’s when this war is over,” says yet another generic spokesperson for the Pentagon. When will this war be over? When the ground troops have reached Baghdad? When Saddam Hussein has been killed? This is never going to end unless we change the government that is creating it. Which is what the anti-war protesters were trying to say all along. That once we start this thing, there will be no end.

In capture the flag, capturing the flag would be the end of the game. The flag in this case being either Saddam or Baghdad. That is the simplistic, cartoonish line we’ve been fed by the President. The real story of this war is anything but simple. Not only the reasons for it, but the actual fighting of it, is fraught with chaos and uncertainty because that is the nature of the universe. A military, who stands on the principles of order and control, is contrary to, and powerless against, the forces that really control our lives. The forces of nature. A simple, natural, normal sand storm temporarily crippled the war effort.

No, there was never a chance that this war could have been avoided. The Pentagon withheld information about a majority of the locations suspected of being used to hide WMD’s from the inspection teams. In several instances, the Pentagon lied to the inspection team and sent them on a wild goose chase. The inspections were never supposed to work.

And who are we really bombing? 71 percent of the people in Iraq are under the age of 17. We are bombing children. And George Bush Jr has the gall to talk about trying Iraqis for war crimes. As if the Geneva Convention protocols are a way for gentlemen to conduct war with kid gloves on so their hands don’t become stained with blood.

Blood for Oil?

If this is about oil and with all the talk about securing oil fields, “important oil cities” and “Thank god they haven’t set the oil wells on fire,” I’m starting to think that oil is a big part of this war, then I’ve decided that gas is blood. And I realize, when trying not to get my own hands bloody, how we are prisoners of crude oil. Our economy and way of being is framed entirely by crude oil.

At least now, 20 years after our own government should have sponsored the effort like the more sensible nations across the globe, there is a serious movement to institute clean, renewable energy sources. The same people who started this war are the same people who manipulated energy markets to bilk consumers out of millions of dollars. If one’s interest is in non-renewable energy sources, the use of which is toxic, then what does that say about the people who are administering the organizations that have sprung up around a willfull and knowing poisoning of the planet and its people? What kind of a person hides research that proves that smoking causes cancer in order to keep selling cigarettes?

What the hell does George Bush Jr think he is doing and does he think we are going to, in the long run, let him and his cronies, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Ashcroft and the invisible hands that hold them up, get away with this? No. Never. We will never cease our aggressive campaign against them. And we will continue to use what’s left of our democracy to stop them.

You have betrayed us, George Bush Jr. You lying, stinking, murdering thief. George Bush Jr is likened unto a toxic-sludge-oozing infected boil on the tender, graceful, neck of humanity.

The Pentagon promised a big ratings-getting show to the corporate broadcasters. And all the companies desperate to get Americans to buy the products they don’t need, the polluting products, the exploitative products, the poison they sell as food, will be able to absorb into their anonymous, tax-evading, trans-national shadow corporations the paychecks good American people earn at the cost of the free time and creativity. The government has practically promised ad revenue to the big news networks through their “Shock and Awe” hype. And nobody would have to compete for the broadcast rights. The biggest show in town is free to broadcast! The producers, Pentagon Pictures Ltd., is handing it out like candy on Halloween.

The stock market jumped at the start of war. And then waned when it was reported by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, heretofore to be known as “the enemy of the people of the United States” that we are at the beginning of the war, not the end. And then the nasty news that the promised tax cut wasn’t going to happen and the heart sank in Republican America along with the stock market. But wow! 75 billion dollar war budget. Lemme at it! Give me my slice of the bloody pie, Mr. President.

Everybody plays, Everybody wins

Obviously Saddam Hussein decided not to play.

And now you know why it’s called the Military/Industrial Complex. The military are the enforcers of the will of transnational capital management. Which is why the rest of the world opposed Bush, Jr’s shameful war. They see this action for what it is. And Bush for what he is. A crazed man. A man without the experience or the wisdom to effectively utilize the awesome power that the Supreme Court illegally handed him.

CEO, general and senator are, in some instances, interchangeable terms.

The truth is already out there. There is no need to wait for light to be shed on the deep corruption and sheer evil controlling the world of finance and government leadership. All you have to do is not be afraid to connect the dots and let the picture emerge from the “official” noise.

