The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
--Howard Zinn
http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/zinn-optimism.htm
The absolutely MOST IMPORTANT thing we can do right now is educate ourselves and our friends and family about what is really going on. The way I do this is by READING a lot of posts here on DU and SELECTING certain articles, copying and pasting them in emails out to people I know. I've set up a network that includes everything from blue collar workers through soccer moms to PhD's. And each of these, in turn, sends them out to their list. We HAVE to do this because the "reality" that the media is creating is false--and we must reach as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
Another thread somewhere here on DU talks about "grocery store blogging" which is simply printing out a bold headline with a URL for more information and posting it on a bulletin board.
Beyond that, as Howard Zinn says in the article linked above, as much as humanly possible we must LIVE THE VALUES WE HOLD. That means, for example, choosing very consciously how we use our money, where we save it, where we spend it, how we earn it--and so on. But of course this is not limited to economic matters. We also need to live our social values as well. If we believe in caring for others, then we need to demonstrate that caring however we can.
There may be many concrete suggestions that can be made but we must be careful not to lay down to strict a path for ourselves. We are entering a time of great upheaval and change and no one at this point can predict with certainty precisely what the future will bring. I, for one, believe it is very likely that the neo-cons will allow or create another "terrorist" event, far more disastrous than 9/11. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if it were nuclear in nature--which would give them the go-ahead for the draft, for the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the ME, and much else besides. This would also work to silence almost all descent. I hope this does not come to pass. I hope we can find some way to corral these psychopaths and put them behind bars where they belong. But no one can say what precisely will occur. We must be ready to roll with the punches. Clearly the more INFORMED people are about what is going on, the better for us all as the masses will be less likely to be manipulated by whatever the corporate owned media says.
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