Getting There

"Never doubt that a small group of individuals can change the world.....
indeed it is the only thing that ever has".   Margaret Mead


Where to start? At the beginning.


With both political parties doing the bidding of commerce and profit, and in control of the media and culture,
the need for gathering together an opposition party is obvious, but something we Americans have not tried
for many, many years. Its obvious we need to reaffirm our right and ability to organize  a real alternative based
on the needs and wants of the people, not corporations. With almost universal access to telecommunication,
we can do this better than before. This party will  become the means by which we can get together and present
a NEW VOICE, a NEW VISION, and the beginning of a NEW SOCIETY. 

So We begin. YOU HAVE COME TO THIS WEBSITE BECAUSE YOU NO LONGER BUY THE RHETORIC....
offered again and again by both twin parties. Or the wasted 'hyphenated-hopes' of various others---
'Green this', 'Reform that ', 'Progressive everything-- 'liberal' 'pseudo-parties' that eventually- out of
desperation, not conviction- just end up supporting the same old Demopublicans they supposedly are
 "alternatives" to!  We've been there, done that, gotten nowhere.

YOU HAVE COME HERE Because "the-lesser-of-two-evils" still gives you one evil.....Because these groups
never go beyond complaining, or beyond blaming 'a few bad apples' they'll replace with another apple. Never face
the underlying cause and real solution. Driven by fear, not imagination and hope. Because the existing parties &
protest groups really accept capitalism as the only way we can go. Because, no matter what their motivations or
promises, we end up after the elections, with the same old, same old. Because we can't continue fooling ourselves.
Because its got to stop and it might as well be here and now..

People For A New Society recognize we are at a critical moment and that  we need to fundamentally
change things before we can move in the right direction. Not backward. Not side-ways, but ahead. Most
importantly, because we know our history,  we know we can. And, in fact, we already know HOW we can. Its
called the vote. Why link together and organize politically? Because we still can.
 
Although increasingly under attack, we still have the means to choose what our country will look like, how
it will work for us. We still have basic framework which allows for peaceful change thru the ballot. Seldom
mentioned, our right to peaceful and legal and complete change is guaranteed by the Constitution and
foreseen by the original planners of our independence. We are still guided by the original precepts of this
'Grand Experiment'.
                         
                          Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence,
                          understood that he wrote for the people of his day, and said "We might
                          as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him as a boy, as
                          civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their...ancestors".
                          George Washington  added: "The basis of our political system is
                          the right of the people to alter their constitutions of government".


Called The Amendment Clause, Article V of our Constitution was put in place by our Founding Fathers and
Mothers because they recognized change was a natural outcome of a democracy and would someday be
required and in fact guaranteed that peaceful change should therefore be made part of our legal system.
Even the NeoCons and George Bush & Co. have not yet closed that 'loophole'. It was the first time in history
that a society recognized in its very founding documents that it would someday become outmoded, and gave
its future citizens the peaceful and democratic means to achieve it.  It is brilliant. It is revolutionary.
And no wonder it is so seldom mentioned.

Knowing that a legal and philosophic basis for fundamental change is found in our earliest traditions, and part
of our Constitutional guarantees,  the  idea of peaceful and meaningful change becomes both workable and
practical. This is the way we can establish a new direction for this country, democratically and peacefully.

With the Internet and telecommunications available almost universally, we can regain what they envisioned:
an on-going 'experiment in democracy'. Much as t5hey did in an earlier day, we too can exchange ideas, gain
consensus, explore the best alternatives to a system gone awry and replace it with a new one. But this time with
all of us participating, creating a movement in which of all of us can benefit. What we do HERE,  at this site, the
 links we forge,can create the foundations of a new society.

                  Abraham Lincoln said:"Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power,
                  have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one
                  that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right - a right which
                  we hope and believe, is to liberate the world".



Going further, he said" This country, with its institutions, belong to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall
grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their Constitutional right of amending it (Article V) ,
or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it".  Presciently looking ahead, James Madison foresaw
our own times when he declared that when " wealth will be concentrated in the hands of the few "  it would
be necessary  "to readjust the Laws of that Nation to the changed conditions". That time has come.
And we have just cause and the ability to act. It is now up to us to begin.


                          The celebrated American Humorist, Artemis Ward, told the tale of a man in prison for
                           fifteen years. Then one day the thought struck him. He recalled that the door was not 
                           locked, opened it and walked out, a free man. Article V is that unlocked door, but we
                           must open it. It gives us the RIGHT to use our majority and to set up a new course,
                           a path no longer leading to war, unrelenting chaos and global insecurity, but towards
                           a true common wealth that is "Of The People, For the People, and By the People'.
                           Like that man, we have the key once we recognize it. Human history and progress
                           are not 'over'. Just waiting for us to turn the key.
 





GETTING 'THERE'.....STARTS  HERE
                                   "IF YOU ASSUME THERE IS NO HOPE, YOU GUARANTEE IT.
                                     IF  you assume there is an instinct for FREEDOM, that there are
                                     opportunities to change things....  THERE IS A CHANCE  you
                                     may contribute to making a better world.THAT'S YOUR CHOICE".  
                                     Noam Chomsky

WHY TALK ABOUT BUILDING A NEW  POLITICAL PARTY ......Why  bother? Why not 'work from within'?
Why not stay with what we know, get better candidates and just make them "do the right thing"? Is this really
the best time for all this talk about "change"?  What if we fail?