The official mission statement of this war in Iraq has changed so many times. Average Americans are starting to see how we are becoming entangled in another Vietnam. They are starting to wake up to the reality that this wasn’t going to be a bunch of shit-kickin’ American cowboys blasting into Baghdad with their balls out to take what they want while those whiny little girly-men Iraqis go crying to their mommies.

Americans by and large want to believe that the US Government and the Executive Office are our beneficent patriarch and to find out that the US Government consistently works against the best interest of the majority of the population may be the shocking wake-up call that either forces people into action, or shuts them down in an act of psychologically protective denial.

We are never getting out of this war. Bush won’t stop until we’ve “won.” But when will we know we’ve won? What are we going to do with 250,000 POW’s? Now that the Iraqi military has been masquerading as civilians, will the military receive orders to kill any and all Iraqis? Will US troops, regular people like you and me without much liberal education other than their field training, become confused like soldiers in Vietnam and “Kill them all and let God sort it out?”

We are in the mouth of madness. Forget the psychologist. Call in the shamans.

A football game ends. At the end of every Jerry Springer show the credits roll.

We can not allow that same mentality to apply to this war. Even if most Americans are experiencing this war as “television.”

A Cautionary Tale

I’ve heard a lot of talk about Israel in relation this war. How Sharon’s regime factors into the George Bush Jr’s decision to get us permanently in the Middle East is anyone’s guess. While Israel’s foreign policy towards Palestine has been contemptible at the very least and murderous at best, we need to remember to not confuse race, religion, government foreign policy and culture. To do so breeds prejudice and further erodes the strides some humans have made to transcend the brutal errors of history.

Millions of Americans do not support George Bush or this war. And millions of Jews do not support Ariel Sharon’s murder of an American protester or his pogrom against Palestine. While it was a single tank-driving soldier who less than two weeks ago, ultimately made the decision to crush Rachel Corrie, the American protestor attempting to defend a Palestinian home from demolition, it is Sharon’s policy that killed her.

And why should we Americans even be talking about Israel? Because thousands of Americans every year join the Israeli army and because the United States, by and large, finances the Israeli military.

It is not “The Jews” that support a murderous campaign against Palestine. It is Sharon’s government.

I know Sharon’s justification for the racial genocide of the Palestinian people. But does it matter who cast the first stone anymore? Remember the former Yugoslavia? Our world is a war without end. There is an evil spirit that moves over the face of our planet. We are due for a cosmic exorcism of epic proportions.

We Are In The Mouth Of Madness

This is our starting point. The beginning of our journey to power.

We are already experienced, highly educated, specialized professionals. We are already intellectuals, visionary artists, deeply feeling poets, innovative designers. We are already eminently adaptable and enormously creative. We have a deep love for life, and play and we express ourselves with enthusiasm. We are dynamic. We create synergy. This is a tremendous place to begin.

The nineties tech boom lulled many of us into complacent consumerism and inaction. We haven’t forgotten our primary objective – to create a safe, free, healthy, humane, compassionate society.

I do not agree with the jingoism of the misinformed left trying to take advantage of the unfocused rage of the powerless by using emotional manipulation to fuel the appearance of a mass movement. There is no Bastille to storm and no king to behead. There is just the slow, steady work of growing into public and private institutions. All change comes from within.

The most important action you can take is to turn yourself and your life into a template for the kind of world you want to live in.

“All that we are begins with our thoughts and with our thoughts we create the world.”

Some people just like a crowd or want meaning and direction so they join a crowd for the sheer pleasure of doing so. This kind of action does not transform the individual or society. Internalizing the mob mentality does not create long-term social change or stabilize the progressive movement into a vital force for change in the public and private sphere.

Hope, The Most Precious of All Commodities

Do not wait for direction or look to a leader to determine what actions you should take to support long-term social change. It is up to the individual to lead herself. This movement is anarchic, chaotic, spontaneous, yet organized around principals. We are not an army. We are not even a community. We are just folks.

When we embody those qualities we wish to see in the world , our institutions - even our most dehumanized corporate and military structures - will embody those qualities. When we internalize our very personal models for change, we can stabilize the progressive movement into a vital force for change in the public and private sphere.

So let’s rehumanize our culture from the boardroom to the bedroom.

Compassion, sanctity, respect, love, well-being for the whole. Pick just one of these things. Consciously practicing any of these concepts has deep, healing repercussions that we sorely need.