The Shit Heard Round the World

Mick Zano

Another faction finally emerges, Occupy Wall Street. A rocky start, fer sure, and I condemn their recent attack on the E*Trade baby. But how does one bridge the gap between the Tea Party and this new group? We need a revolution that resonates with more, not less people. Thus far one group seems to be railing against Wall Street and the disparity of wealth, while the other attacks taxation and a growing government. One demands entitlements and the other wants to put an end to them. What’s the answer?  The Transcosmetic Party, that’s what.

Will this revolution condemn both the banks and the government? Sean Hannity doesn’t like them, which is a good thing. Sure they’re directionless, but it’s better than going off half-cocked in the wrong direction. Of course the Tea Party is more organized—with 40% of the country armed with only Fox News talking points, you’re guaranteed consistency…consistently wrong. The real deal is going to start off a little sloppier, I’m afraid, but you can’t make an integral omelet without breaking a few legs.

Joe Biden said these two groups have a lot in common. He’s wrong, but someday perhaps they will. Thus far President Obama is being criticized for sympathizing with this faction. Meanwhile, Fox News sees it as a threat to their very foundation of greed, fear, and stupidity.

Before we discuss the new kid on the block, why did the first revolution fail? Well, this Discord cartoon sums it up nicely:

No Regulations, No Unions, No Taxes?
No Regulations, No Unions, No Taxes? ...Excellent
…Excellent

That’s a real nice revolution you have there.  Now go home, lie down, and let someone with insight lead the disenfranchised masses. Hey, but maybe Mr. Burns can be your spokesperson? He funds your rallies already.

The Tea Planeters have clearly delegitimized themselves. But will this new group address all of our government’s flaws wherever they lie? Only an integral movement can work here…have I mentioned that?

I think if their platform is built correctly and they incorporate the few valid points the Tea Party has to offer, this could be the wave that propels us into the future. The Tea Party is useless.  Will they still negatively impact elections? Probably, but do they have any real relevance in 2011? Hell no. They had a premise not entirely without merit, but they chose to hand their microphones over to the criminally insane, not to mention the people who got us here. This, of course, coincided with Fox News championing their cause. Fox News is arguably the most damaging media group this country has ever seen, besides the Daily Discord, of course. 

Blogger Juan Cole found one Transcosmetic type at one of these rallies. He noted how not everyone there was anti-business.

“One woman had a sign saying that she liked business and she liked freedom and she wanted to find a way to combine the two,” said Cole.

Are we finally ready to do what needs done? Is this the birth of a faction beyond ideology? Are we sick and tired enough of both parties? Will a real viable third party emerge from this? I have my doubts. MSNBC will likely try to pull what Fox did with the Tea Party. And Obama can wink all he wants, but this bunch needs to watch special interests and challenge every talking point. Most of all, this group must learn from the Tea Party’s mistakes.

What does this group stand for? Who the hell knows? Adbusters started it and interviewing this disenfranchised generation is not netting much—except maybe that free weed the Crank was talking about…which, by the way, the legalization of pot needs to be a key platform item. Talk about helping our economy and our society with one long overdue statute. I love how supposedly fiscal conservatives throw gazillions of dollars at lost causes, like the George W. Bush Liberry. He’s never going to spell or even say that correctly, no matter how much you donate.

This new group can still embrace a smarter, more integral platform. But if it simply bellyaches about entitlements and jobs, and parallels some mob in Greece, it will merely add to the chaos of a country in its death throes. This new faction needs to embrace those few aspects of the Tea Party that make sense. Our deficits are unsustainable and many functions of our government are mired in dysfunctional bureaucracies. Entitlements need to be given only to those deserving; they should not be of the irresponsible/enabling variety championed by pluralists.

This revolution needs to be about responsibility, a group unwilling to be governed by special interests and an outright refusal to allow the continued corporate rape and destruction of our planet. America as we knew it is dead, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use this crisis to produce something of long lasting value, like internet porn. This could be the turning point, or the final chapter. It’s up to us. I have been patiently waiting for the real revolution. Is this it? Only time will tell. 

If handled properly, this group is more likely to bridge these seemingly different worlds. They could lure those few functional aspects of the Tea Party over to their cause and galvanize a new approach, one of no party or clique. They need to become a non-partisan, or even post-partisan group willing to think outside of the two camps currently mired neck-deep in idiotic ideology. 

The problem with media and its insane levels of spin is this: it’s so deeply entrenched in ideology it would take a proctologist a week to find it. The Discord has been attacking the media since its inception…um, the Discord’s not the media’s. They are a big part of our collective confusion and, worse than that, they’re profiting from of our downfall. And the result? We are now effectively two nations. Trying to convince a liberal to curb certain entitlements is next to impossible, and trying to convince a conservative that more of Bush’s policies are not the answer is even harder. Most of our collapse is history for us, yet we still can’t seem to agree on what’s happened and happening. Why is this? Eisenstein over at Reality Sandwich said it best:

Reasonable people can, depending on their vantage point and life situation, look at the same set of events and form different beliefs about them. These beliefs then become a filter that determines what they see and, indeed, what they look for. It is as if they enter separate but parallel realities.