FIRST OF ALL, we are here because we've already tried working from within this or that party, supporting this
or that candidate, looking the other way  while our instincts tell us 'it won't work, AGAIN'. Because the power elite
in each party, behind each vested interest, each new slogan or promise only end up bringing us full circle, ready for
the next election...but no closer to solving even ONE of our many problems. Convincing us THIS time it'll be different
....that its just easier to go along & we can't win unless we vote for either of the two.  But hasn't that thinking
become obviously useless? Hasn't voting become a meaningless ritual with a diminising turn-out?Pretty soon,
we won't need to vote at all. We'll just nod. If we continue in this way we will have given up every right we ever fought
and died for. A NEW PARTY with a NEW VISION and a NEW GOAL for a peaceful reconstruction of society based
on a commonwealth democracy is now the only logical solution.



SECONDLY, the problems we face are systemic, they arise from complex forces based in the economic structures
and institutions of a capitalism that no longer serves the people's best interests.Endless Wars, recessions, depressions,
constant insecurity, fouled environments, inadequate healthcare and social services.  No candidate can control them.
No President, no Supreme Court justice, no Congress.  We waste precious time in "Beauty Contest Politics"
that get us no peace, no justice, no better quality of life. Its not a question of "better people who'll do the right thing".
These people already "do the right thing"...its just that they do it for their real masters, not for us. Its time to face facts.
Time to stop fooling ourselves. The system we have now is literally killing us.
                       
                     Like dancing while the Titanic sinks around us, we face a threat not only to our
                     country, but instrumental as we are to the world community, also to a breakdown of
                     basic global order. By ignoring these dangers, we threaten the health of this planet
                     and its ability to survive beyond us and the next few generations.



THIRDLY, and perhaps most tellingly,  How can we be afraid of failure when we already fail at each election?
Unless we get serious about taking back control of our 'politics' , organize politically and in every place we
have a voice to reach others, at work and in the community... establish a clear understanding for the need to
disengage power from corporations and their representatives through legal & peaceful means, work to spread
a new message and to build a new future....what chance do we have?

                 


IS THERE A CHANCE?

Yes. The  NEW SOCIETY we envision will come from what we know and where we are. Yet it will be a radical
departure from the present 'politics of despair' that we already know is financed and controlled by corporations and
serves the profit and expansion of  the economic system of capitalism. Getting to the New Society that we envision
means understanding our history, but also understanding our present and the need to make fundamental changes.
It means eschewing reforms and any effort to convince us to support them. It means recognizing that any party that
preserves the underlying premise of exploitation and power, that are genetically part of a system, cannot be entrusted
to abolish it. Lets face it.  We've tried believing them, cajoling them, nudging them, begging them, shouting at them,
voting for them. Doing it OVER & OVER and expecting - like crazy people- different results. Well,  we no longer can
afford them or their system. There's a way out, its called practicing the politics of Economic and Social Democracy.

                                     OUR POLITICS will offer a real choice to voters, not the present fraud of
                                     two parties advocating two ways of doing nothing except protecting
                                     the interests of the few. We will be different from any other party. We
                              will adopt a single platform, with a single new vision of change.

                                                                                                  
                                  



In fact, OUR PLATFORM WILL CLEARLY & CONSISTENTLY
ADVOCATE A NEW SOCIETY FREE OF PROFIT, COMPETITION,
EXPLOITATION. Or a continuation of the same old  problems inherent in reforms that fail to improve our lives but only
prop up and prolong the irrational outcomes of capitalist economics. OUR GRASSROOTS NEW SOCIETY MOVEMENT,
no matter if running for a PTA, local council,  union, or any group in which there are Boards or officers that you want to
become part of, our POSITION will always be to provide a new vision and a clear understanding of the issues being faced.
  
                    (For more details on some ideas about a society of publically owned & managed industries
                     and resources might work, with a "wage-less exchange" based on accrued time-credits,
                    and an interactive governance model of true and complete democratic decision-making via
                   direct input from the people where they live and where they work....Click on "Vizualize" and
                    "A  Real Democracy" on the Home Page)
   

BEGINNING AS A MOVEMENT that this website can facilitate,  we will COMBINE THE BEST OF WHAT WE HAVE
WITH THE BEST OF WHAT WE ENVISION. We don't have to 'wait for the perfect moment'. We can start now. How?.
By thinking and acting locally, and keeping the one goal in mind...working towards A NEW SOCIETY.

Initially we will become active in our communities......running for office on what we believe, our goals. We may not get
'elected' or appointed at first.  But if we are consistent and clear, setting ourselves apart from the others with a different
vision,  we will get the word out.  For the first time since our first revolution, people will hear a real choice. The past or the
future.Right now, this will be our greatest contribution. We will be an alternative voice, an alternative point of view, 'out there',
in the local press, on the internet pages, in the powerful media.

And, what is new is that we will not only hope for something better, we'll be helping create it. As the movie "Field of
Dreams" once proclaimed "Build it and they will come". This message has so much resonance because we are indeed
yearning for a better day ahead. But ours is not a Hollywood fantasy . We'll be working toward something that we know
we can achieve. Something we believe in, not an excuse for something we don't. Saying what we know needs to be said,
not what fools us. We will start small, but out of these small, scattered first steps will emerge the beginnings of a new
movement. Again, to repeat:

 
"Never doubt that a small group of individuals can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." M.M.