—Charles Eisenstein

Way back when I wrote an entire post on the cognitive distortions inherent in the human condition and nothing epitomizes those separate realities more than switching between MSNBC and Fox News. No group is more detached from reality than the right, of course, thus the gist of many of my posts. But everyone is currently drifting away from the truth at light speed. The only difference: the left just broke the sound barrier, and the right invented warp drive.

I have asked the right, very nicely, to stop the whole upping-the-idiocy-ante thing, but they insist on a level of media bombing that makes the attack on Dresden look like a day at Jellystone Park. I would love to focus on the left, but did you see what Rick Perry just said yesterday? Holy shit! But let’s not forget how entitled the progressives are to entitlements; how prone they are to support senseless bureaucracies. Let’s face it, folks, both parties suck!

I feel like I at least still have a foot in both worlds. There’s about four of us left. Unfortunately, this is why this new revolution is a long shot.  Their leaders will be the key. These new spokespeeps need to act from a selfless, integral perspective if they hope to truly bring about a transformative society. They need to, above all else, promote an underlying responsibility that embraces a world centric approach. Again, not off to a great start. But look at it this way, if our technology continues to grow without some comparable growth of human consciousness, we’re doomed. From a spiral dynamics perspective, the movement needs to allow people to remain in any level of consciousness they happen to be operating. But this new society should be the best vehicle for anyone who desires to springboard to the next level. In such a culture fundamentalism will not be condemned (er…like I often do), but it will be kept in check as not to interfere with anyone else’s growth potential.

The Crank and I are not at polar opposite ends of the political spectrum as our posts might suggest. He just has a much thicker filter than most. It’s stunning, actually. Moving to a new phase of Americana, based on true, not false assumptions, is completely alien to a Foxeteer. Unfortunately, Foxeteers base their world from the perspective of their stock options and a romantic view of America long extinct. If Sean Hannity gets his way, we will allow this suicidal sociopathic society to barrel onward toward a hasty end. Some of his ilk even believe Jesus is literally coming again, so why worry about resources, and why worry about other cultures? They’re all going to hell anyway, right? Sure there will always be fundamentalism in our world; it’s an important part of spiral dynamics, but they don’t have to be our leaders! We don’t need people praying before they bomb the shit out someone in 2011.

Sure the right will criticize this faction and much of it will stick, but the right will dismiss an entire movement because someone takes a shit on a police car. It’s how they roll—and I never would have even done that if someone had thought to provide some god damn port-a-potties at this thing! And that’s how I roll without a roll.

In all-or-none thinking land, every Tea Partier is a model citizen, fighting for truth, justice, and the American way and everyone in this new movement is a liberal stoner. That’s the way they always approach the unknown, not with a healthy skepticism but with a disproportionate condemnation. The right is not going to understand the impetus behind this movement.

You see, the Tea Party will only remain a viable force when a Dem is in power.  But they will always reemerge, like a superhero with Alzheimer’s, to battle conditions created by their last candidate.  Very helpful.  This new groovy scene is somewhat liberal but it is actually forming when a liberal is in power.

If you remember, I watched the Tea Party form with a skeptical encouragement, but quickly moved to disdain and disgust as their leadership emerged. In other words, I can understand the Tea Party and then rightly marginalize it, but the Occupy Wall Street movement will remain incomprehensible to a Foxeteer. They will immediately marginalize it without understanding it.

For the record, this is when it all started.  At the same place where Al-Qaeda knocked down the Twin Towers.  Sure this revolution will change, morph, quiet down, resurge again, adapt, maybe even throw up on a senator, but it’s finally a group truly disgusted with everything.

Those unintended consequences you were talking about, Crank, might just surface, but not in the way you think. Sure it will backfire on the Dems, and it should, but this rag tag group could well morph into the real deal. As an aside to the last Crank post, I will stop making fun of those with mental disabilities when you stop electing them to public office! And no one is trying to edumacate you, Cranko, but at some point it’s going to become necessary for you to get out of the way.

We do not need great historians to tell us the fact that our society is crumbling; and there must be new architects, new builders, to create a new society. The structure must be built on a new foundation, on newly discovered facts and values.

—J. Krishnamurti

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Mick Zano

Mick Zano

Mick Zano is the Head Comedy Writer and co-founder of The Daily Discord. He is the Captain of team Search Truth Quest and is currently part of the Witness Protection Program. He is being strongly advised to stop talking any further about this, right now, and would like to add that he is in no way affiliated with the Gambinonali crime family.